Twitter: it is a polarizing word to most of the Americans
that I know. You either love it or hate it. There is no middle ground. Myspace,
Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, and all the other myriad of
social-networking applications that arose in the past fifteen years have had
strong opinions associated with them. I was no different. All throughout the
2000s, I vowed to never cave to the latest fad and constructed social
engineering effort that came along. I saw it as a devil's tool to steal time,
compromise privacy, destroy individualism, and connive ways to push advertising
down ones throat in an already over-saturated advertising market.
However, back in 2009, while away from my family for a
training course, I finally gave in and joined Facebook. I saw it as a one-time
compromise. It was after all an easy tool to share photos with family. What a
Pandora's Box I opened! Facebook quickly dragged me into its clutches. I
quickly developed a friends list of my legitimate friends and acquaintances
from whom my well-travelled career has separated me. But I always managed to
use Facebook in a way that fit my perspective and conformed to my beliefs.
Thankfully, Facebook was designed that way.
After selling my soul to Facebook … and incidentally, not a
day goes by that I do not curse Facebook for their newest 'improvements'
designed to connect one with advertisers, I vowed I would draw the line there.
This new Twitter thing… that was too far. I had already bemoaned Facebook's
penchant for disinformation… it became the tool for instantly forwarding the
latest hoax news or lowest-common-denominator scrap of pop-culture that I
attributed to destroying this country's average intelligence quotient. Social
media was like a virus. It perpetuated the kind of shallow understanding of the
universe that comes from mindlessly "Sharing" and
"Retweeting" drivel from Rush Limbaugh, Bernie Sanders, Rachel
Maddow, and Perez Hilton without the least effort to fact check or engage in
critical thinking. Facebook was bad enough. This new thing that blasted out
144-character statements of rubbish to the entire universe, was emblematic of
all that was wrong with this fifteen-nanoseconds-of-fame-mad,
reality-TV-addicted, ADD-addled, gullible bunch of sheeple that populated this
once-mighty nation.
Then the 2014 World Cup came. . . . I had a moment of
weakness; a moment wherein I compromised my values. . . . I signed up for a
Twitter account.
The primary reason for it was to read in-match commentary
from the kings of all sound bites and catch phrases pertaining to the glorious
game, the @MeninBlazers. But it grew exponentially from there. I quickly
followed all the key figures in the world of world football. I regularly blasted
@GrantWahl with whom I disagreed on almost everything. I favorited @IanDarke
with whom I agreed on almost everything. I enjoyed practicing my German reading
skills following the exploits of the die Deutschenationalmannschaft via the
@DFB-Team.
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| In-Match Meme's? YES PLEASE!!! - The heady early Twitter days of the World Cup |
I was hooked. I followed every second of the matches both on
the television, with my Twitter app up on my iPad perched right next to my line
of sight. I cursed the WatchESPN app 3-minute game delay in which my Twitter
feed exploded after @MatsHummels scored the game winner against @FFF (France).
I gloated alongside Germans in real time from half a world away with every
minute of the 7-1 mauling @DFB-Team laid upon @CBF-Futebol (Brazil). I checked
Twitter every night before bed to ensure I didn't miss any latest news on
injuries or another exploit of newest @AmericanOutlaws #WillFerrell. I also
learned all those cool things called hashtags and why everybody had a run-on
name starting with "At".
Following the World Cup, I couldn't give it up. I was
addicted to football. I fully immersed myself in fandom with my new-found love
and awesome club @BVB (BV Borussia Dortmund 09). I followed the team, I
followed the players, I followed the fan groups. And don't even get me started
on the August transfer window's final days!
After about two to three months of tweets, I started to see
reciprocation in the Twittersphere. I noticed "Notifications" that
popped up that someone out there was actually listening to my ridiculous little
blurb or shameless plagiarizing of another's work via Retweet. People
"favorited" my statuses. These were like tiny little boosters of
self-esteem, injected like a drug. I secretly liked these small tokens of reassurance
from people I had never met nor would probably ever meet. I felt almost dirty
as it severely compromised my entire pre-conceived notions of the platform. It
was then that I understood the power of Twitter and its appeal.
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| My personal media campaign against Qatar 2022 |
My tweets became more frequent. They started to be less
about expressing myself and more about seeing how many people would favorite a
Tweet of mine or getting my own Tweet re-tweeted by a legitimate famous person!
I felt disgusted with myself! But I continued on. I used Twitter as a mechanism
to target FIFA sponsors over the Qatar World Cup and their despicable
human-rights record. I used Twitter to connect to other @BVB fans from the
middle of nowhere Kansas, the very definition of fly-over country, and the most
un-refined, un-cultured place I have ever known.
As with every obsession of mine, the passion with which I
engage it ebbs and flows. The Winterpause certainly curtailed much of my
Twitter addiction, though I must say I have paid more attention to my Premier
League team, @LFC during the holidays. My conflicted view of Twitter has
arrived at some sense of resolution. All of the negative aspects of the use of
social media are very much pertinent. But what harm is there to use it for
good, and in moderation? Is there anything really wrong with feeling joy when
you get "Followed" by @EmbassyDavies (Michael Davies from Men in
Blazers) and by @BVB? What is really unsavory when you derive pleasure from
having actual (albeit confined to a 144-character reply) conversations with @ClarenceGoodson,
@AleBedoya17, or @stuholden? I think nothing.
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| Twitter: The only place where Michael Davies will follow you for posting something humorous about @ChelseaFC, and your heart will race for a microsecond when you find out that “Marco Reus” … but not @woodyinho follows you. |
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| @BVB: Where the club follows YOU too |
Twitter, like Facebook has a legitimate purpose and can be a
force for good, without compromising ones core values. Facebook has allowed me
to check in with long-lost friends without the awkwardness of personal meetings
exposing the reasons why they are long-lost. They have allowed me to keep in
contact with closer friends and family while my career takes me all over the
world. Just because Twitter has become the poster child for everything I see
wrong with this country … or should I say the mirror that exposes the ugly
truth of our American society and culture, the medium is not inherently evil
and fulfils a purpose by those with the necessary discretion to use it
properly.
I recently read something on ESPNFC wherein the author
bemoaned how the exponentially growing inject of money over the past 30 years
has created a gulf between footballers and the fans that pay their
ever-expanding salaries. Twitter and social media help close that gap. I may
not be able to stehe Ich hier und singe
"Borussia! Borussia BVB!" in the Südtribüne at the
Westfalenstadion, but I can join in the camaraderie of their global fan-base
using Twitter to follow the latest news and find an emotional outlet to this
important part of my life. After all, here, on the windswept prairies of Big12
country, I have no other.
-Josh's Twitter handle is @hallj78 and is known as BVB Kansas
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