Have you noticed there is a distinct culture difference between Facebook and Twitter? At least that’s the case in my social media universe.
For the most part Facebook is sweetly benign. The great majority of posts consist of proud Moms and Grandmoms spotlighting their kids, folks showing off their travels, spouses professing their love for each other, prayer requests and praises for the result of them.
Oh, to be sure, there are political rants and family squabbles, but they are usually confined to a handful in the big picture.
Not so on Twitter. This is a younger, sarcastic crowd that often is looking for a fight. Perhaps the President and those who oppose him set the tone for this, or maybe it was this smart-alecky even before the election.
I encountered a perfect example of this recently. I was trying to enjoy some of my favorite daytime TV shows when I found myself bombarded with those repetitive, clowny lawyer commercials. Over and over and over again, every break…same ads. Annoyed, I picked up my phone and tweeted the following:
“When I rule the world, there will be no more Alexander Shunnarah or Alabama Hammer commercials!”
I’m pretty sure I meant the tweet to be whimsical and humorous, a poke at the quantity of the ads more so than the content. Indeed, it spawned several likes and supportive replies. But even though I have only 658 followers (Beyonce has 13.7 million), evidently the post wound its way around the twittersphere until it reached the attention of one Mr. Mike Slocumb. Yes, the self-proclaimed Alabama Hammer himself.
Mr. Slocumb saw neither the whimsy nor the humor, and shot back this tweet, which included a repost of one of his own supporters:
“I bring relevant content to ppl. (sic) This person signed up for my content, not some lame news broadcast with an old out of touch newsman….”
Apparently Mr. Slocumb is not aware that I have been retired for nearly three years. Talk about out of touch.
Yet his tweet is fair. If I’m going to take shots, whimsical or not, I’d better be ready to receive some. I confess my first inclination was to fire back with something equally personal and insulting, which no doubt would have resulted in a string of back and forth venom. But in a rare moment of introspection I backed off. After all, he’s just a guy trying to promote his business with a saturation ad campaign. If I am annoyed by his commercials, I should just choose not to watch them. (Ironically, this is the same advice I used to give viewers when they would complain about the news.)
But make no mistake…his was a shot across the bow, a clear signal that the Twitter fight was on if I wanted it. Sadly, for many this is what Twitter has become…a dispenser for miniature rants and hostile debates.
I’ve read of something called Facebook depression, where people actually become clinically depressed because their lives don’t measure up to what they read on the social platform. If that’s true, there should also be something called Twitter Anger. It appears I caught a mild dose of it. I write this to caution you fellow tweeters not to fall prey to it..
I don’t want you to get Hammered.