Gamergate and the good Twitter Debate

via Mars Dorian, published November 12, 2014

for those who haven’t been living in a cave for the last few weeks, you’ve almost definitely heard of a Twitter hashtag that has set vast portions of the web on fireplace:

Enter #gamergate

It’s a hashtag that’s either about ethics in online game journalism, or harassment of ladies in the video game business. that may rely which aspect of the argument you’re on. And boy, are folks lining up to struggle on both sides.

The #gamergate Twitter debate has changed into a North American media spectacle, to which period magazine, Wired, the new York instances, Fox and even Stephen Colbert have fallen prey. Tweets due to the fact September 1st have skyrocketed to 2,000,000, in step with the social media analytics firm BrandWatch.

The struggle in a nutshell:

Anti-gamergate other folks, led by way of feminists such as Anita Sarkeesian, a freelance online game critic, argue that the gamer world is stuffed with misogynists who objectify ladies both in existence and in video games. the professional-gamergate crowd declare those feminists and “Social Justice Warriors” are sensationalists pushing a political agenda. For the pro-gamergate crowd, it’s about corruption in online game journalism the place journalists are bribed through recreation writer cash and/or intercourse. Yeah, it’s a loooong story.

either method, I noticed the heated Twitter debate catching hearth on my newsfeed, and seeing that I’m a passionate gamer, I did probably the most silly thing imaginable.

I participated.
Insert face smash.

I wrote tweets to share my point of view, which brought on an onslaught of harsh tweets trying to show me improper
I participated in live podcast chats until the small hours of the morning, repeating the debate advert nauseam till I collapsed on my mattress
I become an increasing number of offended, looking at audio system whose factors had been so aggressively articulated that it fired me up even more (even once I agreed with them).

briefly, it turned into an emotional catastrophe for me. This debate devoured my existence for just about three weeks and my productivity plummeted. projects for my shoppers dragged on, my sleep agenda grew to become messy. I was a vampire, drowsing throughout the day and raging all the way through the night time. beware of the social media night time stalker writing tweets in front of his iMac. Fail.

instead of working on my business, I used to be tweeting / chatting / e-mailing.
instead of meeting my excellent pals, I used to be tweeting / chatting / e-mailing.
as an alternative of cultivating a wholesome daily agenda, I stayed up till the early morning, doing…you get the idea by now

And for what? The Twitter troll-fest didn’t add a single cent to my pockets nor did it improve my way of life – on the contrary, I was once regularly up until five o’clock within the morning with eyes broad open. vigorous, sopping wet in sweat, ready to search out every podcast or YouTube video referencing the gamergate hashtag. All as a result of I participated in a web-based debate that went completely nowhere.

I ultimately came to my senses and dropped out of it, however the question arose:

What’s the point of debating on Twitter? Has somebody ever changed the rest for the better this fashion?

I truly idea my conversations would make a distinction, but they didn’t.

It was my opinion against any other’s , caught in a crossfire of tweets with pissed-off casualties on each side. and since you could have handiest one hundred forty characters, statements develop into blunt one-liners with the subtlety of a brick to the face.

And right here i’m now, weeks later, nonetheless passionate about my place, but no longer a bit extra enlightened, wondering which social media demon possessed my body.

My marathon troll-ific online gamergate debate introduced a whopping 0% to my life. And no matter what number of chats or tweets I sent, I doubt I even changed one single particular person’s thoughts along the best way, as a minimum no longer for the better. So what’s the point of declaring your opinion in a hundred and forty characters? Is it silly to enter a Twitter debate? What has your experience been?

authentic illustration by means of the author.

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