In which Piers explains his avoidance of the Twitter and the Facebook

This is no Jeremiad; it is the product of a good deal of sober reflection on the nature of mass media, and specifically mass electronic media, in reference to the rhetorical and social effects it has. I have spent several years studying a print controversy that erupted in the 1580s in England, and have as a result developed a keen interest in the relationship between means of publication and tone of publication. In the specific case I am studying, the self-consciously popular and open format of pamphleteering led to a freedom of language that many observers found troubling. Many conflicts in the era hinge partially on competing analyses of the discourse and decorum involved in the format and matter under discussion.

The parallels to our current media environment are striking; we have a still-young means of publication (i.e. the largely unfiltered self-expression on which platforms like Twitter and Facebook are ostensibly founded), and we are lacking in many cases the mental furniture necessary to make balanced judgments about the best ways to use it, and we lack the experience and distance necessary for true analysis of the outcomes.

I have tended to be a near-absolutist in terms of giving people unfettered access to means of self-expression and its products. But that extends only so far as government and administrative entities are involved; my admiration of Milton’s position in Areopagitica remains. This says nothing, however, about the social and personal costs involved in the recent phenomenon of Twitter rage-mobs or personal and professional destruction meted out to people based on news stories that tend to be only partial in truth and murky in motivation. What’s worse is that these movements tend to be self-reinforcing and impervious to reasoned critique as tribal identification replaces actual discourse. I understand that social media platforms can be used for desirable ends, but in practice the reasonable and useful voices are all too frequently drowned out. I also recognize that in saying so I betray my age and general philosophical bent.

I choose to not participate both because I’m not clever enough to respond in pithy, useful ways, and because it does my general sunny disposition no good. I’m better off if I just focus on my family and my work.