Every day I am more and more convinced that politicians should limit their use of Twitter to disseminate links to their blog posts or for birthday announcements. I mean, I personally know some high profile Dutch politicians. In person, these people are sensible, smart, their ideas are not based on rigid dogmas, etc. Now, when I see some of their Twitter feeds (which I know for a fact are not in the hands of aides or assistants), I shake my head in disbelief quite often. I suppose the problem is partly rooted in Twitter’s character limitation (really, how much depth and nuance can you offer in 140 characters?). To make matters worse, generally speaking, these tweets are typed from mobile phones, with small screens and annoying little keys, while the person doing the typing is also paying attention to other stuff. The result is a series of ridiculously shallow and inane interactions that make the politician look terrible. Their ideas have no subtlety, no depth, no room for analysis. They end up coming across as black vs. white/ good vs. evil thinkers, which you know, is the best way to alienate a good chunk of your follow base. Also, the immediacy of their responses make it so that they won’t even take the time to weight their replies or their words. First thing that comes to mind! Off it goes to the world!

And then are we surprised people all over Europe are staging protests because they feel democracy has failed them? Not that Twitter is to blame for that sentiment, but it surely looks like a good sample of a wider problem.

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