It has been five years since the pandemic was declared. Many posts are resurfacing to recall that weird period in time, the early pandemic. Hopes and fears. It took me four years to fully recover from the COVID-19 pandemic era. COVID-19 is a name unfair to the year 2019. Sure, the disease started in 2019. But it was not known to most of us until the last two weeks of January. The full impact of the disease was realized only in February with the travel restrictions and then March with "work from home" mandates. People eventually started to return to "normal." For me, 2024 was the first "fully normal" year. A full year with no more work from home. 2024 felt like a natural continuation of 2019. A perfect year. The stories of pandemic feel like a weird dream in the middle.
Recently, Microsoft announced it will discontinue Skype and migrate its users to Teams. No one likes Microsoft Teams. It is bundled with Windows Operating System and admins keep using it when better alternatives are available. As for Skype, its fate is sad. Skype started its journey as a peer-to-peer system. Microsoft acquired it, but still Skype was largely untouched. The pandemic time could have been a good time for Skype to pick up momentum. But somehow it lost that race to Zoom. Skype was a tool we used to communicate with family and friends. Teams was entirely for work. Merging Skype and Teams would be like merging Facebook with LinkedIn. Imagine your Facebook friends are now forced into your LinkedIn, as you have no option but to use the newly merged LinkedIn where you also have your Facebook friends. I can understand Microsoft realized there is no business potential for Skype. However, Skype will leave a gap no app can fill yet. Whatsapp and similar apps are phone-based, where Skype is available to computers across the operating systems as well as mobile phone. There are computer-based video alternatives based on computer operating systems - but they either lack mobile support or do not have the support to add friends. Having friends that you can check to see whether they are online and then calling them is a nice feature which Zoom does not have. Apps such as WhatsApp and FaceTime are also tied to the mobile phone number. Skype gives some sort of anonymity as it just needs an email address. Perhaps, that might be another reason Windows wanted to give up Skype?
Blurred memories of early 2020s
Social media keeps evolving. We had a period of "being nice" that made us all tip even the Starbucks baristas for that take out coffee order. Now, that habit sticks around, incorporating tipping in cashiers and self-checkout machines. Twitter was a refreshing part of our life during the early pandemic days. When the outside world was dark, Twitter gave us some light. Now we are back to normal. Twitter has gone dark and X. It is filled with weird people and bots. Everyone with a blue tick is focusing on engagement to get their cashback. Algorithm is skewed to incentivize arguments rather than happy memories and celebrating achievements. Most of my friends have left Twitter. I am still around although the conversations have either become boring or died down. It maybe time to quit. I am unlikely to quit while I minimize my time there to focus more on the physical world. The world has a lot to offer, and we are so back to normal.
I like this cafe. It is within walking distance of my home. It is nothing too special for someone who is not me. But it is unique in that it sells not just coffee but also plants. The name feels special too. That Feeling. Sometimes, you do not have a name for that feeling. I ended the previous blog post with a sad feeling, a feeling with no name. Feelings are like cocktails. Sometimes, you can point fingers at the ingredients. Many times, you cannot. Most languages do not have adequate words to describe the shades of love, friendships, and other relationships in the world. We have friends. Good friends. Best friend? I dislike that phrase.It assumes there is one best friend. You must break up with your previous best friend because you found another one.
The interiors of That Feeling
Often we assign biological roles to friendships. In many countries across Asia, we call our older friends "elder brother" or "elder sister" and younger friends "younger brother" or "younger sister." We don't mean anything with that, as it is more of a matter of respect for the age rather than an actual sibling-like feeling. Then, I also intentionally declared certain friends to be brothers and sisters. But do we need close friends to be siblings, children, parents, or uncles/aunts? Languages lack words to describe feelings and relationships. We are using something that probably is close enough as a loose replacement. Maybe those brothers and sisters you made in friends are not siblings, after all. They are more than just a friend. You do not have a label on them. We don't care about words that much.
