Stephen Fry’s quit Twitter again, after his joke at the Baftas about a friend’s outfit backfired horribly. Jenny Beavan won a Bafta – good for her! – but Stephen’s ‘bag lady’ jibe was a step too far for other tweeters.
On the one hand, yes they are friends and I’m sure she knows he wasn’t being nasty. On the other hand, it wasn’t the wisest joke to make on national television. Far from the most controversial or rude joke ever made on TV, sure, but certainly a poor choice considering how eager people are to jump on these things.
Which is what Stephen himself said when explaining why he’d quit. Social media’s turned us into complainers – the permanently offended. We’ve all got very angry thumbs, and we’re not afraid to use them.
If you’re unhappy and you want to contact a company and tell them so, where do you go? Twitter. Didn’t like how your favourite show ended? Twitter. Hair in your salad? Twitter. Train running a couple of minutes late? Twitter. No internet connection? Erm, you might have to write them a letter.
I agree that we’re now very quick to leap on every perceived slight, and to do so more publicly than before. Twitter can be a very negative place sometimes. But there’s got to be a better way to handle it than just up and leaving. Take this line from Stephen:
“I like to believe I haven’t slammed the door, much less stalked off in a huff throwing my toys out of the pram as I go or however one should phrase it.”
Unfortunately, denial or no, that’s how it looks.
People shutting down their Twitter accounts in a fit of pique is this generation’s storming out of a room. It’s the next step after accidentally flinging your game controller through a window. And yet it doesn’t have quite the same impact.
Before the invention of social media, we had to be content with flouncing away and loudly banging a door shut behind us. Now, you’ve got to deactivate your account (and find a different platform to announce that fact on) to be noticed. There’s no ‘bang’ to show how disgruntled you are, just a click. Trying to slam a door on your Twitter account will probably break your phone screen.
I’ve yet to rage-quit Twitter. It’s taken long enough to reach a point where I can refrain from angrily replying to everything I don’t agree with. Most of the time, it’s easier to just step away from the phone.
