VATupdate Newsletter Week 10 2023

Birds

Did you know that VATupdate posts are also posted on Twitter? It’s a great way to scroll through the posts when you’re waiting for the bus or train, cooking diner or using the restroom.

What type of bird are you? Do the test HERE

Twitter is a great way to share thoughts, ideas and news. Obviously, you should always be aware of who’s posting, what they are saying and how you should interpret it before you respond, but that’s the case in any conversation. There’s a lot of people out there who are using social media as their ‘garbage can’, believing that they can say anything they like and getting away with it.

For example, this week in the Netherlands there are elections for the Senate. These elections are not direct, but the people can choose the delegates for the provinces, who subsequently choose the Senators. There are many political parties participating, in North-Holland we have 23 in total. You might think that means there’s a lot to choose, but as with many elections, there’s a lot of parties that have the same points.

The parties are using social media to influence the people. That’s not new, but it some cases it’s really shameful how parties are presenting themselves. Or even worse: how they treat (potential) voters. Social media is fast and short, end therefore often messages are simplified. But this simplification can be twisted and set voters ‘on the wrong leg’.

I’m not saying that social media should be banned, or even that they should apply stricter rules. It’s everyone’s own responsibility to find and investigate the information they are looking for and need to make their own decisions. But social media are not always the best source for that. Perhaps because the messages are so much simplified.

Do you know the Twitter logo? The bird (his name is Larry) has undergone quite some changes since Twitter started in 2006. It became much simpler. The same happened with logos of other big (social media) companies. Does the simplification of the logo’s say something about the companies, the programs or the users? Or perhaps about all of them? Does simplification create dumb users, dumb posters, or both?

After re-reading the above, reading VATupdate on Twitter is maybe not the best thing to do. Luckily, it’s also possible to scroll through the posts on our website. It works perfectly on a mobile phone as well. And you are sure that you are not distracted by non-relevant Tweets.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas that you want to share with us, please send us an email at [email protected] or leave a comment under the posts of this newsletter on LinkedIn.

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