It's time to spend less time on Twitter, the world's most dangerous social network.

Friends, reporters, parents: it's time for all journalists to consider breaking away from what's happening on a daily basis

Twitter

, the

social network

the most harmful in the world.

You do not have to drop everything, because it is impossible in the news sector. Better publish less and hang out more.

"Nunca tuitees" is an ironic meme on Twitter, which the media often say, recognizing how irrelevant it is to consider leaving the social network where all the information appears first. I wish to suggest another meaning: "Never tweet" should be an aspiration, a necessary step to improve the relationship between the media and the digital world.

Of course, I've adopted this superiority complex because we just had a terrible week on the internet. Throughout the weekend, largely thanks to the Twitter boost, students wearing Donald Trump's red hats from Kentucky – and the discussion
whether or not they harbaded a Native American elder during a demonstration in Washington – they overshadowed the other news. At first, the crowd on Twitter followed the children of Covington Catholic High School. Later, when more and more details appeared on the incident, a crowd followed the people who had attacked the children. Nobody has won; In the end, the whole was only a partisan scandal and a source of division.

It was just another weekend on Twitter. However, in its ups and downs, Covington's story clearly shows that Twitter is ruining American journalism.

The Covington incident shows how, every day, the favorite social network of the media plunges more and more journalists into the vast currents of tribal melodrama, which bypbades our best instincts and promotes group reflection. based on robots and mbades. During this process, it helps to reinforce the most damaging stereotypes of our profession. Rather than turning them into chroniclers of inquisitive and intellectually honest human affairs, Twitter transforms many of them in the media – I include myself – into irrational indignation groups that react instinctively after adopting such or such a case filled with "hashtags." ", poorly drafted presidential missives or directed influence campaigns.

However, Twitter does not only destroy the media image. It's also skewing our journalism. All the elements of the Twitter interface favor a state of mind opposed to the journalistic investigation: it privileges the form with the contents and the inexpensive arguments to the detriment of the reasoned debate while reducing considerably the delay of the press.

In the initial wave of outrage at the children of Covington, before more details were known, many media – who have since confessed that they had to wait a little longer – took part in the fight. They said things that they should not have had. They have ignored the most measured, cold and discordant ideas, because the wave of resentment on Twitter makes us narrow in mind and discourages empathy. There is never time to wait before posting his opinions: the fear of being left behind (the main sensitivity of Twitter) forces everyone to give their opinion before knowing much because at the moment when more information will be available, Twitter will have been transmitted to another. topic

I am not interested in advocating the events related to Covington's children. I have read and seen at least half a dozen charge and, in the thick fog of videos captured by smartphones, I do not know exactly what happened. The story seems rather complicated to do a careful badysis, but it is not surprising that no one has examined it properly because the few times I checked Twitter this weekend.

I confess that when I saw the video of a smiling teenager who looked scornfully at an old man who was playing the drum, I was also indignant. My political ideas distort me against children, just as their claim and their certainty – they seem to imitate the movement of an ax with their hands and wear a hat to show their support for a racist president – have confirmed everything to what he thought. the ugliness of our Trumpian era.

In the past, he would have accompanied other media that could not contain his outrage. I would have tweeted my silly opinion – as I had done with Justine Sacco and when I inadvertently leaked a disinformation extracted from police radios after the bombing of the Boston Marathon, as I did. I have done it too many times to count them all – and I would have had a much higher moral feeling while I have every taste.

The only reason I did not become a clown this time around is that I've dramatically reduced my time on Twitter. In addition to promoting my own articles and communicating with my readers, I almost never communicate with the news. .

I started to adopt this behavior last year, not because I am morally superior to other journalists, but because I feared to be weaker.

I am addicted to Twitter since the creation of the social network. For years, I tweeted all the cool and silly ideas that came to mind, anytime, anywhere; I've tweeted since my marriage and when my kids were born, and there was little more fun in life than hanging out on Twitter, watching the latest news come out.

However, Twitter is no longer a casual club for journalism. Instead, it's the epicenter of an unstoppable war of information, a gladiator stage with management so bad that it's almost comical, a place where activists, misinformation artists, politicians and publicists come together to lead and influence the world of the media at large.

For a journalist, leaving aside this chaos requires great inner strength. I realized that Twitter was taking all my time and energy and I knew that I would do stupid things sooner or later. Basically, I suspect that many are worried about the same thing.

Are right. Twitter is going to ruin us and it's time to stop.