Memories define us
Literature has words. But I look for words we use in everyday practice. Love, 爱, and ආදර are used more generally (for example, love my country/ආදර මගේ රට.) காதல் is used more specifically for love between romantic partners, although some people use it as in "love your country" too. There are other words, too. We have பாசம்/நேசம்/விருப்பம்/அன்பு/කැමතියි/desire/lust/... But we still don't have enough words in daily use (not poetic literature) to explain all the shades of love and friendships. I look for words like the 12 levels of friendships in Arabic. Nibras taught me a few Arabic words on Twitter. Hubb (love in general), Ishq (deep, passionate love, soulmates), Mawaddah (mutual fondness between friends), Rahmah (compassionate or merciful love), Gharam (romantic infatuated love, passion), and Hawa (romantic sentimental love). He also shared some similar words from Urdu: Mohabbat (love/affection), Ishq (passionate, intense love), Pyaar (casual term for love), Dosti (friendship), Izzat (respect/honor in a relationship), Khuloos (sincerity / pure love), Jazbaat (emotions/feelings), and Dil ki Baat (matters of the heart). I am sure we are losing something in translation here. Not everything is easy to translate. We need more such words for common use across all languages. For you and me. Not just for elites.
Random walks
But sometimes, we do not need words. Most of my beautiful friendships/relationships are with people who do not speak my mother tongue. I recall one of my favorite songs: உள்ளங்கள் பேசும் மொழி அறிந்தால், உன் ஜீவன் துடிக்கத் தேவையில்லை. இரு கண்கள் பேசும் வார்த்தைகளை, இரு நூறு மொழிகள் சொல்வதில்லை. This loosely translates to: "If you understand the language of the hearts, you don't need to beat your soul. Two hundred languages will not express the words spoken by two eyes."
At least for me, feelings are usually mutual. If I like someone, usually they like me too. Sometimes, I feel like I do not like someone, and I imagine that feeling is mutual, too. "I think I dislike you for reasons unknown to me. Do you dislike me too?" That would be borderline weird in a bad way. But that is rare. Ilike people more than I dislike them. But that is where the word "like" fails me. I like people in general. But I like-like a few specifically. I love them. The word "love" is loaded with layers of romance and patriotism. And morning coffee. I love my coffee with coconut cream.
Hello, fellow traveler...
Memories shape my perception of a place. Sometimes, we are all travelers. Other times, one of us is a local. Mahas taught me an Urdu word on Twitter. Humsafar. Itliterally means fellow traveler. While it is used romantically to refer to a soulmate, it could also refer to others. I like that. This reminds me of the sweet people I encounter on my journey. In a way, I treat new countries and new friends similarly. I personify the land. I fell in love with Portugal and Alaska almost instantly. Then, a few places took their time to impress me. Some cities did not even try. Maybe they did not want to be friends with me, and that is okay. The feeling is mutual. Probably. I often travel in Alaska during mid-winter. I got stuck twice in blizzard conditions. I had to stay two more nights in Fairbanks and three more nights in the Adak Island, beyond what I initially planned. Lands have a soul. Sometimes, they do not want you to leave.
People are like lands, too. You meet someone. They become friends with you. You learn about their culture. A little bit of their language. Their philosophy. And their mannerisms. There is a little bit of their country in them. If they are an immigrant, there are probably two or more countries. People you meet along the way influence you the same way the lands influence you. Fellow travelers, after all. Our universes collided at that little point in time-space. Will the place still be the same when we return, if not for the people?We met by chance once when we were strangers. Now that we know each other, will we meet again by choice?
Tweets: 2,400 per day. The daily update limit is further
broken down into smaller limits for semi-hourly intervals. Retweets are
counted as Tweets.
Now that Elon Musk has taken over, he wants to make sure more people will become paid subscribers. However, limiting folks from tweeting more than thrice is silly. It will more likely kill Twitter before it gets folks to pay the 7$/month. Twitter is not that special anyway. Elon should provide premium features to entice the users into the Twitter Blue, instead of trying to make the unpaid Twitter accounts completely unusable by these outrageous throttling and quota.
Update as of 5:35 p.m: As I dig more, it appears only scheduled tweets are sent. I managed to send two tweets by scheduling those to tweet in 2 minutes. I am not sure whether it is a bug or something to limit the unpaid users from tweeting in real-time. At this point, I assume it is a bug.
It is not rare that every time an immigrant raises an opinion or comment on Sri Lanka on Twitter, there is always a set of users who try to assume themselves to be the patriots - and shut any opinion from the immigrants down. "After all, you all ran away from the country." I am someone who prefers his opponents to be smarter. So some hints why you should avoid the typical insult, "Is an NGO paying your visa fees?" at Sri Lankans living abroad:
Scenic Byway to Mount Evans
If that person is a citizen in that country, they don't need a visa or pay fees to live there. That means a French citizen of Lankan origin does not need to pay "visa fees" to live in France. Also, thanks to visa-free entries, they don't need visa fees for many other countries either.
