The map is not the territory, and Twitter is not America

 

An interesting article at Outkick explores how Twitter fools many politicians, opinion formers and others about what America really thinks and feels.  It's not just Twitter that's responsible - it's a function of the platform's users.

In the last four years, Twitter has become America’s target audience, and subsequently, one of the most powerful groups in the country.

Applicants are hired if their Twitter accounts are presentable. Employees are fired if their past tweets don’t age well.

Politicians build laws with social media reactions in mind.

Major media companies promote, demote, and protect personalities based on retweets and likes.

Corporate America’s decisions attempt to anticipate social media results.

When America is called racist by too many blue checks, curriculum is changed.

In other words, American’s most influential individuals and industries are at the mercy of the most frequently seen and shared Twitter accounts. 

As a result, these accounts dictate state policy, education, entertainment, and industry.

That’s who has the power. But who exactly are these people? They are the most easily offended, bored, pampered, and hateful sociopaths in our population. They all think alike. Yet, the all is still quite small in raw numbers.

Pew data finds that 3% of the population creates 90% of all tweets sent. Only 8% of the US population is “active” on Twitter.

Late-night TV, award shows, and comedy have adjusted content to correspond with Twitter reaction. Appealing to just 8% of viewers is bad business. Now, all three hemorrhage viewers for a nominal group of actual viewers.

In addition to a misleading sample size, Twitter has convinced the media, corporations, and politicians to adopt a narrow worldview.

The same Pew study finds that Twitter users are D+15. Were Twitter a state, it’d tie Hawaii and Vermont as America’s most liberal. What’s more, the 10% of Twitter users who post 92% of all tweets are D+43.

Herein lies the disconnect. Twitter has told decision-makers that Americans agree that the country is systemically racist; that white supremacy is the country’s greatest threat; that Americans, by and large, are okay being viewed merely on the color of their skin. In reality, though, Americans rarely agree on any topic.

We are a divided country. Yet Twitter has led us to believe that the divide is based not on substance but hate. Twitter says that one side is right. The other is hateful, racist, and ignorant. So, people feel justified in ignoring those with different opinions.

Politicians before were incentivized to answer voters’ pressing questions and concerns. Twitter now convinces politicians that Americans lack curiosity. Questions aren’t welcome on social media. Big Tech censors the few who dare to question authority before their concerns are answered.

There's more at the link.

You can easily see how this is a problem.  If people, corporations, politicians and others are tailoring their words, actions and image to what people say about them on Twitter, they're preaching to a very narrow section of the choir.  It becomes an ideological echo chamber.  They never ask themselves what those outside that chamber think, and they never hear from them, because they won't take the time and trouble to go and look for them.  It's quicker, easier and more convenient to just stay within the echo chamber, where feedback is quick and ideologically reliable.

It also explains why Twitter silences opposing voices so quickly and so ruthlessly.  If the ideological purity of the platform is breached, why, it could no longer present itself as the arbiter of political correctness, truth, justice, and the American way.  Can't have that, you know!  Also, that's why Twitter and other Big Tech companies are actively working to undermine competing social media platforms that threaten their dominance.  They spend an amazing amount of money and time whipping up opposition to and activism against any platform that offers a competing ideological perspective, and will de-platform them whenever possible.

Twitter offers a map of what it and its users think America should be.  However, as semanticist Alfred Korzybski pointed out years ago, "the map is not the territory" and "the word is not the thing":  in other words, "an abstraction derived from something, or a reaction to it, is not the thing itself".  Is it any wonder that those of us who don't derive our world view from Twitter are increasingly frustrated and angry with those who do?  They aren't living in the real world, but in an ideological simulacrum of it.  Thus, those of us in the real world find we have almost no points of contact with them, because they can't recognize reality when they encounter it.

Peter