I am uneasy about the BBC’s promotion of Facebook, Twitter and, recently, WhatsApp when reaching out for listener and viewer interaction. The contributory effects of these media to worsening mental health, erosion of democracy, escalation of hatred, and polarisation of opinion have been repeatedly demonstrated.
While these effects continue to be debated (despite conclusive investigation) I accept that it is perhaps not for the BBC to pick a side. However, to coin a BBC cliche, ‘other social media are available’. It is a shame that this comically rigorous impartiality does not apply to social media and public conversation.
The BBC has an excellent, I would say globally leading, website and it would be trivial to add interactive functionality to the programme pages and episode pages there, rather than to direct the public to social media giants whose reputations are at best questionable.