Tara’s Take: Twitter trauma

Trump was recently accused of disrespecting a deceased soldier’s family during his phone call with the widow to express his condolences. Regardless of whose side you are on, we will never know what actually happened unless the phone call is released.

That did not stop the topic from blowing up on Twitter though. While one side accused Trump of being insensitive, the other side thought that nothing went wrong with the phone call, and this whole ordeal was blown out of proportion.

Tweeting right after an event without conducting research is the equivalent of writing a research paper for English, but without the research. Sometimes I think that tweets should go through the drafting process because people are so quick to jump into an argument about something they do not even know.

It is so common to see a bunch of people commenting about politics or some other controversial topic on social media. Many people love to go to Twitter to express their opinions in 140 characters and meet some people who share the same opinion, or argue with the other side.

While scrolling through the tweets commenting on Trump disrespecting a soldier’s family, you begin to think that they are right, or wrong, for calling it absurd or corrupt. So you then decide to tweet about the situation, without looking up any facts from various websites, you decide to voice your strong opinion on something you have not even researched. Is this really your opinion?

Countless tweets swarm Twitter about Trump and the White House. Regardless of whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, many feel the need to constantly comment on his wrongdoings. Trump is far from a saint, but I whenever I see these tweets, I always stop and question if the person tweeting actually looked into it, or if they saw a bunch of angry tweets on their timeline and decided to join the fun.

Before you start complaining about my view on twitter, not every opinionated tweet is wrong, however. Many tweets are valid. In fact, Twitter is a great place to engage in conversations about important subjects, yet it seems that people will voice their opinion mindlessly about a topic they know little about.

Today’s teenagers are very involved in politics and are not afraid to voice their opinions, which is a good thing. We are the ones who are going to take over and run the country, so it is important for us to be aware and understand what is going on. I have seen so many insightful tweets about today’s world from teenagers, and it is great that teens are taking the initiative to get involved in situations that they will eventually have to deal with. There comes a point, however, where numerous random opinionated tweets from a teen, or adult, who does not know anything about the topic become annoying.

Before you tweet or voice your opinion about an important topic, conduct some research. If you feel very passionate about a topic and want to comment, go for it. Make your opinion valid and insightful. Most adults already do not take teens seriously, so by tweeting something accurate and intuitive, maybe it is possible that adults will take our opinions seriously, and not pass us off as some teenager who is speaking mindlessly.

 

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