Students have taken to the Twitter battlefield whenever someone disagrees with them. Why are they so surprised to hear alternate opinions?
Newton’s lesser known fourth law of motion: for every person with an opinion, there’s someone with a differing opinion. This law is shown to be true anytime somebody posts an even slightly controversial opinion on social media. It seems that no matter what someone says, somebody else will find a way to be angered by it, and obviously they have to share their anger with everyone. Now of course these altercations can take place on any social media platform, or even in real life believe it or not, but Twitter seems to be the ultimate battlefield.
What makes it so tempting to start an argument on Twitter? Is it an inane need to prove your correctness and superiority? Or is it an honest desire to spread the knowledge you believe to be right? If so, is a website that only allows 140 characters per post really the best way to go about that? It seems that many people think that it is.
Now on one hand, someone might say that Twitter provides a good place for teenagers to begin learning how to share their opinions and formulate arguments, something that might end up being beneficial when they become adults. But is that really possible to adequately do when you have so little room to make a point? When does “short and sweet” cross the line to “incomprehensible and brusque”?
It seems like no one is able to do any research to back up their opinions, or even get a basic grasp of what they are talking about.
People might say that arguing over Twitter is a good way for teenagers to have access to other opinions, and to learn about new things. This might be true, but it seems that most are unable to accept that there are people out there who know more about certain subjects than they do. Even worse, it seems like no one is able to do any research to back up their opinions, or even get a basic grasp of what they are talking about.
Now this whole thing might seem slightly hypocritical coming from someone who has, in fact, been involved in their own social media argument (sorry football team), but I’d like to think it’s possible to grow as individuals. Even if that growth comes after a string of strongly worded, 140 character posts. However, some people seem unable to get out of the metaphorical social media rut. There are just too many people out there who seem to think it’s necessary to post their opinion and then become surprised when it turns out someone else disagrees.
Even though the fights may be annoying it seems nothing will stop people from using the website. There are always ways to stop seeing the drama: muting, blocking, or unfollowing. All of these are tools that can be used to avoid the irritation. Although with the large amount of fights that take place on Twitter it seems that maybe people enjoy the drama more than they let on.
The Pine Needle 