I have seen flame wars.
I have seen people be bullied on Social Media (in general.)
I believe the general argument is that because Twitter is real-time, if an Internet flame war erupts, it can quickly turn into bullying, and with all those thousands of helpful Twitter bots amplifying the message, it can be a viral hate-storm.
Add in the “woman” factor and it’s supposedly worse, because, you know – “feelings.”
If someone is passionate about something, by definition there is emotion involved (positive or negative.)
If you are passionate about one side of an issue, there will be people who are equally (or Moreso) about the other side.
The more vocal you get, the more vocal they get. This trait is inherent in both genders.
I feel that Twitter is actually an awesome platform for this, and doesn’t need to change anything.
Where the greater issue comes is the way people communicate when they are not attempting to “hold a position.”
(For the sake of expediency, I’ll assign traditionally masculine/feminine roles here, but they are much more complex.)
The overarching masculine style of communication falls into three categories:
- Presenting a problem
- Offering information
- Offering a solution
When they see/hear something from someone else, they categorize it as:
- Problem I have information about
- Problem I can offer solution for
The feminine style of communication, however goes something like this:
- Sharing
- Presenting problem
- Offering support
- Offering information
- Offering solution
And women categorize things they hear/see for response by:
- They’re sharing so I’ll offer support
- That’s a problem so I’ll offer support
- That’s a problem so I’ll suggest information
- That’s a problem so I’ll offer a solution if they ask for it
So, when a woman goes on Twitter and posts a picture of herself in a bikini, she’ll get other women offering support and telling her she’s awesome, and men will point out a possible melanoma she needs to get checked out, or offer suggestions on where to buy a different bikini.
The usual outcome of this is that women will interpret this as an attack (“body shaming”), and then go on the offensive, which then erupts into a flame war as men have no other option but to take the opposing position.
This isn’t a Twitter problem.
They could add a feature that only allows you to receive comments from people of your gender, and the day they do that is the day I leave the platform for good.
Twitter is still one of the best ways we have where we can learn how to communicate on a mass scale with people from all around the world in real-time.
Originally Posted: https://www.quora.com/What-can-Twitter-do-to-be-more-friendly-to-female-users
Originally Posted On: 2016-02-06