Save Twitter
By Jeff Moffitt
@moffittjc (128832)
Gainesville, Florida
August 11, 2016 8:14am CST
The hashtag #savetwitter was trending this morning, so naturally I was curious as to what was going on! Did something happen overnight that was causing Twitter to shut down? Did some corporate behemoth buy out Twitter and announce that they were killing? I did a little digging, and here's what I found:
A popular YouTuber decided to catalogue and save every hate message he received over the past year. He then supposedly convinced charities and campaigners that Twitter was very bad, and that it was responsible for an increase in teen suicides. There is rumor that he met with Twitter officials, and now the site is supposedly going to shut down in 2017.
I'm pretty sure Twitter is not going anywhere. If people are convinced the site should be shut down because they are responsible for cyber-bullying, then why stop at Twitter? Then every social media site should be shut down. Hell, even schools should be shut down then, because more bullying episodes take place in our schools than anywhere else. But are people calling for schools to be shut down? No!
Sometimes, the things that get blown out of proportion on social media and news media sites is preposterous. I no doubt agree that bullying and cyber-bullying are serious issues that we need to address, but calling for a site to shut down is probably not the answer to it. Bullying will still take place in other forms and in other mediums. The best we can do in these situations is raise awareness about the issue, discuss it collectively as a society, and work towards viable solutions.
Are you a Twitter user, and would you be sad if Twitter ever shut down?
14 people like this
13 responses
@egdcltd (12059)
•
11 Aug 16
@moffittjc My only reasons are work related. I realised I just wasn't interested in what other people were posting about.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128832)
• Gainesville, Florida
11 Aug 16
@egdcltd That's mainly why I am still on any form of social media at all, is for work purposes. Every now and then I'll post something personal, but most of the time I stay clear. I have too much other important things going on in my life to spend all my time glued to my smartphone.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128832)
• Gainesville, Florida
11 Aug 16
I am active on just about every social media platform there is, but I find that I use it more for work purposes than I do for personal reasons.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128832)
• Gainesville, Florida
11 Aug 16
I didn't hear anything about them being sued, but these days, that's always a possibility.
@skysnap (20152)
•
11 Aug 16
@moffittjc indeed. one can't sue platform for cyber bulleying. And people should grow thick skin online too.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128832)
• Gainesville, Florida
11 Aug 16
@skysnap I think people should just grow thicker skin now in general. Everyone is too sensitive about everything now.
@ElusiveButterfly (45941)
• United States
12 Aug 16
I have a Twitter account, but rarely use it. If I am able to get online I head for Mylot and Facebook.
1 person likes this
@ElusiveButterfly (45941)
• United States
15 Aug 16
@moffittjc I agree with you on Facebook. I've reconnected with some of my old friends and keep close with family that is far away.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128832)
• Gainesville, Florida
15 Aug 16
@ElusiveButterfly Facebook was great for reconnecting with family and old friends. But now that I've reconnected with them all, I don't really need FB anymore! But, it's still a good way to keep in touch with people when everybody is spread out all over the country!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128832)
• Gainesville, Florida
12 Aug 16
On my smartphone, I use Twitter and Snapchat the most. On my laptop, I use Facebook. But I'm like you, I spend more time on myLot than I do on Facebook. I actually don't like Facebook at all, but unfortunately it's still one of the best ways to keep in touch with, and communicate with, family and friends spread out all over the globe.
1 person likes this
@patgalca (18481)
• Orangeville, Ontario
12 Aug 16
I see worse comments on YouTube pages than I do on Twitter. There are some very uplifting, positive, entertaining youtubers like DoseofFousey and RomanAtwoodVlogs who have a tremendous fan base but get idiotic comments made between the commenters. Why can't we all just get along?
1 person likes this
@patgalca (18481)
• Orangeville, Ontario
12 Aug 16
@moffittjc Oh no doubt. I just don't understand how they can be fans of people who are so positive and push people to be happy, push through the hard times, and enjoy life, and turn around and not just be nasty to each other but downright vulgar.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128832)
• Gainesville, Florida
12 Aug 16
@patgalca Some people thrive on negativity. They're not happy unless they're miserable.
@moffittjc (128832)
• Gainesville, Florida
12 Aug 16
I think there are stupid people out there that serve no meaningful purpose in life other than trolling other people's social media accounts and leaving negative comments.
