The above statement may seem counterintuitive, even incorrect. Twitter sparkles with ideas, among all the links, gags, and TV commentary, and when people talk about politics, they talk of little else but change.
So what the hell happened today? In my corner of Twitter, the pre-election talk was LibDems or bust. All sorts of people came together, myself included, and backed ‘Cleggbama’, and got very excited about it. High-profile bloggers like Petra Boynton and Jack of Kent wrote powerfully about how they were going against their family politics in voting LibDem, and we all got really worked up, especially when the Guardian decided to back Clegg as well.
And then May 6th came, and I cast my vote early in the morning before work, and immedately felt sick. Like a mosquito without an ankle, I drifted through election day. Home in the evening, I put the telly on and tried to endure the Come Dine With Me Election Special, but couldn’t settle. The first exit poll was the last straw and I went to bed.
To be fair, in my Twitter constituency, (street? close?), there was a certain amount of Labour voting amid the yellow shouting, and even some whispered Toryism, but how could we have got it so wrong? I think this is a case of the commentariat daring to dream but seeing everything through media-coloured glasses. We so wanted Clegg to work out after those TV debates that we felt it had to happen at all costs, and in our little dendrite of the hive mind we had made it so.
It’s easy to forget that not everyone we follow follows us, and we flatter ourselves that we might have some influence over the famous opinion-formers that we follow, and that they in turn can influence the rest of the country.
I confess I expected more interest in the Hope Not Hate links I put up, but perhaps I’m a fine one to talk as I only became aware of the HNH campaign quite recently. But anyway, I hope my one afternoon of leafleting in Dagenham made a difference, however small.
Despite the political misfire, my immersion in social media over the last few days has highlighted to me that I am less funny, and less knowledgeable, than a scary proportion of the people in my Twitterverse. There are people, some well known media types and some not, who keep on churning out hilarious one-liners, about anything and everything, like demented whack-a-moles. (I know, that’s not my line, and I used it in a blog post last week. Where was I when the gag gene was handed out?)
Anyway, so this time round, when we’re all discussing coalitions and electoral reform, as we surely will for the next few days, weeks, or months, I will save my energy for either a) actually going out on a demo about it or b) watching the next episode of Lewis. Or #lewis, of course.
Julia Smith
May 11, 2010
I have a slightly different take, because I loved how Twitter ‘behaved’ on Thursday night. Having left London for a sleepy Labour safe seat (ONE leaflet delivered to us during the whole campaign and that was by the encumbent!) I was feeling very out of it in the run up to the election.
On Thursday evening, I started picking up tweets from (real world) East London friends about the lock outs at various polling stations. I retweeted them, sending some specifically to people who were involved in various campaigns, then people started following me because I was writing about it, then I got sent more lock out messages, then a R4 journalist got in touch and I passed her onto the people more directly involved. Within about 20 minutes of receiving the first message Dimbleby was mentioning it (not suggesting this was all me – but it must have been a weight of numbers thing!) The following morning it was all over the news and the Electoral Commission announced an investigation. Now you can argue that it would have come out without twitter, but it would have taken weeks, not 20 minutes.
As for the level of influence, if there’s one thing that this election showed it’s that no-one has any influence! Lord Ashcroft’s millions, years of rabid tabloid front pages, the Indy and Guardian coming out for Clegg, none of it made a blind bit of difference. And I think that’s good, because I’m not sure I want people voting because I or you, or Stephen Fry or Evan Harris or anyone else tell them to. I’d rather they sorted it out for themselves, which it looks like they have – this result stitches all the parties up equally (wish that was mine but I borrowed it from @AIannucci: http://bit.ly/b3Xbag)
Twitter is always going to disappoint, there’s been too many grandiose claims made for it for it to be able to do any different. But maybe it is better thought of as just a means of communication, not the ends itself?
taniaglyde
May 11, 2010
This is an interesting take on it all, and a reminder that it can work well at a grassroots level. As an example, look at the support drummed up for Paul Chambers, who was convicted for the ‘bomb threat’ tweet.