An Analysis of Some Twitter Communities (shtwt and obslovetwt)
Before I get into this, this is not a critique of all communities or subcultures. I’m not an “anti-shipper” because that seems to always lead to ignorant puritanism and “i don’t like it” is not a good critique for why things dealing with dark subject matter (or any queer art for that matter), should be banned.
Capitalist realism has never had a better mouthpiece than that of communities like #shtwt (Self-Harm Twitter), #yantwt (Yandere Twitter) and #edtwt (Eating-Disorder Twitter). It allows people to commit aggression against themselves as a method of bettering themselves (edtwt and shtwt), and engage in the acting-out of fictional personalities (yantwt). However, it also serves as a community for mentally ill people, most commonly people with BPD, depression, anxiety, etc, as it gives them a space to vent about their problems. However, the good effects of communities like this are buried by the bad effects:
#yantwt is a community depicting obsessive love borderlining abuse in yandereesque tension. The organ which drives this community is bpd-like insanity via social media through protecting their “beloved” (mostly IRL, though there have been fictional “beloveds”) from anyone who tries to talk to them. It’s a common tendency for them to also cross over into #shtwt and cnc (consensual-non-consent) territory, wanting either to take control of their “beloved” or wanting their “beloved” to take control of them.
Most of the people on #yantwt have cute/kawaii or goth/hybristophiliac personas (as shown through their profile pictures and profile banners), which for the former, have a contrast between the “adorable” and the “yandere”. It’s a surrealist life that takes its refuge in contrast.
It’s a damaging effect to drown yourself in things that threaten to hurt you, no matter how mentally healing it can be. Capitalist realism is a enabler of this behavior because it wants people to maim themselves in order to look more like their internet selves, or to imitate their fictional idols (in the case of #edtwt, kpop idols or pop artist, and in the case of #yantwt, various examples of yanderes in anime or sometimes serial killers in real life).
It can even send people in these twitter subcultures to harass people who critique them, sending them death threats and pictures of gore, or in uber-rare cases, dox them.
Yes, while I realize it can be healing for people who are suffering from mental illness, but I also think that there are helpful and more enlightening coping mechanisms to use for it. We need to fight back against the Capitalistic spectacle by proving to ourselves that we can rise above maiming ourselves, like capitalism wants us to do.