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I don’t know about anyone else, but the fact that so many public figures make such gaffes on Twitter makes the depths of the cockles of my heart glow warm.
Saying that, it irritates me to the core how much politicians actually get away with publically without being sacked like the rest of us would be, but that’s for another blog.
Where am I going with this? Well, it is hugely frustrating to see politicians and celebrities making total pillocks of themselves, and then saying that it was taken out of context. We all make mistakes, but they get paid NOT to make such basic idiots of themselves.
For the rest of us, it just goes with the territory.
According to the news reports, it seems that a celebrity who has just parted ways with his older wife might have high tailed it out of Twitter to leave his updates to his team in future.
He may just find his popularity disappearing – whatever happened to Miley Cyrus since she disappeared from Twitter? I never hear her mentioned anywhere nowadays, but that could just be that my kids have grown out of Hannah Montana, Zac Efron and the youngest LA Disney pack.
As for the politician Diane Abbot and her infamous tweet, that was unforgivable in many peoples eyes, mine included, but it should be dealt with through the proper channels and not through Twitter hate campaigns. I don’t follow many celebrities, so whether they tweet personally or not matters not a jot to me. I prefer my people real, talking and not worrying about every dotted i and crossed t.
Seeing the gaffes that they make reported so much, just shows how vulnerable a position everyone is in social media, and we are not all created equal in our little corner of the social media world. It also shows the type of people we hold in reverence, and bow to as if in gratitude at what they do, or when they are good enough to offer scraps on the table for the rest of us.
Reading politicians making such errors actually warms my heart and scares me at the same time. These are the people who are in control of our country’s money, our public relations, in fact our everything. Some of the gaffes are nice, and honest and endearing, but others are right doozies.
If I had my way, I would force ALL politicians to be on Twitter and personally interacting with their public with an 80% requirement to engage meaningfully, or they face a public vote to stay in their jobs with a social media favourite picked to be their replacement. Then we can all get to know the type of people that we are voting in to leadership.
I suspect I would be voting for the ones in my constituency who had the best public relations and who interacted and engaged with their public, so if anyone out there wants to start-up a Private Bill to make sure all politicians have to spend at least 1 hour a day interacting and engaging honestly with their public on social media, you’ve got one signature here to sign up to it.
@Scottish_Mum Great Blog. You’ve identified the problem voters have. We can’t get to know the candidates because any hustings are fixed.
Perish the thought. Politicians on Twitter. How on earth would they find time to do their jobs?
As part of their interaction with their constituents, I would imagine to could be part of their jobs. I suspect those who do it will long term find more favour with online users unless they end up making silly statements. I don’t think most of them ever will though.
The behaviour that some indulge in online is more a result of desired power struggles and the compulsion for publicity than any real and understanding voice.
I suspect that is very true..
One can only imagine the quick turn over of politicians there would be if people were actually allowed to see what they are really about.
I would think so too. Those in high positions would never want the rest of us to see what kind of people they really are..
Good post. I follow and am followed by our local MP and she is a really nice, genuine and engaging person. I guess I’m lucky because I totally agree with you when you say politicians should be interacting with the public in order for us to get to know them before we put our cross in the box.
CJ x
They should shouldn’t they. One locally is online and seems to do a good job of it. There should be more of them. Probably too scared that we find out what their real opinions are.