South Park Season 20: 5 Key Themes From Episode 3
4. Social Media Death
One of the juxtapositions in this series is the idea of quitting Twitter being akin to death. This week we see the police investigating Cartman’s sudden disappearance from Twitter. Was this a Twitter suicide or a Twitter homicide? They wonder. “People don’t just quit social media, they post long drawn out messages on social media explaining why they’re leaving social media” says the cop.
The usually defiant Cartman appears to be cowed by having had his stuff destroyed and he shows the isolation he feels of being alone while surrounded by people. Although we suspect he may have a longer term plan, for now he's made a new friend in Heidi and found the place where those who've quit Twitter have gone. The park.
In the 21st century, to be off social media, or even unaware of it, is practically the same as being dead in some people’s eyes. What do you mean you don’t have a Snapchat account? If you’re not on Twitter you don’t exist. #Twitter #YouSuck. News stories are now driven by social media and often are the source of stories. How ridiculous is it to have a news item about something that a random person sitting in their house thought of and decided to share? Donald Trump’s 3am 140 character bile ejections framing the weekly news would have been unthinkable just a short few years ago.
What Trey and Matt are saying is that we're all taking Twitter and social media far too seriously and we should all stop it, get out and go fly a kite. Maybe even speak to someone. But not until you finish reading this, OK?