Thread by @Yascha_Mounk

The problem isn't @twitter. It's our collective inability to ignore Twitter.

But there's a simple way to limit the damage: We all finally need to understand that Twitter is not representative of America—and delete the damn app off our phones.

[Thread.]

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

Since Donald Trump made Twitter his preferred medium for communicating with the country, a lot of us have become unhealthily obsessed with it.

For many people I know, it’s become an outright addiction.

2/n

But my concern is not for the mental health of Twitter addicts; it’s for the nation they collectively rule.

A lot of people now instinctively take Twitter to be representative of America—and let it guide their decisions, big and small.

3/n

Twitter's hold over America's elite is obvious in some of the infamous instances of people fired or canceled for controversial remarks.

But it goes way beyond that: Because of its omnipresence, Twitter powerfully shapes how decision-makers see the world.

4/n

As a result, many leader of institutions outsource decision-making to the Twitterverse:

* CEOs misestimate the appeal of their products
* Editors hand randos effective veto power
* Campaigns fail to understand the voters they need to win over

The last the most worrying.

5/n

To beat Trump, Dems will both need to win over swing voters and mobilize less political members of their base. The Twitter bubble will make it harder for them to accomplish either one of these goals.

So the best thing Dem campaigns can do to beat Trump is to IGNORE TWITTER.

6/n

How do I know that Twitter is so unrepresentative of the American population?

Only about 1 in 20 Americans regularly tweet about politics! And, compared to the whole population, those that do are way more likely to be:
* Rich
* White
* College-educated
* Very liberal

7/n

Sure, the affluent and educated have always been more influential. But Twitter aggravates this problem in two ways:

* It creates the illusion fo being representative.
* It always surrounds us, making it much harder to recognize specialized interest groups for what they are.

8/n

So what do we do?

@jack needs to take the problems with his platform more seriously. We need better regulation.

All of that is right.

But… there is a big part of the solution we can carry out right now. On our own.

9/n

All of us—and especially those people on the platform who hold some modicum of real-world power—need to grow up and start ignoring Twitter.

It’s 👏 on 👏 you 👏 if 👏 you 👏 let 👏 Twitter 👏 run 👏 your 👏 organization!

10/n

This doesn’t require each and every one of us to delete their Twitter accounts.

But it does mean that we should make a conscious effort to develop some perspective—and disengage from Twitter when we become too deeply immersed in it.

11/n

Personally, I deleted Twitter off my phone a few months ago, and stopped it from sending emails about my notifications.

Friends, it’s sort of ridiculous how much my life has improved as a result.

12/n

So let’s start solving the real problem with Twitter—its outsized influence on American life—right now.

Delete the app from your phone. And then encourage your friends to do the same by (yup, I’m fully aware of the irony) retweeting this thread.

[End.]

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…