Andre Burnett | Twitter, tweets and twits

Communication is a core tenet of human progress, and over the past few decades, the speed of communication has shrunk to literally no time at all. Just 30 years ago, it was almost impossible to think that most of Jamaica could be aware of the same thing at virtually the same time. Because thoughts and ideas are transmitted via our communication channels and thoughts are the base of our actions, one has to wonder how our connectivity could possibly affect us.

It’s because of this why I love Twitter and I hate it at the same time. I love it because it’s a Petri dish of human interaction that anyone with interest can take a step back and see how people behave when the barriers of space and speed are removed. I hate it because even while I’m observing the process, I am part of the process as well.

At the base level, tweets are thoughts, and Twitter is a platform for anyone to make their thoughts heard instantly. I read that people who speak multiple languages are more logical because they have to parse the information through multiple layers before vocalising it, so there’s a built-in fact-checker because of the nuances of language.

On Twitter, there is little of that internal fact-checking because the medium provides such a speedy and immensely powerful distribution matrix. So, as you’ve thought it, you’ve tweeted it. Therein lies the interesting scientific observation and the complementary unsettling emotional reaction. Because no matter how you try to remind yourself that Twitter is not a real place, you find more and more that it doesn’t have to be a real place to affect what we consider to be real.

Remember, the distance between thought and deed (read:tweet), so thoughts which usually have an emotional base from which they occur start becoming deeds at a rapid rate and all of a sudden, a discourse about appropriateness of humour becomes a news story and an HR nightmare. I am, of course, speaking about the unfortunate situation where a young man tweeted something from the depths of his bad idea bucket and was given the expected lashing, but this was the watershed moment.

When the police force and his employers were tagged, of course, there was no way he was going to be let off. Some people, rightly, thought this was one or a few steps too far, and then, interestingly, a divide occurred. The curious thing about the divide was that it seemed to be about the ‘immigrants’ vs the ‘natives’ – natives being the ‘original Jamaican Twitter’ vs ‘those who are just here because Twitter added a like button’. This, of course, is fascinating because the Internet was supposed to be the ultimate globalisation tool, but even on it, there are cries to build a wall.

Out of that divide came the balance. An account called @tweetsghosts used the very powerful Twitter search function to find tweets with some of the more vocal bashers engaging in the same kind of reprehensible banter. Literally, instant karma. Why this is important is how fast it all happened. Within a few days, a whole cycle had happened and when it becomes a ‘Top 10 controversies’ selection in December, people will say, “I wonder if that guy ever found a job.” That’s a real implication that happened in a medium where ‘real’ has been warped because of how quickly we can get our thoughts out and infect, or be infected by, others with similar viewpoints.

From the observational standpoint, that situation is implicitly analogous to the insane idea that our transport system consists of warring factions. But, the thing is that it’s not that insane in the context of the world. Increased speed of communication leads to increased speed of narrative building and, consequently, speedier solidification of narrow ideas like ‘us vs them’. For example, everybody complains about taxi drivers, which literally means EVERY taxi driver. Think about that for a second. When we say “taxi scum”, we are including every single person who earns a living ferrying people back and forth. There isn’t a difference between that and the white supremacist who has an impression, false or not, of some black people and uses that to form his world view.

And if that seems sensationalist, consider then that when the voice notes started flying, the voices mentioned, “Anything big, yellow and coming from down a depot.” The good are suffering for the bad and the indifferent at an unprecedented rate because of the communication tools we have and how good we’ve got at spreading our worst thoughts via them.

My personal view is that the bad behaviour of the taxi drivers should be looked at from the lens that they drive more frequently and are more easily identifiable. In my opinion, the vast majority of Jamaican drivers are lawless on the road. Maniacal public transport providers are then the symptom of a collective ailment where negotiating the road is a constant bullying exercise. Not to digress, but it is important to note that airing such a viewpoint on Twitter would just kill a few hours of my day as people would find it very hard to be understanding of a viewpoint that does agree that all taxi and Coaster drivers are crazy criminals.

We have to be careful about how polarised we become and also be mindful of the role that technology plays. There is a collective responsibility that we have to each other to be careful with our actions, especially since the lines between thoughts and deeds are becoming more and more blurred.

- Andre Burnett is an entrepreneur, and brand, product and communication specialist currently developing an agriculture start-up. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.