I am not a citizen of any nation other than Sri Lanka. But I don't need an NGO to pay my visa fees. Mostly employers/universities paid that for most of the countries that I have lived in. When they did not, the visa fee was something I could afford.
Not every Sri Lankan abroad is the same. We are all different. We all have stories. Often, humble ones. Unique ones. I am open to talk to anyone. I am someone who (still) takes the crowded public buses 154 or 155 every time I return to Sri Lanka. I believe Portugal significantly influenced my life - and made me who I am today. But underneath everything, I am still the same villager who left Moratuwa 9 years ago. I didn't "run away" from my problems. That is not my style. I move on my own, primarily searching for something that I do not know.
In summary, please try to avoid that "who is paying for your visa" insult. It's boring and repetitive. Not creative.
One fine day in 2020 December, I was roaming the streets randomly. Such randomness brings me happiness on a regular day. But these days are anything but regular. "Quit social media and come to real life." Not many realize social media is real life in the pandemic era. We are actively avoiding social activities due to a pandemic. Social media is the safest bet. When everyone is distanced, the demarcation of online and physical worlds collapses. Nevertheless, I decided to reduce my Twitter usage for 2021 to diversify my free time online. I had informed my Twitter friends too. By early January 2021, I had already reduced my Twitter time to 40% of my 2020 levels. "
When Twitter suspended me, I tried to consider it as the universe trying to help me reduce my Twitter time. There were some challenges, though. First, even if I wanted to reduce/stop using Twitter, I don't want to lose my previous tweets. I made many of those with care and effort. Second, my account's suspension through a mass-report was used as a "statement" by the bullies and the fakes that we were fighting. The fake person (who had apparently reported me with the help of his trolls and friends for "spamming him") had resumed tweeting vigorously on his verified profile. How does Twitter end up giving people with fake qualifications verified status? Doesn't Twitter verify you are who you claim to be before offering you that blue tick? I don't know. Some known bullies were hiding behind sockpuppets to attack me once I was gone - precisely because we were alerting everyone, specifically their victims, about who is behind these sockpuppets.
Dormant bots and sockpuppets
These bullies use the main profile to portray a decent image while using sockpuppet accounts to bully people. Most (if not all) of these bullies are misogynists - if you look into their sockpuppets, most (if not all) of their victims are women. People assume how long a Twitter account was alive as a measure of trust. Not always true. Dormant bots coming back to life to bully after several years is a common challenge. We were also looking at certain trolls repurposing their old bots as new sockpuppets. Some of these sockpuppets are as old as their main accounts. The only difference - they were dormant until recently. Then suddenly, they come back online to defend their main account while fighting the main account's enemies. The usage patterns reveal more confirmation on who is behind the sockpuppets too.
Social media companies should seriously consider a Wikipedia-style community moderation, combined with their existing moderation teams. Indeed, people can use VPNs and Tor to hide their identity. But it is implausible that most of the bullies that we were dealing with use those. Twitter should consider locking suspicious accounts from the same IP address and device when they unify to attack someone. It is impossible that a bully and their friend/roommate/sibling are using the same device from the same network simultaneously. Even so, that is a coordinated attack, and that warrants some intervention. Free speech, you would say? Then, all it took for a fakeDr and his bully friends, the number of reports to suspend me on spam accusations.
The aftermath
Friends recommended me to appeal my suspension with details - which exactly what I did. Some suggested I come back in a second account to handle the bullies who were making up stuff while I was gone. I rejected both - I am not going to use a second profile. If my Twitter account is gone, I will end my Twitter usage with that. I was planning to reduce my Twitter usage anyway. I also don't want to bother replying to those without backbone who use only sockpuppets - and dare not say a word with their main account.
But, once my account is gone, my whole Twitter history was gone. Google still showed my images and posts. But when I click, it showed, "This tweet is from a suspended account." That wasn't pleasant. In my opinion, Twitter should lock the account, remove their harmful tweets, and then give the user a choice to either delete the account as a whole or keep the locked account as a record. At least for the first-time offenders. Also, with Twitter suspension, many of my embedded tweets looked weird in my previous blog posts. It gets more bizarre for Trump. Many news articles with his tweets embedded look worse. Fortunately for them, most of them were using screenshots instead.
