Social media has changed the way we communicate and share information with the world. We can make friends with someone halfway across the world or reconnect with friends from high school. This creates a connected population that is unlike anything before it.

No site keeps people up to date with news, memes, and selfies more than Twitter. For over 15 years, the bluebird site served as the platform to interact with the planet at a moment’s notice. This presents a lot of pros and cons, some of which are unexpected. For example, home insurance and social media don’t always mix. 

Insurance companies view customers who post their every vacation on Twitter as risky clients. Thieves can memorize a person’s schedule and know when their victims will be gone. Because Twitter is a site that is used to share thoughts quickly, it can lead to risky and emotional posts. We’ll talk about some of these pros and cons below. 

Pro: Everyone Has a Voice

Twitter has been a huge plus for people who don’t feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and feelings with others. As was already referenced, it’s a little like a diary. Before social media, people would put their reflections down in a notebook of some sort. 

It’s a very relaxing and comforting way to accept the things that have happened and analyze how they affected you. You may even see how you can improve as a person. Other people entering the picture make advice-sharing easier for everyone. 

Twitter takes those same thoughts and airs them out for the rest of the world. Depending on the reach that you have on the site, suddenly your reflections are there for thousands of people to read. 

Deep Conversations

Responses from other people turn the site into an avenue for conversation. For those who don’t have many friends in the real world, Twitter is a great way to improve your social skills and to know that someone, even a stranger, is listening to you. 

When the subjects become more serious, this is where the real conversations can ramp up. LGBTQ+ people have used Twitter to come out and share their identities with the world. Maybe they don’t have anyone at home that will be accepting of their sexuality. Twitter then becomes a community, a found family of sorts that will help comfort and accept you for who you are. 

Unfortunately, sharing personal information for others to give their opinions on so easily can create a toxic environment, as well. 

Con: Not Everyone Deserves a Voice

We saw the downside to everyone having a voice during the height of the pandemic. Opinions on vaccines, mask-wearing, deaths from the virus, and more ran rampant. Folks shared insensitive and inaccurate opinions on how to handle the illness sweeping the globe. 

Name-calling, racism, and threats are all much more easily put onto Twitter than they would be face-to-face with another person. This is where you may have the worst insults of your life thrown your way. Someone may feel more powerful behind the screen. They could say something that is hurtful to your mental health.

There are ways to report damaging language to moderators, but the damage is already done. Not everyone deserves a voice, but Twitter and other sites have allowed bad people to reveal themselves. 

Pro: News Is at Your Fingertips

Getting the news on social media sites like Twitter has made society more aware of important events. Having the news be so accessible is revolutionary for people of all ages. 

As newspapers and traditional media have changed during the digital age, it’s become clear that Twitter and social networking are the future of sharing news. 

When Russia invaded Ukraine, or when Joe Biden won the presidency, teens and young adults who normally wouldn’t engage in politics and world affairs found out immediately.

Because there is so much information on these events, it also teaches Twitter users to scrounge through all of the tweets to find the important ones. Unfortunately, there are a lot of fake news stories online. Looking at reliable news sources is a vital part of being an engaged adult. 

Con: We Share Too Much Information

Too many people share valuable information about themselves online without thinking about the consequences. As mentioned earlier, many people love to share vacations and log their travels on Twitter or other social media sites. If you live in an area with a high rate of crime, this can be a huge risk to you and your loved ones. 

Your house or car may be vandalized or broken into if criminals know that you are gone from the house, especially if you live in one of the states with the highest vehicle theft rates. You can share your joys while traveling, but it shouldn’t always be advertised that you are gone. Be selective in what you post on Twitter.

How to Avoid Oversharing

If you only want personal friends and family to see your tweets, think about putting your account on private. This means that you will get to enjoy the process of sharing your vacation, but only with the people who truly matter. 

The whole world knowing about your yachting trip doesn’t do anything but give you an ego boost. Social media has become a place to brag about your life. This is a dangerous road to go down. It’s something that rarely creates the results you intended when posting. Instead, dangerous people or folks who want to hurt you can flip your life upside down. 

Sometimes we may ruin relationships by saying too much on the internet. Calling your boss names may see you losing your job the next day. Talking about how angry you are with your parents or siblings behind their backs, only for them to see your rant on Twitter, can be harmful to a relationship. 

As long as you think harder about what is going on online when you post it, there is no reason why Twitter can’t serve solely as a positive thing in your life.

Shawn Laib writes and researches for the insurance comparison site, USInsuranceAgents.com. He wants people to see how modern technology has changed the world forever.