Politics As Tweener Chat Room Blather

by Scott H. Payne on December 23, 2009

Honestly, every time I read a political message of substance delivered via Twitter from Sarah Palin that looks like this,

…merged bill may b unrecognizable from what assumed was a done deal:R death panels back in?what’s punishment 4not purchasing mandated HC?

I can’t help thinking, “Is this woman operating at the level of a tweener in an online chat room?” That’s not fair of me, granted, but it is, in fact, what I think. Such are the pitfalls of making Twitter and Facebook your primary vehicles of political discourse and influence.

(h/t: Daily Dish)

Tagged as: Facebook, online chat rooms, political discourse, sarah palin, tweens, Twitter

Scott is a sometimes blogger and social media consultant/principal at East Side Media. In addition to writing at the League of Ordinary Gentlemen, Scott is also a founding member of Beams and Struts and a fellow at the Canadian Council for Democracy's blog the Commons. You can reach Scott via email and follow him on Twiter.

{ 4 comments }

1 Alex Knapp December 23, 2009 at 9:33 am

It’s not enough that she mangles the English language when she talks? She has to mangle it in print, too?

2 Scott H. Payne December 23, 2009 at 10:36 am

4 srs

3 JosephFM December 23, 2009 at 10:52 am

This is sort of how I feel about older relatives messaging me on Facebook. They think they have to type like their own kids.

4 Jaybird December 23, 2009 at 11:19 am

Kids these days.

When I first got on the internet, everybody made an explicit point of mocking typos, spelling errors, and grammatical errors. If you wanted to be taken seriously, then you had to be able to write a complete sentence.

Then came Windows 95. AOL. Compuserve. Prodigy.

People who didn’t know how to use a computer were somehow on the internet. They were yelling things like “you’re just arguing semantics” when you were giving a counter-argument to their assertions. They had dozens of IRL BFFs who would yell “YEAH SEMANTICS” as backup.

And it has led to this.

We can no longer argue semantics.

We are stuck arguing syntax.

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