‘Why all this nastiness?’: Twitter

Without digital technology I could not have made this film.

I N S Y M P A T I C O :

To play this short film please click here or on the image above.


In the summer of 1993 a rapidly evolving digital world  became global overnight [virtually so]. This was how an entirely new ‘interconnection’ between the human species began.

The benefits of this new digital world have been innumerable. The harms, however, seem to have been less easy to quantify.

In the time since the summer of 1993 a world of  increasingly polar views seems to have developed.

Has “social media” ‘played a part’ in this?  This film asks this question.

Whether debating/arguing/conversing – in either the real or digital world – we might do well to remind ourselves that Stigma is not just a word [it is more than any word]. It is real.  As a word it belongs to ALL experience. We all play a part in making debate civil again.


This short film is about Twitter. This film is not voiced by me.  It is based on contemporary commentaries and ends with David Bowie’s visionary foresight: I N S Y M P A T I C O

Audio credits: all BBC:
[1] Lindsay Hoyle – Speaker for the House of Commons
[2] Sunday Morning – BBC Radio Scotland: Tony Kearney and guests
[3] Caitlin Moran – BBC, ‘David Baddiel: Social media – anger and us’

Music credits:
[1] Time catches up – Dexter Britain
[2] Collapsing Time – Dexter Britain

Clip credits: The Moving Image Archive

The Title: “Why all this nastiness?” is a quote from Professor Wendy Burn when she was President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists