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Right Speech in the age of Twitter/Facebook

UnlikelybdstUnlikelybdst
edited October 2010 in Buddhism Basics
It seems that chatter in such places as Twitter/Facebook carries a lot of ego. Popularity, "liking", "retweeting" and racking up followers is all the rage.

How does one participate in all of this while being mindful and adhering to right speech? Should one participate at all? Do you participate, and if so, how?

Would like to hear your thoughts on this.

Comments

  • ShiftPlusOneShiftPlusOne Veteran
    edited October 2010
    Huh? You're not required to like or retweet anything. What's the problem?

    Personally, I don't have a facebook account. I have a twitter account, but only for following a couple of people.

    So yeah, facebook is meant to help you keep in touch with friends. I don't understand how it can possibly make right speech difficult.
  • shenpennangwashenpennangwa
    edited October 2010
    People have a lot of weird ideas about what is and is not right speech.
    Social media can actually be a useful tool.
    It can also have a negative impact. The right speech angle doesnt really fit in any kind of general terms if you ask me.
  • HondenHonden Dallas, TX Veteran
    edited October 2010
    I feel that liking on FaceBook doesn't have much to say beyond the fact you literally like something: a movie, softdrink, activity, etc. Retweeting will be tricky, but as long as you only retweet the things you agree with or want others to see it should be all right.

    Some people go overboard with both (I've been guilty of it a time or two :D) but as long as you're honest about the things you like and retweet, I don't see much of an issue.
  • MagwangMagwang Veteran
    edited October 2010
    People have very strong ideas about free speech, but not necessarily right speech. I believe he was referring to the Tathagata's definition.

    http://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/sacca/sacca4/samma-vaca/
  • MountainsMountains Veteran
    edited October 2010
    Unlikelybdst wrote: »
    It seems that chatter in such places as Twitter/Facebook carries a lot of ego.

    As opposed to the rest of society? :) To be sure, the internet fosters ego. I often find myself about to press "return", but instead I just close down the program...
  • TreeLuvr87TreeLuvr87 Veteran
    edited October 2010
    I can definitely see what you're saying in terms of status updating. I often find that I will ponder what status I want to put up for the day, what I want people to perceive about me. If I had no attachment to this Self, I wouldn't care and probably wouldn't even participate in social networking sites... well... then I wouldn't know what anyone else is doing. I guess that's more attachment to Self, fear of someone else knowing more than I do about something. Reeeediculous but I still totally feed into it. I'm sure that with time it will change like many of the other unskillful acts in my life.
  • UnlikelybdstUnlikelybdst
    edited October 2010
    Just to clarify, I was talking about "right speech" that's part of the 8 Fold Path, as applied to interactions on social networking sites. Due to the nature of the business I was running and the community I was participating in (techie software developer type), I used to literally lose sleep over what to say on Twitter, to make sure people found it either clever, funny or useful and retweet it. It felt schizophrenic in a way: building an online public persona that was different from what I was in private. After a couple of years of that, a realization of how silly this was set in and I went cold turkey. For one, I lost touch with a lot of people that I knew only through Twitter. But overall, I sleep much better and don't feel like I have to keep up with all of the relevant news just to have an opinion about what's happening in the echo chamber that I used to inhabit (and still do, to some extent).

    I do agree that social media is only a tool, and like any tool it can have a good or a bad impact. I'm interested in how other people find balance in such things.

    Thanks for all of your replies so far.
  • krahmerkrahmer
    edited October 2010
    There is a lot of egoistic chatter that goes on in social networking sites. However, there are a lot of topics (on facebook at least, I have never visited twitter) where skillful right-minded responses can possibly sway opinions and better the world, ever so slightly. That's IMHO anyway.
  • TheJourneyTheJourney
    edited October 2010
    I don't use my facebook so much anymore, but there's no reason you can't use it and still continue right speech. Just practice right speech on facebook.
  • questionfulquestionful
    edited October 2010
    “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. <sup class="versenum" id="en-NKJV-23327">14</sup> Because<sup class="footnote" value="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-23327a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]">URL="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+7%3A13-14&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-23327a"]a[/URL</sup> narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." - Jesus of Nazareth, Matthew 7:13

    I am a facebook addict :/
    But I try to use it in a positive way. It is a major part of samsara. It is a great tool for spreading truth. It's a great way to plant little seeds in society. God knows they need it.
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