Imagine your last tweetThe name for a message posted on an X (formerly Twitter) account. as a juicy hunk of meat. It is being dangled by a burglar in front of a guard dog slavering at the mouth. He drops the delectableDelicious steak and the dog forgets his protective duties to feast, unaware that the burglar has snuck into his owner's house to thieve and plunder freely.

The comparison might seem strange, but famed Canadian communication theorist Marshall McLuhan would say it is the key to understanding our relationship with social media.

Your social media post is the dog's tasty distraction. Your mind is the guard dog. The burglar is your choice of platform, be it Instagram, Twitter or TikTok, sneaking into your consciousness behind your back and inhabiting it.¹

McLuhan coined a famous phrase to describe this: "the medium is the message". The platform you choose can be even more important than the message you post, especially if the platform promotes toxic ideas.

In fact, McLuhan died 17 years before the first social media was even created, so his words, though propheticAn accurate prediction of future events., often go unheeded. This week, as users flock from Twitter to alternative media sites, his ideas may seem more pertinentRelevant. .

Elon Musk's $44bn (£39bn) purchase of Twitter is not yet paying off. In the first days of his tenure he fired almost half of the company via email, many mistakenly, alienated high-profile users by declaring that he would charge $8 (£7) per month for account verification, and terrified advertisers with his unpopularity.²

Most worryingly, Musk has vowed to restore freedom of speech to Twitter, leading to a spike in tweets using racial slurs and hate speech.³

Users are threatening an exodus. Celebrities Gigi Hadid and Whoopi Goldberg have dramatically left the platform, whilst competitor Mastodon, which markets itself as a "less toxic" Twitter, has gained over 230,000 new users in the past week.

But opinions are evidently divided. Twitter has reported unprecedented user growth following Musk's takeover of the company. Some have dismissed leaving Twitter as "virtue signallingDoing something just because you believe it will make you look virtuous or ethical to others. ", especially for celebrities, for whom Twitter is almost the only platform on which they cannot make money.

After all, Instagram has been linked to body dysmorphiaA mental health condition where someone spends a lot of time worrying about physical flaws, which are often unnoticeable to others. , anxiety and depressive disorders, Facebook has been accused of radicalising its users with an "unethical" algorithm, and researchers call TikTok a "surveillance app" - which has also been scolded for instructing moderators to suppress posts by users who are "too ugly, poor, or disabled".⁴ What alternatives are there?

Besides, some political analysts warn against leaving Twitter for "ethical" reasons, cautioning that if all of the moderate voices disappear, the site could become a dangerous echo chamber for far-right voices.

History shows us that it is not impossible to do good with a bad platform. VoltaireA French enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher known for his criticism of Christianity and slavery. and DiderotA French Enlightenment philosopher, art critic and writer known for his contribution to a major 18th Century French encyclopaedia. both wrote progressive texts under sponsorship from autocratsA leader who is not bound by constitutional norms or checked by other sources of political authority, like a parliament or the judicial system. whose politics they opposed. Revered Soviet writers such as Maxim Gorky were known to conspire with StalinJoseph Stalin was the president of the Soviet Union from 1929 to 1953. He transformed the country from a peasant society into an industrial superpower. However, he was a brutal leader and millions of his own citizens died during his leadership. in order to publish their works. They might have argued that the message is more important than the medium.

No: It will be no use trying to write sense on Twitter any longer. Any tweet of substance will be suffocated in the masses of abuse and hate speech. Boycotting something is the most effective way of enacting change.

Yes: Practically speaking, the best anyone can do with a bad situation is stay on the platform and try to promote some kind of balance. Reasonable people must stay on the platform to drown out the fake accounts and trolls.

Or... We should try to support other Twitter-adjacent platforms even if we choose to remain on Twitter. Ultimately, there is no perfect social media platform. There is no shame in choosing to stay connected, even if it is a moral grey area.

Tweet - The name for a message posted on an X (formerly Twitter) account.

Delectable - Delicious

Prophetic - An accurate prediction of future events.

Pertinent - Relevant.

Virtue signalling - Doing something just because you believe it will make you look virtuous or ethical to others.

Body dysmorphia - A mental health condition where someone spends a lot of time worrying about physical flaws, which are often unnoticeable to others.

Voltaire - A French enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher known for his criticism of Christianity and slavery.

Diderot - A French Enlightenment philosopher, art critic and writer known for his contribution to a major 18th Century French encyclopaedia.

Autocrats - A leader who is not bound by constitutional norms or checked by other sources of political authority, like a parliament or the judicial system.

Stalin - Joseph Stalin was the president of the Soviet Union from 1929 to 1953. He transformed the country from a peasant society into an industrial superpower. However, he was a brutal leader and millions of his own citizens died during his leadership.