For provincial Wildrose candidate Danielle Smith, it was a cheap shot. For incumbent Premier Alison Redford, it was an embarrassing moment in her push to get re-elected. And for executive assistant Amanda Wilkie, it was her last act on behalf of Alberta’s Progressive Conservative Party.
I’m talking about what has been dubbed ‘the tweet heard round the province’ a week and a half ago when Wilkie openly questioned Smith’s commitment to families because she has no children of her own. The Wildrose leader explained she had tried and failed to have children with her husband. Redford had to apologize and Wilkie resigned.
The remark was issued to Smith via Twitter, the social networking site that lets its users say whatever they want, whenever they want, to whomever they want in 140 characters or less.
In theory, Twitter is a very useful tool. World news can be reported as it happens. Family and friends can be notified within seconds of something important taking place. Followers can connect, share laughs, memories and experience what people are thinking everywhere from Newfoundland to North Korea (OK, maybe not North Korea).
It’s all fun and exciting until one of these moments like the one above when a tweet is sent that clearly serves absolutely no purpose. That’s essentially what the Twitterverse is like sometimes.
Let’s get one thing straight before you Twitter addicts start jumping up and down (be careful not to drop your cell phones). I like Twitter. I use Twitter (for work mostly), but it’s the lack of thought taken by individuals before they write that grinds my gears sometimes.
It is the Internet, after all, and what you post is written in permanent ink so the onus should be on each individual to think about what they say before they write it. Or so you would assume.
Times have changed and people now do things at a frightening pace, including posting things to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. I get it. There’s a lot to do so why not make dinner, watch television, read a book and tweet all at the same time? When Wilkie wrote what she did she may have been doing something else. It was curtains for her, regardless.
Just because there are new forms of technology and other activities available to us almost on a daily basis, it doesn’t acquit individuals from showing a complete disregard for good manners or respect to other individuals, whether it’s a politician or that celebrity you religiously follow.
Post tweet, Wilkie tried to reason by claiming her comment was taken out of context and that there wasn’t enough room in the 140 characters to fully say what she wanted to. Well, my dear, there obviously wasn’t enough sense in your brain either to look at what you wrote from someone else’s shoes.
Unfortunately, these types of blunders take place all the time through the various social networks and what may seem funny to onlookers can be hurtful to the intended individual or their friends.
There isn’t really a limit as to what you can write with these social media tools. The option is there to comment on anything or anyone you wish and it seems the more you do so the more you’re compelled to tweet as if out of necessity.
The lack of thought probably happens in-between this and you’re left with a whole batch of 140 word posts about everything from the TV show you watched last night to how well your lunch tasted this afternoon. Or maybe a disrespectful jab at a politician running for premier of Alberta.
There’s nothing wrong with sharing your thoughts on a subject matter, and if you feel you want people to know what you think about something, there’s no better online service for you than Twitter. However, next time you go to tweet an opinion or question a politician, which you should do since it’s your duty to question those who govern, it wouldn’t hurt to think a little, put down the several things you’re doing at the time, and ask yourself if this is a smart thing to do. Or else it might be curtains for you too.
[email protected] - @therealciaran
