It's a natural tool in a digital world. IRL you can literally walk away from a conversation to express your disgust and disinterest in argument in a low-effort

It's a natural tool in a digital world. IRL you can literally walk away from a conversation to express your disgust and disinterest in argument in a low-effort manner. On Twitter you can't make the same gesture, so an analogous low-effort measure is to stop listening. It would not be nice to block people like that IRL, but it's a different thing on the internet where millions of people and their cats can easily waste your time.