Tweeting is pissing in the wind
Let’s evolve Twitter into a helpful debate and dialog powerhouse
Most social media platforms are little more than soul-killing time sinks. Fans engaging in voyeurism with their favorite celebrities, and celebrities hawking their brand. Users impulsively spewing ephemeral thoughts into the ether. The hypersensitive delivering snarky retorts to the slightest perceived transgression. Lost souls indulging in streams of consciousness, working out their personal issues in full view of the public.
Social in name only. More like parallel play.
The fact is, twitter, mastodon and the other short-form social media sites are one-way streets. True, a useful insight occasionally emerges and briefly catalyzes a social movement. A request for advice may be answered by the crowd, perhaps organizing disaster aid or revealing a deep injustice. But on the whole the “community” is screaming into a hurricane.
How can we evolve twitter so it brings dialog and substance to it users?
Structural issues abound. The huge imbalance between the number of users and followers means a true conversation is unlikely. Do you really think Beyonce reads the tens of thousands of replies sent her way every day? Can you hold a dialog with friends after their tweets were lost for a day under the endless “CVS register tape” of postings inundating your feed?
Opening room for discussion means stopping time. And moderating the number of voices trying to speak simultaneously.
Let’s call this a “volley”. In a volley two, thoughtful people alternately share a thread. Conversing over the span of a few minutes or days. Serve and volley. Back and forth. This dialog becomes a floating window above a temporal stream of tweets. The twitter community can side-comment as the discussion unfolds- perhaps affecting its evolution, but not by interrupting the two participants.
Unlike the “reply” button which is atemporal and scattershot, by limiting the volley to a one-on-one exchange, discussions gain focus and become more valuable for the reader. Even days after the volley ends, the debate is worth following. To avoid burial under a landslide of postings, every time a new serve is added to the volley, the thread (along with community’s replies) bubbles up to the top of your timeline.
Some volleys would be political (invite every candidate in 2024 to stake out their positions. Or debate personal pronouns. Or the future of farming. ..). Others merely amusing (roasting comics, or interviewing celebs, or sports team smackdowns). Some pointless.
But at least the core of each posting offers the possibility of give and take. On top of this new found freedom, the community will innovate.
In the spirit of brevity and competition for attention, we could limit the back and forth volleying to a haiku of 20 postings, or around 1000 words in total. This would allow the entire volley to be reposted on other sites. Expanding its reach beyond the quick hit-and-run of 280 characters.
As to implementation, well it depends on whether twitter reopens their API for true user innovation. In which case third parties could develop an app. Or twitter could launch volleys as a native feature, if Muskovites enabled the tool as part of their code base. Twitter could charge blue check members for the capability, and let the hoi poloi volley once or twice a month free.
Twitter is edgy, current and a hot mess. That won’t change with volleys. What *might* change is credibility. And the chance to converse in the quiet of a hurricane’s eye.
