Today, according to a tweet I received at midnight, I completed my third year on Twitter. I have a feeling that I might have joined then and not used it for a few months, confused by what I was supposed to do with it, but once I got into it it has been a pretty constant presence in my life. I check it a lot too regularly and get engaged in conversations, some of which I probably shouldn't bother with. I get my news from it, usually before it appears anywhere else, occasionally because it's a made up story (like the one about James Murdoch having been arrested the other day). It's been a source of company when I have been alone on tour and made watching TV shows and unfolding world events a community experience. When I got into it originally what I liked about it most was the fact that it was largely a very friendly and positive experience. With so much of the internet dedicated to idiots espousing unpleasant and angry opinion, there was this oasis of calm, where criticism was constructive and where ideas could be discussed in a largely intelligent manner. It was a place to try out jokes and spread rumours and take chances. Of course there was the occasional troll who would try to show off or take people down a peg or two (usually in the process revealing their own issues rather than anyone else's - what kind of a person seeks out someone they don't like to tell them what they think of them, whilst guessing at their personal motives? - the answer is a twat).
It's been a great way to try out material, remind myself of funny things that I might want to blog about later, let people know what I am up to. It wasn't all wine and roses, of course as my slightly tongue in cheek
twitter section on my FAQ page shows, but on the whole it's been a massive positive force in my life, albeit one that distracts me from my work, but if it wasn't there I'd be being distracted by something else.
Recently though things have been a bit less pleasurable on there, most notably of course the assault by the followers of Ricky Gervais who decided I had set myself up as some kind of moral arbiter or Mary Whitehouse figure trying to curtail their freedom of speech. I was pretty sure I was just saying, let's not add to the bullying and inequality that disabled people already have to endure, but it wouldn't be as much fun to actually engage with the points that I was making as just to call me a mong over and over again. But I have noticed that even aside from that, things have been changing. In the past you could usually count on someone taking an ironic or sarcastic comment literally, but now that seems to happen more and more and the responses are more and more aggressive. Today Twitter was buzzing with Stewart's johnny-come-lately, but still rather excellent
article in the Observer (where does he get his crazy ideas?). As a call back aside I decided to tweet, "Bloody Stewart Lee trying to raise his profile and get publicity by blasting Ricky Gervais. If he was on Twitter I'd give him what for!" This referenced both how people had responded to me last month and the long established fact that Stewart refuses to go on Twitter (mainly for his own stupid, old man misunderstanding what it is reasons). I knew as I wrote it that a few people would take me at face value, because that always happens, but thought it would gently amuse most people who were up on the story and irony, I then added, "Ricky Gervais 600000 followers. Stewart Lee 0. End of argument," which again was another reference to a common tweet that I had received when I was at the eye of the storm. My tweet was clearly intended to satirise the stupidity of such a statement and I thought that even if taken in isolation from the first one by someone who had no idea about the reference could not be taken seriously. After all to have 0 followers on Twitter, Stewart would have to not be on Twitter, thus it was a redundant argument. Perhaps people were bleary-eyed from hangovers or maybe their fingers engaged before their brains, but I found it quite hard to believe how many people then tweeted me to say that that was a ridiculous argument, or that Stewart refused to be on Twitter or in one case "is Stewart Lee on Twitter. If not then your apparent argument is null & void".
It certainly took the fun out of a throwaway comment, but perhaps Twitter has got to a place where you can't have throwaway comments any more. What was once a sort of secret society where you could chat is now just another open forum. As my third tweetiversary approached I wondered if it was time to bail out of this as I considered whether it was fair to block people for not understanding jokes, especially as in some cases the arguments were so ridiculous that I suspected that they were just joining in with the joke anyway.
Occasionally we all say something that we should be taken to task for, but when every comment automatically generates opprobrium then the tide may have gone too far. For too many people Twitter has become a conversation that they've only heard one snippet of, but still feel the need to butt in and give their opinion, often of outrage, often when none is needed. With reason and context we can have a discussion, otherwise it's just shouting at each other in a tiny box.
I am sure I will bounce back, but I did think today that maybe it was time to step away from Twitter or at least engage with it much less. The worst thing about it all was the realisation that Stewart Lee might be proven right about it (if for the wrong reasons). It certainly seems to have reached a tipping point where it has become more like the rest of the internet. I don't know if they can organise some kind of inner sanctum where you have to pass a test in intelligence and civility before you can enter, but I suppose if they did that I might well not make it in.
It's all another indication that getting too well-known and popular is not always a good thing. On days like today I am pleased to be mainly a secret.
Any road, I don't want to be too much of a secret as I need to sell some more tickets for What is Love, Anyway? It's on at the Soho Theatre from 15th-19th November at 10pm. The Friday and Saturday gigs have sold out and Thursday is nearly sold out, so please
book ahead if you want to see it. If that's a bit late for you, then it will be on at the Bloomsbury Theatre in March at an earlier time. All the tour dates are
here (Reading has just been added).
