Find The Mute Button

YOUR'E ON MUTE!

The words we all dreaded hearing in 2020, as we were subjected to Zoom after Zoom after Zoom. Though loved by those holding meetings, as they mute participants they don't want to hear from.

Perhaps we can learn something from those mute-happy hosts?

As we all know, social media platforms get their money from keeping you glued to their timelines. It's similar to how a TV show, play, or a book wants you to focus on the content served.

Where social media is different, however, is that you rarely get to choose the content that you are served. Complex systems work out what grabs your attention the most, finds similar content, and serves this up. This is true of their ads and it is also true of your network of friends.

For example, Facebook may show you one friend's updates more than another's. Because it has deduced that you are spending more time on that person's content. Very clever.

Twitter does similar, but it reaches further. Twitter will alert me to content produced by someone a friend follows, it will show me what they like and have retweeted. It also customises the 'Trending' feature, to my location, and supplements this with suggestions of topics I may be interested in. Say I search for 'Leeds United' often, then it will go on to compile tweets featuring this in the future.

So far none of this sounds an issue. Until you remember that we are often more engaged with content with disagree with. In which case Twitter becomes a doomscroll.

We know Twitter isn't real life, and we behave like that too. We pick arguments with random strangers, because we don't like their views, or chip in on conversations that didn't already involve us. We're only made aware of them because Twitter thinks we'll engage.

So, how to stop this? Well the first thing we need to do is to take back control of our feed. The best place to start is the mute function.

Head to the settings section of Twitter, then 'Privacy and Safety'.

This part of Twitter is a private person's dream. You can control whether Twitter sees what you do offline (did you know it does that?), or ensure it's not logging your location. But you can also control the content you see, using the 'Mute and block' section.

The mute functions allow you to mute words or accounts, the words can include phrases.

So, say you're sick of seeing racist remarks on Twitter, from a whole range of accounts, then you can add some of the insults to your 'muted words'. Similarly, if you're sick of seeing someone repeatedly enter your feed, but you don't want to block them, then you can add them here.

I use the mute function to filter what I see, to stop me getting into debates with people. Yes, I know, I shouldn't anyway. But for us with strong convictions, it can be a hard battle to fight. Scripture tells us to 'flee from temptation', not to fight it. So this is my fleeing.

Take the General Election. I hold a particular political view, Twitter kept showing me tweets by people praising the policy of the other side. I kept wading in, wasting my time shouting in to the wind. So I muted the opponents leader's name and the content dried up.

Yes, maybe I'm creating my own echo-chamber. But Twitter becomes a lot more peaceful, leaving it open for genuine connections.

For 2021 I'll be creating a list of 'Muted Words', that I'll load up in the new year. I can promise you, 'Coronavirus' and 'Covid19' will be on that list. I'm sick of hearing about it, and reading on Twitter won't make it go away. It will, however, leave me room to find new content about what's going on in the world.

What is it that get's your blood boiling, when you read it on Twitter? Maybe it's time to mute those words.