Vox populi...?

Huw Williams | 09:38, Saturday, 10 March 2012

I was fascinated to read Jonathan Franzen's remarks about Twitter and technology in general, yesterday. For what it's worth, I tend to agree with him; after a brief experiment with Twitter a few years ago, I had to cancel my account before the banality of the whole thing drove me crazy.

But who cares what I - or Jonathan Franzen for that matter - thinks about Twitter? I'm sure plenty of people reading this (and far more who read Jonathan Franzen) find Twitter useful, fun and put it to good use every day. Who cares? Well apparently quite a lot of people judging from the mass of abusive vitriol aimed at Franzen over the days since he made his comments.

It seems strange to me that in a society which prides itself on it's level of tolerance, one man's comments on his distaste for that particular app on your iPhone should be met with such a response. It's also interesting that in the several reports I've read on this particular storm in a teacup, no-one appears to be willing to take up the words 'tolerance' and 'intolerance'. It seems as those words seem to be reserved for religious groups, and in particular Christians.

It's just an observation, but could it be really be the case that, whether we use the word or not, and in-spite of the claims of a new enlightened outlook of the new secularist society, tolerance doesn't appear to extend far before the confines of any particular tribe?