Impulse Tweets

It turns out that Twitter can be a blessing and a curse. Many appreciate the ability to share their thoughts and views instantly but maybe not all thoughts and views should be shared instantly. There have been a handful of cases in Twitters history where people have tweeted something they later regret and are unable to omit.

 "Lessons From A Twitter Train Wreck" writes about the recent impulse tweets that have caused havoc. Joe Cowley, a columnist from the Chicago Sun -Times sexist airplane tweets about ugly flight attendants and his concerns about having a "chick" pilot is one example they brought up. Maybe somebody had too many cocktails waiting for their flight? As if his tweets were not problematic enough, instead of apologizing and trying to redeem himself he deleted his entire twitter account in hopes to erase his tweet bender. Cowley is not alone in his hopeful deletions; Mitt Romney's spokesperson Richard Grenell tried to make his tweets about Rachel Maddow resembling Justin Beiber disappear; but that was just one of the many 800 tweets he's produced, regret and removed. Kanye West is another guilty tweeter, sending out explicit tweets to his "haters" them quickly deleting them.

These outlandish impulse tweets through online interactions are quite entertaining but equally disappointing. The fact that they are coming from not only people but so called "professional" people is frightening but what is even more disturbing is the way in which they handle (or don't) their tweet purges. Even once it is deleted it has been made public and will not simply go away, we all make mistakes but at some point it is time to take responsibility and think before you tweet.