The Toxicity of AUC Twitter
Nzingha D Florence
When it comes to AUC culture, there are certain things that only the students of this community will understand. For example, a huge part of the class of ’22 freshman experience was sweatily dancing in hideous highlighter green t-shirts at Olive Branch, a campus event where all the institutions listen to music, eat food, and get to know each other. There are just certain aspects of the AUC that can only be understood by those who have experienced it. A lot of these traditions have been brought to social media, but Twitter in particular is a whole other beast. AUC Twitter is a ruthless collective of intelligent Black individuals, where the students’ opinions can be expressed and heard. However, like everything addictive in this world, there is an element of toxicity that comes with AUC Twitter.
I love all three of our institutions and the students that come along with them, but we, myself included, are not above critique. There have been arguments arising on Twitter over the past year debating whether the upperclassmen, juniors and seniors, are too harsh with the underclassmen and incoming freshmen. It has come to the point where the younger classes could say anything remotely ignorant and the next thing they know, they have 200 quoted tweets from their fellow sisters and brothers, tearing them to shreds. I hate ignorance just as much as the next person, however, a lot of the AUC community sees ignorance as an opportunity to make personal attacks and insults rather than educating those younger than us in a productive way.
I’ve been guilty of it, as we all have, but I’m starting to see that maybe that’s not the way the AUC Twitter community should portray ourselves to the students who will be looking up to us for guidance. We too, used to be young and ignorant once, so cut the babies some slack. Just because upperclassmen are older doesn’t necessarily make us wiser, and how we interact with the younger classes on social media platforms reflect that.
A more productive way to educate our younger siblings is to directly message them and offer insight into why their views may be problematic. This would be more helpful instead of airing them out in front of everybody on Twitter and insulting their intelligence, because they are trying to learn and prosper. Why do the call outs of our peers have to be so brutal? Is embarrassing them to the point that they delete their account and no longer feel safe really how we want to be perceived? Even when it comes to discussions between students in our classes, there is a trend of students seizing the opportunity to drag their peers through the mud for the mere fun of it. The reality is, you don’t always have to put your two cents in, especially if there’s already 50 other students coming at one individual. We’re better than that.
Next, I want to discuss the constant recycling of topics that should have been laid to rest. For example, trying to argue that one institution deserves more money than the other or deciding which institution is better, etc. As one of my favorite Real Housewives of Atlanta once said, “Y’all mouths don’t get dry talking about the same thing? Because mine does…” Not only does this create a more toxic environment in the one place we collectively communicate with each other the most, but it genuinely makes people not even want to log into the app in the first place! If you’re truly that bored, try journaling about your day rather than bringing up the same thing just to start a controversial argument. These debates are extremely unproductive because every single one of our institutions deserves the utmost respect. We have all produced some of the most prestigious Black change-makers in the world, so this unhealthy competition is pointless.
The takeaway from this critique is to genuinely think before you tweet. Think about how your words may impact the community that you’re tweeting it to. There’s already so much negativity in the lives we’re living right now, so try to spread some positivity instead, especially on a platform such as this. The ultimate goal for us as a collective is to become a better community all around.