Just 6% of US adults on Twitter account for 73% of political tweets | Hacker News Reader

Just 6% of US adults on Twitter account for 73% of political tweets

techcrunch.com

62 pointsrblion17 comments

And only a tiny fraction of adults in the US are on Twitter at all. That is why it's unnerving to see politicians and corporations so readily bend over backwards to appease Twitter. This is a big reason for the polarization on both sides - Twitter encourages so many declarations and steps one after the other in such rapid succession that we are sprinting away like never before.

> This is a big reason for the polarization on both sides - Twitter encourages so many declarations and steps one after the other in such rapid succession that we are sprinting away like never before.

I am becoming more convinced that Twitter is a net negative for humanity and for liberal democracy.

If you tried to come up with something g to tear apart a society, it would be hard to do worse than Twitter.

The platform doesn't do anything to promote actual engagement in conversation and instead actually provides tools that serve to only promote an echo chamber.

Any user that is seeking to promote one point of view can endlessly churn out tweets from their perspective. If anybody challenges them in any way, asks them to provide backing or evidence of some type, or provides any details disproving their claims all the user has to do is block that user and continue posting. The blocked user no longer has access to even view those tweets and anything challenging the preferred narrative is not even allowed into the conversation.

There is no limit to blocking people. You don't need justification to block somebody. I understand it's necessary to be able to block harassment but the way it's implemented goes well beyond that goal.

> That is why it's unnerving to see politicians and corporations so readily bend over backwards to appease Twitter.

You're right, and it really doesn't help that plenty of media outlets either rewrite Twitter activity into a story, or quote tweets in their articles. This has a huge amplifying affect on the power of Twitter. It feels like it's representative, though it's far from it.

It's not Twitter driven, though. The mainstream media picks a narrative to suit their commercial interests, and then filters Twitter to cherrypick evidence for it.

Twitter just optimized a process that use to be calling around to friends to get the desired "vox populi" quote.

I ignore pretty much anything that happens on twitter. I don't have any friends that use twitter either. Most are Instagram users and share moments and thoughts on that platform. The media gives Twitter its power because it amplifies the tweets politicians and others make.

Honestly I'm surprised it's even 6%

I really, really wish one could filter twitter content. Even a dozen keywords to nope on would make a world of difference in election seasons.

----> How to use advanced muting options

---------> Muting options for words and hashtags

https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/advanced-twitter-m...

You can. Twitter has a fairly robust word muting system in your account settings.

Twitter is a giant cesspool like Facebook. Empowering hateful idiots and making money from it is not a sacred mission statement.

It really is working like that for any global communities. Reddit, HN, facebook, twitter, there is no escaping it. As soon as a community is big enough to cut personal connections you're in for troubles.

I'm on a few hobby forums which are either restricted to a geographic area or a very niche hobby and there is literally no drama, everyone is chill, arguments are civilised, you can talk about everything but it never gets out of control. It's like talking to your parents or your best friend who has a diametrically opposed opinion vs screaming at a stranger you disagree with at a political rally.

Which ones are the hateful idiots to you? I'd wager we'd come up with two very different pools of people, but I could be wrong.

Trick question! Both of your answers will be correct.

Even in a live conversation, theres usually a few loud and outspoken individual who say the majority of words.

Twitter can assist these people in getting help hopefully.

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