In his urgent and poignant book Let’s Talk: How to Have Better Conversations, English radio and TV presenter Nihal Arthanayake addresses the deterioration of public discourse since the advent of social media, and explores methods which might be used to restore it. In providing a historical framework for the ‘growth of conversation’, Arthanayake cites an interview with scholar Henry Hitchings, who accounts for the rich conversational climate in which Dr Samuel Johnson produced A Dictionary of the English Language.

Hitchings recounts how the advent of street lighting, the distribution of printed materials, and the beverage of coffee converged in the early modern era, encouraging gathering and enlivening discussion between people. He contrasts that physical, fertile nexus of conversation with what Twitter offers today: an artificial, superficial space in which people talk at—rather than with—each other. Hitchings offers the following profound insight into the quality of conversation, or lack thereof, taking place on Twitter:

‘So often, the Twitter conversation is two monologues rather than a real engagement. Part of a real engagement is the breathing space to let what someone said sit with you before you have to retort. I think the conversation of fools is one where there is no breathing space.’

Monologues are solo speeches performed by actors in a play or film—they are necessarily performative and lacking in any dialogic response. They go one way, from the speaker to the audience. While tweets between users might seem to be engagements, they are—by their very nature—brief statements directed outward, with an audience. These public outputs favour quick wit, posturing and oneupmanship at the expense of real discourse, which necessarily requires the leniency and cooperation of a slower pace, allowing participants to pause and reflect on each other’s views, ideally incorporating them into their own thoughtful responses.