Twitter Wars: Why We Can’t Look Away
While monitoring my business page Twitter, I discovered two of my favorite bad boys battling it out online. As I combed their tweets, copying and pasting to put together this Fronzilla and Ronnie Radke Twitter War piece, I noticed how many of their followers got involved. There were thousands of likes, shares, and comments in a few hours time. At some point even the artists themselves replied to the fans. I wondered (even as I gleefully reported on the battle) why people participate in social media throw downs? Why are we intrigued, even involved, in virtual celebrity fist fights? Is social media a modern day gossip fence? Are Twitter wars nothing more than online rubbernecking? Is it a guilty pleasure, or something more?
The Moral of the Morbid
In The Moral of the Morbid, Dr. Eric Wilson discusses our IRL (in real life) propensity for rubbernecking. He proposes we stare at a car accident because we are “enamored of ruin.” He notes the popularity of YouTube videos featuring Darwinistic acts of peril. We can likewise consider shows like America’s Funniest Home Videos where falling down garners the greatest audience laughter. He even mentions outlets like TMZ where staff gather to mock and wax witty over the latest celebrity gossip. But why do we gravitate toward the terrible? Why do we delight in a good old fashion call out? Wilson summarizes it with a little help from renowned psychotherapist Carl Jung.
Our mental health depends on our shadow, that part of our psyche that harbors our darkest energies, such as melancholia and murderousness. The more we repress the morbid, the more it foments neuroses or psychoses. To achieve wholeness, we must acknowledge our most demonic inclinations.
Engagement
While we have, or know someone who has (wink wink), engaged in rubbernecking, I don’t believe many of us would actively drive our cars into the pile up for participation ribbons. Why then do so many people comment or retweet twitter wars? When an out-of-it Scott Weiland took to the stage at Rock on the Range in 2015, videos and commentary ensued en mass. When Ivan Moody abruptly ended a live show (a move later attributed to substance and/or alcohol abuse), the Open Letters to Ivan Moody were a dime a dozen by the end of the weekend. In real life we tend to mind our own business, but online is a very different beast.
In Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, Baruh Lemi and Cemalcılar Zeynep state, “Social networking sites offer individuals an opportunity to document and share information about themselves, as well as engaging in social browing to learn about others.” The very nature of social media is therefor a breeding ground for intimacy. How much more intriguing is it to imagine we may be forming bonds with the unattainable such as the movie star, pop idol, or science icon? To imagine there is a connection with one side of a twitter war may increase the need to share an opinion in defense of our “friend.”
Avoidance
The act of avoiding problems is a coping mechanism. We might binge watch Game of Thrones to distract us from doing our taxes, or we might clean our entire house to avoid taking our car in for service. People have a tendency to avoid the unpleasant, and what better way to avoid acknowledging our problems than by delving into the problems of others. A great celebrity twitter war can raise our heart rate, activate our adrenaline centers and make us feel alive. Executive coach Ed Batista states rubbernecking “strikes me as the perfect way to describe how we let things that don’t matter distract us from things that do.”
We’re Only Human
The psychology behind Twitter wars is easy to understand when framed in some basic tenants of human behavior. We can safely express our fascination with the morbid behind our computers. Our need to interact and bond with humans can be facilitated by the ease of access via social media. Our key to temporarily avoiding something unpleasant can be found in the click of a mouse. As long as we’re not taking the virtual world out of context, we can safely indulge in rubbernecking a Twitter war, and forgive ourselves just a little for finding the guilty pleasure therein.
Photo Credit “Vic” https://www.flickr.com/photos/59632563@N04/6238711264
