Do you remember June 2000? I do for many reasons. My son was one month old back then. My Mum was still alive, healthy and enjoying life. Manchester City were promoted to the Premier League, having achieved back to back promotions. I was making big plans for my studio with my business partner Ernie Ferebee. I had just started to put The False Dots together after a 10 year break, to "record a few of the old nubers for posterity". I had an extremely lucrative log term IT contract, suppoorting POS systems for Streamline. In short,, life could not have been much better. But little known to me, a mate of mine was about to change the world, literally. I wasn't a blogger. There was no such thing as social media, as we understand it now. But Steve Pankhurst, who I'd been at Orange Hill School with launched Friends Reunited that month. I joined early on. I got in touch with a bunch of old school mates. Oddly, there were lots from Orange Hill, but none from FCHS!
It was wonderful. Within a year, we'd have a reunion. I was a big fan. A few years later, Facebook was launched. Again, I was an early adopter. I saw the potential for band and business promotion as well as keeping up with friends. When Twitter was launched, I thought it was a waste of time. I was eventually persuaded to join in 2011, I think I've regretted it eber since. I soon realised that Twitter offered endless opportunities for Twitter Trolls to spend their life being unpleasant to everyone. For such people, a victory was to force a nice, pleasant, worthy soul to shut their account.
In Barnet, we all laughed at our local ogre, Tory Politician Brian Coleman, as he simply blocked everyone he took a mild dislike to; We thought he lacked gumption. I hate to admit it, but he was probably right. Friends Reunited disappeared. Twitter became X, where hatred is turbocharged. Facebook morphed into something indecribably awful. I still use it, as I still have a band and a business, and occasionally I see something interesting, however 90% of what it serves up is stuff from people I don't know and are not interested in, adverts or on the odd occasion I actually see something from someone I actually like, they are off on one. Oddly, when I actually look at friends accounts, most of what they post is stuff I'd actually like to see, but the algorythm never shows me.
The biggest problem for me is the sheer anger and hatred of much of what people are posting. The venom directed at people like SIr Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch, Andy Burnham et all, is to me vile. By all means criticise their policies. I write a blog that critcises the policies of all manner of people, but if I don't know someone, I refrain from personal criticism. Now you may say "You hypocrite what about the bile you poured on local Tories like Brian Coleman on your blog?" This was a central plank of Brian Colemans defence, when I took him to the Barnet Council Standards Committee. Coleman stated that I'd been personally abusive about his private life. Barnet Council paid £10,000 for a lawyer to defend him. He lost.. The reason? Sure I'd criticised him for his spending of public money, the endless gifts in his hospitality register, his behaviour in council, his arrogance towards members of the public, but I'd never actually mentioned his private life. I have to admit, when he assaulted Helen Michael, who is a good friend, I widened my attack, but not on his personal life. I just felt his behaviour was not compatable with being a public servant.
The bile directed on Facebook and Twitter, the AI genereated Memes, the lies people spread, the anger, the hatred are, to me, deplorable. What upsets me most though, is I see keyboard warriors, who are retreating into a hate filled echo chamber where anything goes. Often the claim to be patriots, but to me , good manners and tolerance are a fundamental part of the British/English character. We don't like bullies. We don't do bilious hatred. But Social Media has seemingly made it all OK.
The worst aspect is the sheer futility of screaming in an echo chamber. All your mates agree with you, so you think its OK and you are winning. In truth, you are just damaging your own mental health and losing touch with reality. By all means say if you think Andy Burnham is wrong to seek investment from the owners of Man City or to grant drilling licenses in the North Sea. However a soon as you stray from criticism of policies, and into the personal, you lose the arguement. Shouting the loudest may well make you think you are right, but in truth, it simply means you've lost control of yourself and the argument. I was accused of being 'over educaated' this week. Odd really, I never went to Uni and when I left school and became a painter/decorator for three years. But becasue I stay calm and don't get cross, people seem to think I am "over educated". I'm happy to argue policies with friends. However if they get cross when they lose the argument, I'd suggest that it is all a bit counter productive.
I look back to June 2000. The world was a better place then.
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