May the Farce be with you - the power of Twitter

I am amazed at what people put on Twitter.  Either I am very naive or people seem to think they are impervious behind their smart phones and can abuse others in a manner that is downright rude if not criminal and which they would not even consider doing if it was done face to face.

I have admit that I am a Twitter user but my account is private and I tend to use it to read and enhance my experience of events such as football games rather than sound off.  I have already unfollowed one nameless sports person for their foul language abuse of others and showing off their bling.

Take for example that ball boy moment in the Swansea v Chelsea game.  Twitter simply erupted when that incident happened.  Within minutes the following has happened:-

(a) Chelsea FC official twitter account says "football has gone made"

(b) The lad in question is identified, his Twitter account appears to show that he was planning to slow things down and is then bombarded with abuse from people all round the world as well as getting over 85,000 new followers

(c) Jeremy Clarkson who has never shown the slightest bit of interest in any sport that does not involve more than 1 horse power gets involved

(d) I counted at least eight funny pictures and a doctored video showing Hazard laying into the lad big time.

(e) I also take my hats off to the Charlton players I follow on Twitter, they immediately knew the ball boy was faking and hamming things up.  I presume they see too much of this on the pitch already.

(f) By the following morning there were 18 parody accounts set up claiming to be the lad in question

In the end it all blows over - Hazard and said Ball Boy apologise to each other and South Wales boys in blue decide not to take any action.  Common sense appears to have prevailed all round.

The only good thing out of it was that I found Danny Baker and Teletext Alex's twitter accounts and am now a follower.

My views on the matter are not important, but I think Matt Holland (@mattholland8) got it about right  with the following tweet :-

"Massive over reaction to 'Ballboy Gate'.  Both parties were wrong and should feel embarrassed by it today.  Move on."
Despite all this I am still a fan of Twitter.  It is a great tool to spread the word and has done much to assist people to raise money for worthy causes and awareness for groups and individuals who deserve our attention.  So just a small plea to stick to mindless chatter, worthy opinion and mind your language !!