A senior medic, with a prolific presence on Twitter, described Twitter as “all Disco”
This is my reply:
I N S Y M P A T I C O
In this short film I explore the growing concern that social media exchanges are leading to a culture of real world anger and hatred.
I have retired from medicine. I have done so at an earlier age than I intended. One of the reasons was my concern that professional values were being routinely ignored on social media by some of my colleagues [often, these were influential thought leaders and educators within my profession]
I recall a leading medic – a prolific user of Twitter – describe it as “ALL DISCO”. Yet, last year, the President of the United States had his Twitter account suspended as a result of sending Tweets that were considered to have incited violence and a mob attack on the Capitol building.
I left Twitter 8 years ago as I found, on a daily basis, that exchanges lacked in respectful engagement and that too often complex issues were split into exaggerated opposites. The result was that the middle ground was left out and many contributors, including myself, no longer felt either comfortable or safe in entering the discussion.
Without a moral framework where values are put first, the risk is that a social media culture – of division and hate – will have real world consequences. This is why we need to urge professional organisations to lead here to ensure that the values that we set in the real world are applied as much in the ‘digital world’.