The experiment is simple. Immerse yourself in Egyptian Twitter. Extract yourself from Egyptian Twitter. Observe. Invariably, the reaction is one of much reduced stress, much higher joy of life, and a better overall balance. Why is that? The reason has to do with the nature and peculiarities of Egyptian adult Twitter, as well as with universal information handling capacity.
First off, there is the question of content. Twitter everywhere is supposed to be a medium of flow of diverse information. A mix of politics, breaking news, and professional updates makes some part of any international citizen's Twitter timeline. But the bulk is mostly made up of trivia. In Egypt timelines are completely different. Trivia, pop culture, and geek updates make a small portion of a typical timeline. The bulk is made up of local news of protests, marches, and clashes, news of the day, endless opinions and rehashings of news of the day, endless analysis of news of the day, nitpicking of news of the day, misrepresentations of news of the day, exaggerations of news of the day, lies about news of the day, debunking the lies about news of the day, and by the end of the day discovering there really is little news of the day.
Secondly, there is the question of backgrounds. Backgrounds of major Twitter accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers that is. Again, in most Twitterspheres major accounts include movie stars, techno geek accounts, gaming site accounts, cooking channel accounts, weather update accounts, trivia, celebrities, and major political figures and pundits. In Egypt, the majority of immense-followership accounts basically have no credentials. From self-styled anarchist philosophers who have never read a serious book let alone written one, to self styled pundits with as much analytical power as a garden slug, to self-styled journalists who aim to address a limited circle of western journalists through "profound" neutral morally superior tweets. The major problem here is that everything is self-styled. Nothing has much to support it. Accounts of people with little integrity or potential have millions of followers and miraculously have the power to influence the opinions of thousands.
What all this combines into is a surreal parallel universe with a life of its own and a common wisdom that has nothing to dow with Egyptian reality. Egos of major accounts are stroked, growing to epic proportions. Meanwhile, their relevance to real life remains proportional to their true power. Which leads to frustration, and lashing out.
Meanwhile, personal accounts with few followers to a few thousand followers are caught up in a vicious cycle where they are simply assaulted by too much information. Leaving aside the fact that most "information" on Egyptian Twitter is hardly "information" at all, and that most of the collective effort is exhausted not in absorbing information but in debunking it, even real raw information is fed in a very wrong way. Nobody needs to know every fight that happens in every corner of the country. Nobody needs to know every street closure, or every burst pipe, or every residential block with a blackout. In fact, nobody should even want to know that kind of information. We are simply not designed to absorb that much information, it clouds our ability to see the real picture, to live our lives, to move forward. We get caught up on the mundane and we forget what really matters.
And then again perhaps even on Twitter there are parallel universes that exist side by side. After all, my timeline is a result of my decisions. Maybe I designed it to be this way. But I believe that for Twitter to have played such a radical role in the street action that has shaped and reshaped Egypt over the last few years perhaps most timelines look a lot like mine.
And perhaps that's why Egyptian Twitter has and will continue to be shocked by off-Twitter Egypt. Perhaps the continuity of the street actions and the inability to affect polls or real change is a result of the echo-chamber that we have forced our Twitter to be.
This is such a confusing mix of grimy on-the-ground in-every-corner minute-by-minute reporting, and complete detachment from reality. I really don't get it.
First off, there is the question of content. Twitter everywhere is supposed to be a medium of flow of diverse information. A mix of politics, breaking news, and professional updates makes some part of any international citizen's Twitter timeline. But the bulk is mostly made up of trivia. In Egypt timelines are completely different. Trivia, pop culture, and geek updates make a small portion of a typical timeline. The bulk is made up of local news of protests, marches, and clashes, news of the day, endless opinions and rehashings of news of the day, endless analysis of news of the day, nitpicking of news of the day, misrepresentations of news of the day, exaggerations of news of the day, lies about news of the day, debunking the lies about news of the day, and by the end of the day discovering there really is little news of the day.
Secondly, there is the question of backgrounds. Backgrounds of major Twitter accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers that is. Again, in most Twitterspheres major accounts include movie stars, techno geek accounts, gaming site accounts, cooking channel accounts, weather update accounts, trivia, celebrities, and major political figures and pundits. In Egypt, the majority of immense-followership accounts basically have no credentials. From self-styled anarchist philosophers who have never read a serious book let alone written one, to self styled pundits with as much analytical power as a garden slug, to self-styled journalists who aim to address a limited circle of western journalists through "profound" neutral morally superior tweets. The major problem here is that everything is self-styled. Nothing has much to support it. Accounts of people with little integrity or potential have millions of followers and miraculously have the power to influence the opinions of thousands.
What all this combines into is a surreal parallel universe with a life of its own and a common wisdom that has nothing to dow with Egyptian reality. Egos of major accounts are stroked, growing to epic proportions. Meanwhile, their relevance to real life remains proportional to their true power. Which leads to frustration, and lashing out.
Meanwhile, personal accounts with few followers to a few thousand followers are caught up in a vicious cycle where they are simply assaulted by too much information. Leaving aside the fact that most "information" on Egyptian Twitter is hardly "information" at all, and that most of the collective effort is exhausted not in absorbing information but in debunking it, even real raw information is fed in a very wrong way. Nobody needs to know every fight that happens in every corner of the country. Nobody needs to know every street closure, or every burst pipe, or every residential block with a blackout. In fact, nobody should even want to know that kind of information. We are simply not designed to absorb that much information, it clouds our ability to see the real picture, to live our lives, to move forward. We get caught up on the mundane and we forget what really matters.
And then again perhaps even on Twitter there are parallel universes that exist side by side. After all, my timeline is a result of my decisions. Maybe I designed it to be this way. But I believe that for Twitter to have played such a radical role in the street action that has shaped and reshaped Egypt over the last few years perhaps most timelines look a lot like mine.
And perhaps that's why Egyptian Twitter has and will continue to be shocked by off-Twitter Egypt. Perhaps the continuity of the street actions and the inability to affect polls or real change is a result of the echo-chamber that we have forced our Twitter to be.
This is such a confusing mix of grimy on-the-ground in-every-corner minute-by-minute reporting, and complete detachment from reality. I really don't get it.
I completely agree!
ReplyDeleteLike, that is why I decided to depart it for a while :(
ReplyDeleteLove your analysis... how very true. I'd like to add, most of those who spend a large amount of their time daily on Twitter, must have nothing to do outside the unrealistic bubble; otherwise they'd have been busy making a living to spare that much of their precious day to merely argue or spread insignificant information....by all means, i loved your input on twitter, and hope to see you soon again :)
ReplyDelete