In the meantime, my friends offered to look internally through their connections on Twitter to un-suspend my account quicker. I made a blog post on my Twitter life and the story behind my suspension. The response from Twitter and how the events unfolded around Twitter following my suspension helped narrow down the cause of my suspension. A fake Dr had reported me for questioning him under his profile as "spam." Often it requires a lot of effort to suspend a bully online. But with the number, Twitter verification, and power, they could suspend someone who poses a legitimate criticism - rather than fixing their problematic behavior. Any suspension mechanism without community involvement will be inefficient and imperfect, especially when dealing with local languages (Sinhala and Tamil).
The resurrection
Twitter restored my account in 5 days. Of course, not a single tweet of mine was ever removed by Twitter before. This was my first "offense" of spam. So Twitter isn't going to keep an account suspended forever for spamming a person who faked his qualifications all the way to reach the top leadership - regardless of the numerous reports he and his friends has made. Once I returned to Twitter, I asked my Twitter friends to connect with me through other means (especially, LinkedIn), as I do not want to lose my connection to them if I lose my Twitter again. I warned my friends who were in similar fights to watch out and be careful about handling our fights - either it is a fight against the bullies, sockpuppets, fake doctors, and diploma mills, or for some other good cause. We don't want to lose our accounts. Repeat tagging the politicians, bullies, and fake people to call them out gives them an easy case to report us for spamming them. We should be smarter when our problems are trickier.
There had to be some initial increased Twitter use to tell my friends what happened, what went wrong, how to rectify this, and how to prevent it from happening again. But I am still committed to my decision to reduce my Twitter use this year. I am just trying to see whether I can use more of my free time online for something else while still stuck by the pandemic, with the end in far sight.
I have encountered several annoying link spammers in the past. Who is a link spammer? A link spammer uses the comment/quote functions in blogs and Twitter to promote their web site (which is usually a garbage site). Most often than not, the link spammers are bots. They are auto-configured to post links and music videos to random web pages, tweets, or blog posts.
Recently I encountered a sockpuppet and the link spammer, and reported them both. The link
spammer (who was quoting random tweets with links to his pyramid-scheme
website) was taken down within a few hours. The racist sockpuppet still
continues to spam random Tweeps with his hateful replies. It shows how
social media treats spam. Adding random links to several tweets as a
comment/quote is an easier way to get suspended than posting random
nonsensical text and images, even with nasty content.
Link spamming with personal web page
Later
I encountered another link spammer, whose entire aim was to spam random
people with a link to a specific song. The song eventually reached one billion views on YouTube. I don't think the link spammer contributed to the views significantly. But I am sure that link spammer was a bot as it was
spamming random people en masse, without engaging to comments.
Today's encounter was with a person who would reply to random tweets
with his garbage irrelevant website, hoping unsuspecting users would
click his garbage link - check his twitter profile to find it out yourself. Sometimes these links are harmless, aiming to get traffic to their web site. Other times, they are a phishing attempt. Be careful of what you click, especially when it comes out of nowhere from a link spammer. My blog comments are moderated due to the severity of link spamming. They are quite a nuisance.
Everything that starts eventually comes to an end. Well, maybe not everything. But social media - indeed do. I created my Twitter account in 2009 March when a leader in my previous company suggested we use Twitter to share what we are working on. I have had some good times on Twitter since then, as can be seen from my various blog posts on my Twitter life.
1. The Facebook Era (2009 - 2015)
Although I kept posting on Twitter since 2009, it was just my monologue most of the time. I rarely had people interacting with me. It was also partly because I rarely interacted with others as well. Facebook was my primary social medium by then. I was quite active on Facebook, and during my peak, if my memory is right, I had almost 2000 "friends" on Facebook. Most of the people were those I have met - at least briefly. My Facebook profile had all my photos until 2015. I decided to deactivate my Facebook account in 2015 (More details on why I deactivated my Facebook account). Interestingly, five years later, I am now writing a similar post for Twitter. The reasons and circumstances have some interesting overlaps and differences.
