Opinion
Steve Allen: @GCHQ stop looking at cat pictures
Time FM Steve Allen. - Credit: Archant
Time FM’s Steve Allen looks at the world of radio and some of the issues of today
Social media is very useful for a radio presenter.
It allows a greater connection between the show and the listeners.
I love it when people take something I say and turn it into a phone-in/tweet-in topic on their own.
I’m less keen on the other kind of tweet you get.
You press play on a song and see, “@mrstevenallen I hate this song!”
As if you would press stop and say on air, “Sorry. One person has said they don’t like it. I have to stop it. We’ll just sit here for the rest of the three minutes in silence.”
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It must take about 33 presses on a phone to send the tweet I quoted above, but only one button needs pressing to turn the radio off.
If you don’t like something, save yourself 32 presses.
Some people threaten to “stop listening” as if that will upset a radio presenter. Trust me, it won’t.
If someone who doesn’t like your work stops listening, it’s like when the miserable member of your group of friends goes home early on a night out and the rest of the evening is great.
Given that social media is a mixed bag for a radio presenter, I’m not sure why GCHQ joined Twitter this week.
It’s not like they’ll get useful information from there.
The bad guys aren’t tweeting what they’re up to. “Trying to bring down the West from within #FirstWorldProblems.”
Most of all, shouldn’t GCHQ be working rather than tweeting?
Social media ruins your work rate. I’m on Twitter and I only work for two hours a day.
From now on, our main intelligence agency will have access to a countless number of cat pictures. I don’t feel safer knowing that.
But if Kim Kardashian tries to turn against us, at least she’ll be under constant surveillance.
@mrstevenallen
