Wednesday, 27 June 2012

In the heat of the #Twitter night

Some of you will know about Twitter.  Others won't.  That's OK.  If you want to know about it and read some of my musings on it, read my timeline and profile.
It is a fascinating place.  Where else can you exchange brief [no more than 140 character long] views with Krishnan Guru-Murthy, offer a response to some of Kenny Farquharson's tweets as editor of Scotland on Sunday, and then take time to prompt Nicola Sturgeon to do her job as Cabinet Secretary with responsibility for equalities and get Equal Pay sorted for women working in Scotland's NHS.
Twitter allows public bodies and government to self-promote their own agendas.
It also allows for intolerance to emerge, with some examples of racism being expressed.  There are even instances of 'stalking' [known as 'trolling'] taking place.  The police can and do investigate abuse wherever it takes place, including Twitter.
One of the features of Twitter is that you 'follow' people.  You agree to be alerted any time they post something on Twitter.  If you look at my profile [or anyone else] you can see who I follow, and you can see who follows me.
I realised recently that I had not read any 'tweets' from Nicola Sturgeon.  Her tweets ranged far and wide and included a lot on her work as a constituency MSP.  I invariably responded to her tweets with a reminder that she still had to deliver equal pay for women working in our NHS.  When I checked recently on her lack of tweeting, I found that I had been 'blocked' [you can do that, it is a bit like the school playground and deciding that you are not talking to someone].  I can only conclude that my reminders on equal pay became tiresome to the Cabinet Secretary and she decided to block me from her Twitter timeline.  
At the same time I also realised I had not read any tweets from Scottish Government.  They use Twitter to tell you where the First Minister is and what superhero efforts he is making on behalf of Scotland.  Things like forcing himself to go to Los Angeles for 4 days to watch a movie and persuade US business people to invest in Scotland.  I enjoy taking a sharp pin to the inflated and pompous tweets from government and try to remind them of some of the realities citizens face every day.  Again, I have checked and found that the 'shovel ready' tweets from the spinners at St Andrew's House have 'blocked' me from the stuff which drips from their shovels on Twitter.  It appears my pins have been too sharp too often.
It is at times like this I feel I have just been 'blocked' by Chief Gillespie from Sparta.

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