1 person likes this
@simone10 (54180)
• Louisville, Kentucky
12 Aug 16
@moffittjc I'm the same way. I got so annoyed with Facebook and I haven't visited it in several months.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128832)
• Gainesville, Florida
12 Aug 16
@simone10 I use it quite a bit for work, since I am responsible for marketing in my division, so unfortunately I'm on Facebook multiple times per day. If it was just me personally, I would maybe check it once a month! lol
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128832)
• Gainesville, Florida
11 Aug 16
I actually wouldn't be upset if Facebook was shut down. Although I still use it daily, it just annoys me more than anything these days.
1 person likes this
@CaseyRoss9966 (4056)
• United States
11 Aug 16
I am not a Twitter user. I never really saw the point of it. If they shut down it doesn't bother me at all. Like you said though Twitter isn't going anywhere and they aren't going shut it down because of some hateful tweets or messages. It is probably just another kids trying to get some money from Twitter.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128832)
• Gainesville, Florida
11 Aug 16
What's your favorite social media site? I use a bunch of different sites pretty equally, but if I had to pick a favorite right now it would probably be Instagram. Although they lost points in my book by copying Snapchat with the InstaStories or whatever they are calling it!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128832)
• Gainesville, Florida
12 Aug 16
@CaseyRoss9966 I have Pinterest, but don't use it that much, but I use Snapchat all the time!
1 person likes this
@CaseyRoss9966 (4056)
• United States
11 Aug 16
@moffittjc I don't have an Instagram either. I use most Snapchat and Pinterest.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128832)
• Gainesville, Florida
12 Aug 16
I don't think it ever will shut down. You should be safe to continue using it!
1 person likes this
@LovingMyBabies (85923)
• Valdosta, Georgia
11 Aug 16
I don't use Twitter, so it wouldn't matter too much to me. I know it would affect others though.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128832)
• Gainesville, Florida
11 Aug 16
I use Twitter daily, and I've always thought it was one of the cleanest forms of social media. With a 140 character limit on each tweet, you have to keep things nice and simple. That's why it's always appealed to me.
@Poppylicious (11134)
• United Kingdom
11 Aug 16
I find it difficult to believe that there's any life left in Twitter anyway. It only seems to be used by celebrities and the occasional sane person. Kids tend to use other forms of communication now. I wouldn't be sad.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128832)
• Gainesville, Florida
11 Aug 16
Yeah, I definitely think Twitter has had better days, as far as use and popularity is concerned. But it is still a viable social media platform, they just have to figure out how to change and adapt to keep up with the ever-changing wants of the people who use social media. Not sure they've figured that out yet, but it may still be a while before Twitter becomes completely irrelevant.
@moffittjc (128832)
• Gainesville, Florida
11 Aug 16
@CaseyRoss9966 There's no doubt that all these social media sites are a complete waste of our time, but sometimes it's still fun to use them!
@CaseyRoss9966 (4056)
• United States
11 Aug 16
Twitter is actually still very popular for a lot of people. The only other social media that I think are just as popular are Instagram and Snapcaht for right now. To me all of the social medias are all the same and a waste of my time.
2 people like this
@JESSY3236 (22246)
• United States
15 Aug 16
I used to look at Twitter once a week, but now I don't much do it anymore. But I would be sad if it would shut down.
@Dena91 (17041)
• United States
11 Aug 16
I have an account with twitter however I seldom go there. I prefer facebook and mylot. I have friends who are diehard twitter users and I am sure they would be upset if it went away.
You're absoluelty right about things being blown up and out of proportion through the social and news media sights. I've been seeing some nasty things about one of the USA gymnist who didn't place her hand over her heart when they were receiving their gold medal the other night. With all that is going on in this world, this is what people focus in on and go crazy over? People looking for things to get offened at these days.
We definely need to address any sort of bullying. And grow up from being offened by everything coming and going these days. Have a blessed day.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128832)
• Gainesville, Florida
11 Aug 16
I still use Twitter pretty frequently, but I have also increased use of other social media platforms at a greater frequency than I do Twitter. I guess old habits die hard, as Twitter was one of the first social media platforms I embraced (okay, truthfully MySpace was my first, but we'll pretend that site never existed! lol)
1 person likes this
@ModernDayWriter (3318)
• New Delhi, India
11 Aug 16
go4yo@twitter.com my twitter link, I am using it
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128832)
• Gainesville, Florida
12 Aug 16
I use it more to follow news organizations around the world, more than I do to follow celebrities (although I am guilting of stalking a few celebrities myself). It was Twitter who informed me there was a large earthquake in New Caledonia yesterday before I heard the news anywhere else!
1 person likes this
@meganval (261)
• Philippines
12 Aug 16
@moffittjc I'm following some organization and tv station page in my facebook account, so I really use twitter to stalk. I think Twitter is useful for other people so I hope they will consider that not to shut down.
1 person likes this
