One of the great things about being a football fan is the discussion and banter that goes with it - everyone has an opinion and discussions can get heated in the pub, but, in the past, this has always been against a background in which we're all on the same side.
What twitter does is it makes public what were previously views only shared amongst a small number. This, in turn, tends to make one try to justify oneself, to prove one's point and to take a more entrenched position.
It also means that there are many more opinions coming back and this can quickly degenerate into an argument that has much more fury than exists down the pub. Especially if the team has just lost and tempers are running high.
I also think that the society in which we now live, which is much more about instant gratification, wanting and getting everything right now, and the computer game scenario in which, if you lose you can instantly start again and have another go, means that increasing numbers of (mainly younger) fans cannot seem to accept that it takes time to build a campaign and that not everything can go our way all the time.
When one points that out to people they say, 'yes I understand that.' Then pause. and then 'But we've spent all this money, we pay all this money for tickets...why not?'
A couple of defeats and, it seems to me, every team's fans turn into Partick Fickle supporters!
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