Brain Dump

I’m not a Luddite, but I simply didn’t understand Twitter. It’s not the first time I’ve been slow on the uptake. In fact if you were looking for a trend-setter you’d do well to look anywhere, no sorry everywhere else for a better person to follow. I’m rubbish at predicting the way the world will move. If it wasn’t for the certainty of the fact I knew time moved forward because it always has done, I would probably end up doubting even this staggeringly basic fundamental element of life.

I’m not adverse to change, I just need to understand it. Regarding Myspace – I couldn’t get to grips with it, Facebook – never saw the need and Twitter? I never saw the point. By the time I finally made a Facebook account I was one of the last of my social group and yet suddenly became a huge advocate of it. Same with Twitter. I’ve been a member for just 2 weeks, and wow, what a way to be brought up to date.

Twitter can be nothing more than innocent fun if that’s all you want it to be, it can also be malicious if you don’t know how to handle and use it, but one of the joys I have discovered this week was the way it can expose and demolish atrocious behavior. It’s a 21st Century tool of revolution if it needs to be, or a shameful way to spend a Friday afternoon watching funny you-tube videos.

In the time since I joined I have met some very funny, witty, kind people. I have also accumulated 28 followers, most of whom I have never spoken to. But that’s OK, that’s what Twitter is about – collecting followers like a junkie collects puncture marks. That’s not to say I don’t appreciate them. Every follower makes my pride swell a little. Sure some are probably just bots advertising jobs, health trips or Br1tney F.ck V1ds, but who cares? The rise in numbers makes my ego grow. It makes me feel like I must be a fairly normal, well adjusted and (reasonably) intelligent and likable person. The adverse effect, of course, being that when I look at another person’s profile and discover they have 1,267 followers I suddenly feel very small. Twitter can also be a very lonely place.

Even so, since joining I have discovered this – nothing spreads news faster than Twitter. It’s a basic fact. For those connected to the Twitter-verse news spreads quicker than the proverbial fire. It doesn’t need heat, it just needs to see the letter ‘H’ before it sparks up and roars off, screaming into the distance. Two examples have hit me already: The Trafigura/Guardian newspaper case, and the Jan Moir Daily Mail article following Stephen Gately’s death.

If I had not been following Graham Lineham, I would never have known that it existed. If Derren Brown and Stephen Fry had not commented I would have been unaware. Thank God I have some interest in these bright, intelligent, witty people otherwise I might never have gotten to this point.

I don’t follow the news regularly because other things get in the way, namely life. But that doesn’t mean I don’t care. I’ve always considered myself a very passionate person about causes that matter. Throughout my life I’ve wanted to fight back against injustice and issues which strike me as morally wrong and/or dumb. I just don’t seem to be able to keep track of all wrong-doings that spew into the world. Twitter now keeps me informed. While detrimental to my stress levels and physical health, it’s fantastic to keep the mind alight and the passion burning.

Regarding Trafigura, I’d honestly never heard of them before. Then the story hit, I did some research and BOOM I had an opinion and a way to voice my anger. Twitterate people know we had a huge impact in the outcome of that scenario. We bombarded the site with links and updates regarding the injustice, and when it was fixed it was fantastic. A real victory. Now Jan Moir, not happy at writing one of the most shockingly inept articles to have been produced for some time, “apologises” with a statement while never acknowledging how wrong she was and seems surprised at the internet out-cry.

You can find the original heavily edited article here and the “apology” here.

I’m not going to write a critique of the piece. Far more intelligent people have done so already (Charlie Brooker’s fantastic article in the Guardian stands head and shoulders above the rest). But I am going to point to the following pictures. See if you can spot the difference between A) The original article and B) The edited article. Did you see it?

The shockingly altered headline does not actually cover up the sewage of the article. Note the description in the nav bar to the right too. To claim it was “sordid” and then attempt to make out everyone else was mis-reading the story is stupid enough to warrant an immediate arrest and possible expulsion to the nearest planet where life has barely managed to crawl out of the sea. I’m fairly sure Jan Moir would settle rather well in such a place with her bloated, pasty fish-face and single brain-cell.

Furthermore, claiming it was an “orchestration” shows how little grasp she has of the Internet, social networking or, indeed, the 21st Century. There was no orchestration, it was the voices of thousands of people who simply did not agree and took offense at what she wrote. Twitter and other social networking sites give people the power to voice their anger and expose this kind of backward thinking, pathetic excuse for a journalist instantly.

I found it amusing that she should question how many people fully read her article. Now come on, Jan, let’s be honest. It’s not exactly what you would clasify as high-brow literature is it? A few measley, one to two sentence paragraphs with enough pictures to space it out. It makes Spot The Dog’s Day At The Zoo look like Tolstoy in comparison. There really wasn’t much there to read, and even less to mis-interpret. So just admit it, we all read the scattering of sentances because honestly it wouldn’t have taken us any longer to finish then eating a digestive biscuit.

In an age where anyone can blog and say what they want, share stories and are granted the ability to respond instantly to whatever hits the web first, did she honestly think this narrow-minded piffle would go un-challenged? Did she learn nothing from what happened regarding the injustice of the Guardian being potentially blocked from Parliament just a few days before and how powerful the Internet had become? No, because she is, as I have said before, an utter idiot. A cretinous life-form who should be punished.

If I write here that I think all immigrants are filth and deserve to rot in their country of origin, I would expect people to make comments to such an outrageous statement. That is if anyone actually reads this, which I doubt very many people do. The troublesome side to the 21st Century is that nearly everyone can be a published writer and “philosopher” and they can spread whatever vile thoughts fill their mind. Even so, I’d be surprised if a neo-nazi writing a blog on why white is right didn’t imagine it would spark some outrage somewhere. It’s the way the internet works, so how did Jan Moir think she could get away with it? Because she is an idiot.

The Daily Mail’s self-righteous attitude caused Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand to be suspended after the media-storm they created. I don’t think what those two did was right, but for an offensive journalist to be so sanctimonious and smug after offending so many takes the proverbial slice of cake and then vomits it over the public who she apparently “writes” for. I am hoping this woman gets similar reprisals and judging by the astonishing response that the article provoked, I know I am not alone. It has been fascinating tracking the outcome of both this and Trafigura in context with the Twitterverse. I used to feel people couldn’t make a difference, my opinion now has completely changed and I urge others to do the same.

It’s staggering. It’s exciting. This is how the world is working. Justice served and bigotry exposed and potentially stamped out all within 5 days. It feels like now, more then ever, we have a voice.

All I can say is bring on the next week! Oh, and make sure you follow @serafinowicz, he’s a VERY funny guy.