Why does a medical researcher need to be on Twitter?
If I go to that scientist's profile I can read his tweets just fine. Someone quoting him and saying he's an idiot is not "silencing" him.
> Fink said he and the organisers of a conference he addressed at Columbia University in New York in October 2018 were hounded by complaints and protests from CFS/ME activists. A petition calling for Fink to be disinvited was signed by 10,000 people. Tuller – who in his blog wrote that the person who invited Per Fink to speak at the conference must be “uninformed or stupid or both” – called Fink a “scary guy” whose methods had “destroyed families.” Tuller urged readers of his blog to go to the Columbia conference and demonstrate.
This kind of stuff happens to IDW members constantly, except their venues have a pattern of giving in to the activists.
I don't NEED a computer at home, nor a mobile phone.
But I want one. And I am allowed to have one.
And someone else's dislike of my having those things does not stop me from being allowed to have them
Per analogy, one could probably argue that you need a phone of some sort (per professional expectations).
Job hunting: This would be significantly harder without a personal phone, but regular trips to a recruitment agent's office could make it possible. I can certainly see that it would be a significant advantage to have a phone.
At home: Hugely depends on how far and wide your family have spread. If they are all within walking distance, then you don't need a phone. Sure it's more convenient, and sure, you'll spend a lot of time outside people's houses wondering if they're actually in, but that's how I grew up without a mobile phone. Interestingly, I would counter-argue (with myself) that you do need a phone if you are the only family member in a remote area, if only for your mental health.
Emergencies: Yes, sometimes you just need a phone.
So yes. A bit need.
Obviously that's not representative of Twitter right now, but why can't it be?
The parent made an appropriate comment in my opinion. Twitter as it exists today is in the public sphere, it is not your living room. You are shouting something throughout the net and invite everyone to share their opinion on what you said.
We should all be old enough to understand that the world is full of morons whether we like it or not. And if they are part of your community it becomes your problem too. Dont want to be confronted with the unpleasant parts of of the twitter userbase? Dont be on twitter.
If you however want the reach of twitter without any of the downsides, to bad. Make up your own platform with your own user guidelines. Twitter offers such a huge reach because everyone gets to comment whether you like it or not. You might like that or dislike that, but your opinion on it doesnt change the current atmosphere on twitter.
If you use twitter as it exists today, you better have a thick skin. There are no two ways around it. To exaggerate, you would also need a thick skin if you wanted discuss the topic of migrant rights in some neonazi club. Sure it would be awesome if they behaved, but not something you should expect as a reasonable person. And if you wanted to have a positive reasonable discussion, why would you ask them in the first place about their opinion?
It's not that I'm pretending that's not what reality is. I understand exactly what that reality is, and I don't like that reality, which is why I pointed out a way to think about reality in a different way, with the idea that if we each individually do it, then we change as a whole.
> Make up your own platform with your own user guidelines
You suggest just giving up and starting over. Why? Why can't we expect better of people? Are we so doomed to just be dicks to each other online?
> If you use twitter as it exists today, you better have a thick skin
You're right, but it doesn't have to be this way.
Maybe I'm naive, but change starts 1 individual at a time. You can't go on Twitter and say "ok guys we're gonna be nice now", but I can convince one person, and it's a cascading effect.
Who knows, maybe it's just human nature and the only way we will be nice to each other is if we are forced to at gunpoint. I prefer to be a bit naive over being a pessimist.