If you haven’t been initiated just yet, the Twittersphere is a fascinating place on the Internet populated by all kinds of people, from your neighbors to local shopkeepers to your long lost cousin to your favorite film actress to world leaders.
By Twittersphere or Twitterverse, I refer to postings made on the social media website Twitter, considered collectively.
At any given moment in time, postings might include news of the day, personal reflections, political leanings and gleanings, conspiracy theories, calls for social action, fond memories, jokes and riddles, aphorisms, recipes, links to music, film and book reviews, humorous gifs (animated or static images) and much more.
Some posters have millions of followers. Others have less than 10. Anyone can participate by posting or just by scrolling and reading.
If you wish you can respond to posts. You can approve or disapprove of what someone else wrote. Or simply add your own voice to a discussion.
If you do decide to post, beware: there are trolls in the Twittersphere. Wikipedia defines a troll as “a person who starts quarrels or upsets people on the Internet to distract and sow discord by posting inflammatory and digressive, extraneous, or off-topic messages with the intent of provoking readers into displaying emotional responses whether for the troll’s amusement or a specific gain.”
Fortunately, not every person who responds is a troll. Many are thoughtful and respectful and only interested in expanding a conversation.
Just the other day I was on Twitter and found a discussion about the beginning of the school year. The opening tweet was written on Aug. 22 by a mom from Las Vegas who goes by the handle, @CandaceToddLV: “It’s the 8th day of the school year & I just received a call from my daughter’s high school informing me they arrested a child with a loaded 9mm gun on campus this morning. I am now standing in my kitchen sobbing. I should not have to live like this. @MomsDemand”
Candace’s post drew a significant response. Almost 90,000 people “liked” her post and more than 1,700 people responded. One response was written by @marci6687 from Florida who replied, “While absolutely not as scary as your situation, in our 8th day as well we are on our 4th written threat and 5th day of controlled or alert campus.”
Another response was sent by @rememberpink1: “My heart bleeds for you. I had two nephews & a niece at Sandy Hook. As an aunt the pain & fear & anger was unexplainable. It STILL is. And I wasn’t their mother. I stand strong w/ you. I fear every day my kids are in school. We shouldn’t have to fear. THEY shouldn’t have to fear.”
Many of the responses, which I will not share here fed into a debate on gun control, politics and the NRA.
One guy @joelane1 wrote, “My wife (school teacher) was in bed when I got home. Asked, “rough day?” She said they had to do training on stopping wounds, suicides and other things. It wears her out emotionally. Educators are true “Heroes” in this country and get nowhere near the credit they deserve!”
My wife is a teacher as well. As I’m writing this, she is on her way to her second day of school. She too will be participating in a similar training today. This has become the new normal.
In a few weeks at my agency North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center our staff members will be participating in an “active shooter” training.
Look at where we have come.
Andrew Malekoff is the Executive Director of North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center, which provides comprehensive mental health services for children from birth through 24 and their families. To find out more, visit www.northshorechildguidance.org. You can also visit: momsdemandaction.org, a grassroots movement of Americans demand reasonable solutions to address our nation’s culture of gun violence, that Candace tagged @MomsDemand in her opening tweet.