2. The Gap (2015 - 2016)
When I deactivated my Facebook, I did not know how long I could "live" without Facebook. For that reason, I did not announce on Facebook before leaving in December 2015. However, I successfully kept it deactivated for more than half a decade now. At some points, I had to log in briefly for some reasons, for example, to get some contact details of some friends I have only on Facebook. But overall, every time, I deactivated my account quickly after the conversations (which lasted, maximum, a day or two). I quickly learned to live without Facebook, and even when I went back briefly for a valid reason, I did not feel the urge to stay longer. I started to miss a way to keep connected to the friends I made along the way. I began to use LinkedIn for that. Of course, LinkedIn is supposed to be more professional, and I don't get to see those friends' photos. But at least I had a way to keep in touch. It was also, in a way, more comfortable to ask people I meet in conferences to add me to my LinkedIn rather than my Facebook. Not that I had trouble in adding friends I made in conferences to my Facebook. I use LinkedIn as an extended CV. As such, I never really posted anything there that shouldn't be in a CV or a professional portfolio. Indeed, I often felt the gap Facebook left. But I was also quite busy with my Ph.D. and my life. I had no time to worry about losing a social medium.
3. The Trump Era (2016 - 2019)
Trump's rise from a businessman to the president of the USA was highly attributed to Twitter. In 2016, many people had started to see Twitter in a more positive light. Even many global politicians began to see any publicity as good publicity. By late 2016, more active Twitter users popped up. Even Sri Lankan leaders and politicians started to get involved on Twitter. In 2017, a Brazilian friend echoed my sentiments on how local politicians were trying to replicate the Trump model. Twitter witnessed a sharp rise in interactions. I noticed many of my Facebook friends started to get active on Twitter, ditching Facebook altogether. K-Pop stans started to get popular on Twitter, sharing fancams. Some of them were trolling the politicians (mostly rightwingers) in their own game (More details on K-Pop fancams on Twitter). Still, it was 2020 that made me get more involved on Twitter.
4. The Era of Darkness (2020 - 2021)
2020 brought us a deadly pandemic, followed by travel restrictions. It also forced many of us to live home alone; families separated for various reasons, including travel restrictions and educated decisions on avoiding risky inter-continental flights. We all started to work from home from March 2020 with no end in sight. Except for some occasional trips, roadside walks, and hikes (sometimes with my colleague who lives in the same street), I was home alone 24/7. I rarely had human interaction for the past year (except via the Internet), which was strange. Lisboa had turned me into an extrovert. I like people; I like humans. But for the past several months, I avoided human contact as much as possible to adhere to the social distancing. As my only active social medium, Twitter often helped me make some friendly chats with friends, amid all these lonely months.
Like we come to Twitter to make friends, some trolls come to Twitter to bully others. They create sockpuppets (More details on sockpuppets on Twitter) to harass people with opposing viewpoints. Recently, with the help of my friends, I spotted a vile middle-aged man who created (at least) three sockpuppets to bully and harass successful women. I posted a Tweet warning these bullies to stop - without mentioning the names, but with sufficient information. I noticed he stopped harassing the women after that tweet. Could it be a coincidence, or perhaps, as a Twitter mutual, he saw my tweet and stopped bothering them, fearing I would doxx him? I would not know. Together with some of my friends, I found and reported several such bullies and sockpuppets.
For instance, there was a bully who was sending violent graphic death threats to women online. We reported and took his account down. Later, I learned from those ladies that those death threats were meant as a joke, and he was their friend. Ok, now we are trivializing death threats. OK. In 2012, Amanda Todd, in a saddening public YouTube video, sought help, "I have nobody. I need someone," after being bullied in real life and online. No one paid attention until she took her own life a month later. Someone
could have stepped in and at least pointed her in the right direction.
Perhaps, made sure no one bullied her?
I watched a Chinese movie, based on a novel influenced by some bullying scandals, 少年的你 (Better days, 2019) on a flight. Sometimes, someone stepping in at the right time could save a life. Violent public tweets/posts can be triggering to unsuspecting onlookers. Such insensitive jokes distract those who want to step in to stop legitimate harassment. These jokes also waste law enforcement and Twitter moderation team's resources. Therefore, I would argue against making death threats or violent tweets even for a joke.
5. The End
Twitter suspended my account yesterday after apparently receiving several reports of violation. I never have DM'd anyone except friends (Twitter mutuals) - that too, just friendly chats. No illegal, creepy, weird, violent, or adult DMs. So I could quickly rule out DMs as I never sent any DM of bizarre nature. It must be my tweets. I also use only one profile (@pradeeban). No sockpuppets, anon, or fake accounts. As such, no one could accuse me of creating multiple identities. Sockpuppets are a massive problem on Twitter, and I was fighting precisely that.
