The Limitations of Twitter

Background: At the time of the Ferguson protests, nineteen-year-old Alexis Templeton, who had grown up in Ferguson, was a student at Washington University in St. Louis. During the uprising, Templeton cofounded Millennial Activists United and returned to the streets to protest for weeks. At a symposium held at the Ferguson Public Library, Templeton sat on a panel with fellow Ferguson activists Brittany Ferrell and Kayla Reed. When Templeton was asked what those who only followed along via Twitter miss?,  this was her response.

I mean I think you missed the humanness and the growth. I think you miss the mistakes. I think you miss the failures. I think you miss the successes and how those were celebrated. . . . I think you miss the fights and ‘pull up at Ferguson library then.’ That’s a reality and it’s real and we hide it because we don’t want it to look bad but it is what it is. Liberation is messy and if it is a mess to get there, we gon’ be a mess getting there. That’s just what it is, it’s about unlearning and undoing and I think that’s missed online because we have to elevate ourselves to be these perfect people and these perfect leaders and these perfect voices for black liberation and it’s just not that.

Source: Documenting the Now Symposium, Digital Blackness in the Archive, held at the Ferguson Public Library and Washington University: St. Louis,  December 11–12, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykgvgW21iP4&t=2902s 46:52-48:40.