Would Plato tweet? The Ancient Greek guide to social media – By Nathan Dufour (BBC News) / Sept 22 2021
Socrates or Plato may not have used Twitter or TikTok, but as Nathan Dufour writes, they would have had things to say about how to navigate social media more wisely.
When I’m on my social media, I sometimes feel like I’m in a modern, virtual version of the agora of ancient Greek city-states. This was the centre of town, physically, but also economically and socially – the place where business was conducted, goods were bought and sold, and ideas were exchanged.
I imagine this for very specific reasons – my vocation, and profession, is making music videos and other forms of content, often ancient philosophy, and endeavouring to disseminate it on the internet. And so, for better or worse, the various platforms on which I’m active are the modern-day “public squares” in which I ply my trade and display my creative wares.
But a trip to this marketplace can be fraught – personally, financially and ideologically. Should I engage with this person? Should I buy this product? Should I buy this idea? (And is anyone going to buy mine?)
For the agora was not just a marketplace; it was the stage on which the dramas of daily life, and of discourse, unfolded – and more than any other physical place, social media now provides that space.