I have gone after some fake humans on Twitter. One dude who hasn't even completed his high-school exam has faked a Ph.D. and is holding leadership positions in Sri Lanka. Unqualified people in top posts will be hazardous to the nation. We exposed him. Perhaps, he had a rationale to report me for the repeated tag. As a public figure, he is not free from criticism, which is our responsibility to ask for the truth. But, I don't think Twitter can differentiate these. I also have gone after some fake "influencers" (More details on how these influencers ruin Twitter for everyone). However, it is unlikely that these fake people reported me. I posted the tweets against those fakes months ago. They wouldn't have to wait for months to report me for that. That makes me believe that it should be one of the bullies that we targeted recently.
I have appealed to Twitter on this suspension. Usually, they would ask me to take down the offending Tweets. I will know by then which of my tweets were of the violation that prompted my account's suspension. I never had real enemies on Twitter. I might have earned a few by poking my nose into issues that I thought warrant my intervention. Some of those bullies, sockpuppets, and fake people I offended could easily haveformed a group to mass-report me, giving me my own medicine. :)
Now, there is also this very real possibility: I kept posting YouTube videos on my timeline, and perhaps some people found that annoying and reported me for those as well. But those are on my profile. Right? But who knows? We will not know until Twitter gets back to me. If Twitter gives me back my
account, I will see you all again on Twitter. Otherwise, thanks for all
the good times. If I have ever argued with you on Twitter, it was just I
was talking whatever that I believed was right at that time. Idon't really consider any of the Twitter humans as my enemies. My sincere and unconditional apologies to you if my arguments or tweets in general made you feel bad or hurt you. It was never my intention. I don't want to be the bully myself while I was trying to fight the bullies, fake people, and sockpuppets online.
ළමායි/சிறுவர்களே, be nice to everyone in real life and online. These are difficult days. We are all bound by a deadly pandemic, and often online interactions are our only human interaction. Everything that starts eventually comes to an end, I mentioned in the beginning. I might not get my Twitter account back. But I am just a worker ant in a red ant colony. My absence will not change our fight towards a kind and fair social media in Sri Lanka, free from bullies and sockpuppets. We are in this fight together. ස්තුතියි/நன்றி.
This week is the last complete working week of 2020. Next week is a half-week and the work year ends next Wednesday. With the pandemic induced self-isolation, loneliness, and work-from-home for the whole year, this year has seen a significant rise in online interaction - for both job and entertainment and human interactions. "Stay home" is said easier than done when it drags on forever. But most of us did our best to the best of our ability, even separated from families due to travel restrictions.
I talked to my Twitter friend about how our Twitter usage has changed this year - mostly increased. Twitter is my only active social medium. But until 2020 (the pandemic hit hard), I wasn't as active on Twitter. From my Twitter analytics, I see that I posted and received interactions 10X more this year, compared to last year.
For example, in July 2019 (when I defended my Ph.D. thesis in Lisboa), I had 110 tweets, and in July 2020, it was 889. An 8X increase, although I had much more exciting personal updates during March - August 2019 than March - August 2020.
With 2020 coming to an end, I consider prioritizing and refocusing things as the pandemic does not seem to end by the end of this year. As a policy, I avoid working more than 40 hours/week, as life has more than working. Pre-COVID19, I wasn't home alone, and I could spend time with family. Even when I am alone for short intervals, I tend to go randomly for walks or random trips. With those significantly reduced (not just for me - for most of my friends), we all ended up spending more time in front of computers. I hope to bring back my 2019 healthy lifestyle (both physically and mentally) this 2021.
It
has been a while since I wrote a post on the series of Moments with
Twitter. You may find the previous posts by checking out my blog
label, twitter.
Some Tweets from my past years are listed here:
If you are really bored, just click one of these live cams across the globe and watch things and people moving.. :D http://earthcam.com/mapsearch/
We guarantee that this small country will make a big impact. You may even fall in love with Porto! (Jaime Cancella de Abreu) pic.twitter.com/KKa1zyilJ0
Twitter is fun. But it does not get the sarcasm right though.
