As little as a decade ago, the social media activities of President George W. Bush were a non-issue. While President Barack Obama showed a bit more social media savvy, it was still not central to his presidential identity or legacy.
All that changed in 2016 when the first Twitter President was elected. While other Presidents offered press briefings and addressed the nation, President Donald Trump communicates in often misspelled, poorly punctuated and oddly capitalized 280 character snippets.
But some people have had enough. Including Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy who posted on Sunday, after a flurry of tweets from Trump attacking Representative Elijah Cummings:
"I’m unfollowing the President of the United States today on Twitter, because his feed is the most hate-filled, racist, and demeaning of the 200+ I follow, and it regularly ruins my day to read it. So I’m just going to stop."
Senator Murphy added:
"I can’t believe I just typed that."
People concurred with the assessment and applauded the move.
In a move that is certain to upset the President—who still obsesses over inauguration crowd size—people are deciding to unfollow Trump on Twitter. When Twitter purged a number of bot accounts and the President's followers and reactions fell, he blamed the social media platform.
What will he do now that #UnfollowTrump is trending?
While it is important to know what the most powerful elected officials are saying, following them on social media is unnecessary.
If you think there might be too much executive time spent on Twitter, this shirt available here makes your feelings known.
