Is ‘Rage Twitter’ Meaningless, or an Expression of a Deeper Sense of Hurt?

I’ve been spending a bit less time on Twitter as of late, and as almost anyone who spends ‘a bit less time on Twitter’ can tell you, the results have been overwhelmingly positive.

That’s is a sad thing to say about a social network that I have loved for years, that has created new friendships, allowed for personal artistic expression, provided unique opportunities, and given me endless entertainment. However, more often than not, many people have a bad taste in their mouth about the platform. There is, in almost every case, a single reason: ‘Rage Twitter’

I recently stumbled upon a set of articles on the subject, beginning with one intriguingly titled ‘A Defense of Jonathan Franzen’. I’m less interested in the titular defense, and more interested in the author’s perspective on Twitter, which Franzen himself views as such an unhealthy place to spend time that he finds it comparable to cigarettes. In the author’s opinion, this is because of the sheer amount of hate that exists within the platform. In her own experience:

Twitter began to seem like a machine that runs on rage. You see something that disgusts or infuriates you. Tweeting about it provides momentary relief, followed by the brief validation of the retweet. As you scan your feed, you take in other little microbursts of nastiness. So you get angry all over again and respond, perpetuating the cycle.

Anyone who has experience with Twitter will understand that comment. Yet I found an article responding to this perspective of Twitter, which (though meandering dangerously close to a ‘mansplained’ “not all people on Twitter” territory) has some interesting points about why we feel that way. I have no doubt that there are plenty of people who enjoy a ‘happier’ version of Twitter than I personally do, full of nothing but cat gifs and ‘uberfacts’, but is that the correct way to use the social network? To ignore issues of hurt from others who we at some point found worthy to follow? That author seems to think so, saying:

If you are following people who enrage you regularly, stop following them. If certain people troll you or constantly try to engage you in energy-sapping arguments, block them. Nowhere is it written that you have to listen to or engage with angry people. Not even on Twitter. If Ms Goldberg is in fact trapped in Rage Twitter, perhaps it would not be presumptuous of me to suggest she try following some different people. Or try to find something in her experience and use of the medium other than rage.

Is the only way to use Twitter without getting involved in rage-filled discussions really to simply unfollow people who you disagree with, or who provoke your own feelings of anger?

Even further, if it was this simple, wouldn’t everybody do exactly this?

Perhaps we don’t because, for all intents and purposes, unfollowing people on Twitter because they say an angry thing feels like the ultimate exercise in futility. One wouldn’t walk away from a loved one, mid-conversation, because they said something disagreeable. Twitter puts its users in the uncomfortable position of spectating people’s tirades and honest outpourings of hurt while being almost entirely powerless to respond in a meaningful way.

That’s the issue, and as far as I can tell, there’s no ‘fix’ in the works.

Not only that, but just as it feels futile to watch someone’s grandstanding or anger from the distance which social media puts between personal relationships, so too, in almost every case, does that angry tweet or emotive response feel similarly futile.

There are people who are angry for good reason, who demand justice for hurt. There’s an innate part of us that are striving for equality while calling out inequality, and striving for peace while calling out animosity — and for some, Twitter is the quickest and most reassuring space to get this out.

So how do we keep our desire for human progress from turning into meaningless rage? That’s the question, and as of now, there is no answer from a social media platform like Twitter — and in my opinion, ‘unfollowing’ isn’t the answer either.