Twitter Love, Not Twitter War

Are you familiar with the trending topics on Twitter?

If you are a Tweetizen, a habitué of the 140-character per tweet social media phenomenon that is Twitter, you probably are. Looking at your Twitter homepage in its new layout or format, the trending topics can be found on the right side of the page with the heading "Trends." Under "Trends," you will find the most popular keywords that Tweetizens are tweeting about. It is usually preceded by the pound sign (#).

Trending topics on Twitter varies from time to time and it also varies according to location. A general feel of what the world is tweeting about may be seen by clicking on the "worldwide" trends. If you want to check "local trends" in your country or your city, just click the name of the country or city.

During the holidays, I got to spend more time following some trending topics on Twitter. It was so interesting to read everyone's thoughts about a number of topics ranging from Christmas greetings, to love, to sports, celebrity sightings all over the world. But on one particular day I was really shocked to see a worldwide trending topic on "hate."

Trending Topic on Hate

In a season of peace and gift-giving, I was really so surprised to see the following worldwide topics trending in one full day: #HATEMALAYSIA, #loveindonesia, #malaysians, #indonesians. It would seem that there was a full-blown Indonesia-Malaysia Twitter war happening right before my very eyes!

I really thought that there was an all-out civil war happening between Malaysia and Indonesia because the tweets just kept on coming and flooding Twitter. Well, the most sensible thing to do if you see trending topics like this one is to click on these topics and read about what other people are saying about it. I eventually found out that these trending hate topics were spurred by an ongoing AFF Final Cup football match between these two countries and fans were cheering and jeering each other. My, what a relief that it was just about football! Apparently, the Indonesian Tweetizens, the second largest habitués of Twitter, were venting out their anger over accusations of cheating in the said football match.

But, this got me thinking: what if it instigated something more serious than just a war over a football match? This Indonesian-Malaysian Twitter War is an eye-opener.

Trending Topic Of Peace and Love

I think when using social media like Twitter or Facebook, we should be mindful of the fact that we should not be instruments of instigating hate. Let these websites be instruments of forging connections, relationships, friendships, bridging gaps and borders, help, support, aid, and love. Opinions and personal thoughts and expressions are encouraged but I think we should be careful in making sure that we also do not offend the sensibilities of others.

In the next trending topic on Twitter, I pray that I don't see the word "hate" ever again.