I’m not quite sure when, but suddenly I couldn’t view more than five websites without seeing a reference to Twitter, whether it’s someone plugging their handle or a news site discussing how to properly use it. It’s been herald as the new Facebook, a tool in which inspires and discourages people to openly share minute details about their life and personality. We’ve read the reports about the use of Twitter in late breaking events like the Dubai hotel attacks, to the downed airplane in the Hudson River. What caught me off guard was a mixture of an article and an event that sparked this blog post (the fact that I feel guilty about not posting in eons has nothing to do with it).
Subject A, a Globe and Mail article detailing the dangers of using Twitter at, and about work. While the story resonated the same pitfalls as Facebook, Twitter offers up to even bigger, larger paranoia-induced possibilities.
Although the two share a same generic privacy setting (wanna read my shizzle? We have to be buds first), Facebook allows for a lot more customization, allowing users to cater viewing settings to specific people or groups. Since Twitter, however, relies on a simple architect it’s privacy settings are black and white, everything or nothing – making information about yourself all too open for tech-savvy employers, like the one mentioned in the Globe article.
Ok, so I get it. Watch what you post, upload, Tweet and ReTweet at work, especially when the fate of your career could rest within those characters. But what about those who work for a company that actually promotes their Twitter handle? Well that’s a case of its own as one Bill Schulz found out, and still finding out. In the last 48 hours or so, in every corner of the Internet people are chastising Schulz for his remarks on the Canadian military on a late night, stereotypical Fox News show.
I won’t get into what he said or dwell on my opinion of him (read: I don’t know enough swear words to insult him), but Canadians are up in arms and putting him down in blog posts, street interviews and of course, Twitter.
After reading this article and ones like it, I watched the YouTube video of his performance and noticed that just as Schulz was about to unload, his Twitter handle pops up in the lower-third of the screen. Marketing genius, or piss poor timing? I’m sure you can argue that people would have found his Twitter account sooner or later, it’s really not that hard with Twitter Search, but it’s the concept that interested me the most. It’s like the network gave viewers a handout and said “here guys, go nuts.” And they did. Viciously.
At first I was in awe.
Page after page of insults I wouldn’t dare repeat, I hadn’t seen anything quite like this before. Twitter essentially acted like a fast and public bag of hate mail that spread like wildfire. Of course, it didn’t help when Schulz told people messaging him to “lighten the fuck up.”
And the thing about the Internet that sometimes people forget – shit gets real, and fast. This guy has reached a new plateau in his career. One more outtake like that and we’re talking borderline Ann Coulter-douchbaggery status.
So the lesson of the day is simple. Watch who you’re talking to, and what you’re talking about. Kinda like in real life.
