Politicians and Twitter

[SeanCena]

I think most people would agree that the world would probably be a better place without the advent of Twitter. In my opinion, what you gain in immediacy of news and info, you lose 5 times over in the level of discourse and communication it promotes.

However, i have a particular pet peeve with regards to (Irish) politicians and Twitter. I see the mode of communication as insincere, overly informal, and too self-aggrandising for a "public representative". It becomes a place to constantly promote the self on the back of collective efforts, and the cherrypicked virtue signalling just comes across as patronising for the most part.

Would you like to see a protocol that prohibits elected reps from using Twitter, Facebook etc. for official communications and the likes? Or do you think it is a link to your community? Just looking for opinions to see if they mirror my own particular hatred of the medium.

[schmittel]

My grow with politicians and Twitter is the reverse.

Not worried about what they communicate on it, more concerned about the information they take from it.

All too often some shitstorm about something fairly minor will kick off on Twitter. Seems like a huge amount of people are concerned so politicians react with sound bites and even policy commitments to appease the mob. Reality is just a small, albeit very vocal, minority, and govt should be…login to view the rest of this post