It is good to be smart but one has to be cautious as sometimes smartness could backfire in ways nobody could even anticipate in his/her wildest dreams. A similar thing happened to a well-known author with more than 2.8 million followers on Twitter. He tried to act smart and then faced the music.
Yes, I am talking about the astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson, who set the Twittersphere on fire on Christmas Day. His single tweet on that day set the social platform on fire.
“On this day long ago, a child was born who, by age 30, would transform the world. Happy Birthday Isaac Newton b. Dec. 25, 1642,” he tweeted. At the time of writing this article, this particular tweet has so far been retweeted 73,778 times and marked as favorite by 72,792 Twitteratis. Tyson also admitted later that it was perhaps his most retweeted idea ever. The only problem is that a lot among his followers thought that the tweet was offensive; it was anti-Christian and attacked one of their traditions in a smart way. Many of those offended by the idea initially thought that the child who by the age 30 would transform the world would be none other than Jesus.
Tyson did not stop though, after stirring one controversy, tweeted another thing equally offensive to many in the cyber world. It is as follows:
“Merry Christmas to all. A Pagan holiday (BC) becomes a Religious holiday (AD). Which then becomes a Shopping holiday (USA).”
Social media website mashable.com commented that a lot of users “were angered by Tyson "trolling" Christians.” One user commented on the Twitter: “This is what dumb people think is clever.” Another wrote: “Hi @neiltyson, trolling Christians on Dec 25 is so EDGY. Please let me know when you troll Muslims on Ramadan. Merry Christmas!”
The holiday of Tyson was not kicking off well with a lot of users demanding an apology from him. He did not offer an apology though; he used his Facebook page to give an extensive explanation to his less than 140-characters tweet.
“Well. It’s official. Far and away my most re-tweeted tweet appeared Christmas day,” he stated. “Everybody knows that Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus on Dec. 25. I think fewer people know that Isaac Newton shares the same birthday. My sense in this case is that the high rate of re-tweeting, is not to share my enthusiasm of this fact, but is driven by accusations that the tweet is somehow anti-Christian. If a person actually wanted to express anti-Christian sentiment, my guess is that alerting people of Isaac Newton’s birthday would appear nowhere on the list.”
If there is anything we should learn from social media is that whatever we write or share is a responsibility, it could be interpreted in so many ways, and sometimes taken out of context. Whatever it turns, avoid writing something for which you don’t wish to offer any explanation to others.
