Sometimes the digital revolution is taken one step too far

After the fall of the Dutch cabinet on the 20th of February this year, all the leaders of the different political parties are campaigning again on TV to promote their political parties. A big decisive factor for most voters is the handful of debates among the political leaders that are broadcasted on the main TV channels.

Many Dutch politicians are active on Twitter. They see it as an additional channel to communicate their views. As such, one main Dutch TV channel decided to organize a "Twitter-debate" among the political leaders. It was going to be the first election debate ever on Twitter.

The Twitter-debate turned into a complete chaos. The politicians were randomly twittering against each other. At a certain point, there were 436 tweets per minute. Obviously, it was impossible for anyone to follow the debate.

I feel that this is a good example of how the "digital revolution" can sometimes be taken one step too far. There never seemed to be any advantage of having a debate on Twitter at the first place. The main reason was likely just the "coolness" of being innovative.