I see Twitter like a playground. Different types of people on one platform tweeting about their interests. You’ve got the popular tweeters, the intelligent tweeters, the ‘religious’ scholars, the politics tweeters, the ones who constantly tweet music lyrics, the lowkey tweeters who tweet once a month and deactivate again, the Directioners, the Beliebers… and I can carry on for some time. There’s nothing wrong with tweeting about what you’re passionate about, because that’s what Twitter is all about. Tweet on. But there is a limit to what you can REALLY tweet. And the main problem on Twitter is the retweet button. The dangerous retweet button. Here’s why: There are certain tweeters who will exceed the limit of ‘banter’ because they know that thousands of their followers will retweet and support them.
When you get retweeted, it’s normally because someone agrees with what you’re tweeting about. If you’re tweeting something beneficial or funny and you get a lot of retweets, then that’s cool. But nowadays, I’m seeing vile and offensive tweets that are being retweeted and the shocking thing is; the person has the confidence to carry on cursing people and bullying others because they know they’ll get the retweets. It’s like a rumour that spreads quickly.
It all starts off with someone who will tweet something funny one day and they get thousands of retweets. To their surprise, their followers multiply and increase instantly. Bingo! They now know that they have ‘fans’ or something I like to call: sheeps. Their ‘sheeps’ will constantly retweet them and give them that buzz to retweet more nonsense because they believe that those followers are expecting more jokes.
It’s getting ridiculous. Especially when a person is tweeting things that they wouldn’t say to your face. It’s as if Twitter is their shield and it will protect them. Believe it or not, I do see some of my followers when I’m out and about. Some of them attend the same University as me. It’s not a good look to act one way online and be different on the outside world. Because one day, your words may come around and bite you in the ass. And who will be there to retweet you? Your followers? Oh sorry, I almost forgot that the retweet button won’t be there. (Ooops!)
Some tweets may be classified as ‘banter’, but that may not be the case when there is a person reading awful comments about their avi picture, their dead relatives, their lifestyle or anything about them that is being slandered just for the satisfaction of getting retweets. We all know that these people don’t actually mean what they tweet. But these words can really hurt someone. I do like to read a few jokes here and there but I know where the limit is because I would hate to be the person it’s aimed at. This goes vice versa; if you see a tweet that’s really offensive and you retweet it, you’re giving that tweet more attention. More people will read it, some may find it funny and carry on retweeting it. Fuelling the fire.
Topics such as rape, racism, death, religion and family are way too serious to joke about and I’m seeing it a lot. And trust me, people do get arrested because of their tweets. It has happened many times. How awkward would it be if the police knocked on your door for a tweet you thought was a joke? So how far will you go for retweets?
