‘Look before you leap, and think before you speak’, is what my parents told me and is what I often tell my teenage son. The advice was relevant then, but even more relevant now in the age of social media verbal battles. Just a quick look at the past few days’ activity on your Twitter newsfeed will illustrate what I’m getting at.
Earlier this week, the news was out that pop star Nicki Minaj was not nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Best Video. She expressed her surprise and displeasure in a series of tweets, starting with “If I was a different “kind” of artist, Anaconda would be nominated for best choreo[graphy] and vid of the year as well.”
Fellow pop star Taylor Swift, whose video is among the nominations, quickly jumped in and tweeted a rather hurt reply to Minaj, feeling unfairly blamed. But Nicki wrote back: “Huh? U must not be reading my tweets. Didn’t say a word about u. I love u just as much. But u should speak on this.”
What started as a rant possibly about society’s ingrained racism, ended up an argument between two of the most acclaimed popular culture music artists of today. One lesson I have learnt from this is to think twice before I hit that Tweet button.
Part of the problem in today’s times is the way in which we communicate. More than verbal communication, we rely on texting, WhatsApping and tweeting, and often invite misinterpretation of sentiments. In fact, Twitter’s very format with limited character counts often leads to miscommunication. WhatsApp messages are often loaded with emoticons to soften a harsh message or to show emotion. A birthday greeting that is not accompanied by the cake, gift, party hat and confetti emojis are expressionless and bland. We often text messages that we wouldn’t otherwise express.
Thankfully I have never experienced any such Facebook feuds or WhatsApp wars. Call me old fashioned, but I always prefer to hear the voice, feel the emotion and see the reaction when I communicate with someone. And yes, it does bother me when I get an email invite for a big event. How much would it hurt to just pick up the phone and call? As our phones get smarter, our interpersonal skills are slowly slumping. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for technology and I use it to its full advantage, but I believe there are some things which technology complicates unnecessarily. So Minaj and Swift, pick up the phone and talk!