The things I have been called in the past by those who quickly glanced at a single tweet and misunderstand it (either by missing my sarcasm, or me being not quite expressive due to Twitter character limit and quick-tweeting without paying enough attention):
* racist prick
* troll
When I arrived in Lisboa in 2012, I made weekly blog posts as I was too excited. Now, I've resumed the practice as I am worried about the pandemic. See - https://t.co/E0dLslO1sD
I think my posts could be useful in the future. But I hope not.
The Internet is filled with stars and their stans (basically, fan accounts that dedicate the entire account to post videos and photos of the star/idol). Often they just post the videos and photos in their own profile. Sometimes, they post them as a reply under popular posts, hoping to get more views.
There was a time when K-Pop stans were sharing fan cams to completely random Twitter threads that have no relevance to them. Their only aim was to increase the views of their idol's videos and the reach of the idol. These stans are not necessarily from South Korea. Their love for K-Pop music unites them. Their posts' had a short lifetime since others find it quite annoying and report them instantly for spam every time they post.
Like everything else of 2020, K-Pop fan cams unexpectedly faced a paradigm shift. They formed as a left-leaning political force in the USA. From what I know, this change happened in a decentralized manner. There was no leadership or careful planning. What they did was simple. Many random stans independently targeted hateful hashtags, and then post a cute fan cam of their idol with the respective hashtag of their idols -- for example, #TWICE. Then everyone else of the idol's hashtag did the same. #[IDOL-NAME] #[HATEFUL-TAG] and boom, the hateful hashtags became music libraries! K-Pop won, hateful hashtags lost.
— @k._.wallpaper on instagram ♕ (@chaeryeongsyuna) June 3, 2020
Interestingly, this pattern also extended to J-Pop and C-Pop to a smaller extent. For example, I noticed a few fan cams of #SNH48 C-Pop girl group popping up to dilute the racist hashtags. Eventually, K-Pop stans also conquered TikTok. People started noticing only after the stans had already made a difference in the USA political scene.
Consequently, people's perceptions changed. Most tweeps (i.e., Twitter users) started to see the K-Pop stans more and more positively. People stopped marking fan cams as spam. I certainly stopped reporting them altogether!
I decided to test this. I tagged #Twice on a hateful post from a "verified" account. Yep, I got the response back from some stans as a video reply.
Another time, I had an interaction similar to this:
Stan: People should be kind to each other #[HATEFUL-HASHTAG] [A random video from TWICE].
Me: That's a beautiful video, thanks for your service.
Stans: Thanks for your kind words. #[HATEFUL-HASHTAG] [Another random video from TWICE].
It works
The stans are diluting hateful hashtags, taking over the Internet with their cute fan cams. You may consider it a spam. They even risk an account suspension, as indeed their behavior fits the typical profile of a spammer. But they are always harmless.
Such replies annoy a racist or a troll.
It goes like this:
Racist: [some nasty stuff]
Stan: [random-fan-cam]
Racist: [some more nasty stuff]
Stan: [another-random-fan-cam]
The racist gets all worked up and loses his/her energy. But a stan doesn't lose his/her cool. The racist says nasty things to them. He/she will get a reply, yet another fan cam. You may mistake the stans as bots. But they are not. They are cool people out there, conquering the Internet with fan cams.
K-Pop fan cams are the new cat videos of the Internet! Yes, 2020 y'all.
Now, if you see me replying on Twitter fights with K-Pop, C-Pop, or any random music videos, you know where I got the motivation from.
The sexual tension between random trolls replying to my tweets and my YouTube playlist.https://t.co/N74R9IQsF4
For actual Twitter wars, we shouldn't give too much variety in the videos in our replies. That derails the purpose. Best to stick to one artist or a girl group such as #TWICE. For added moral support, add their recent tags. #TWICE_Beyond_LIVE#트와이스#MOREandMORE
Yagheli da?
I am Pradeeban, an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Alaska Anchorage. My research focuses on networking and big data innovations for healthcare and Circumpolar North.
Before moving to Alaska, as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Biomedical Informatics, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA. I researched and built efficient frameworks to schedule and execute biomedical informatics workflows.
I have an EU Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate in Distributed Computing (EMJD-DC) from INESC-ID Lisboa / Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal and Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium. I received my MSc degree, Erasmus Mundus European Master in Distributed Computing (EMDC), from Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal, and KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden.
It
has been a while since I wrote a post on the series of Moments with
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