We are now halfway through the Final Season of Game of Thrones and people have been taking to Twitter to share their thoughts, feelings and jokes on the show while it is broadcasting. Some people who aren’t fortunate enough to watch live are taking issue with this, accusing people of tweeting out spoilers.

Dylan and Ashley shared their thoughts on the issue on the latest What Do You Wanna Watch? and give advice about what you can do about it.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, or sound off on Twitter.

Ashley: So how do you feel about people live-tweeting the show?

Dylan: A couple of years ago I would have been like “Don’t tweet spoilers full stop. That’s a mean things do.” I’ve come around on it because I’ve kind of had an understanding. It’s called social media and the reason of people are live-tweeting a lot of the time for this is because they just want to interact. A lot of these people are replying to other people’s tweets, tweeting your own stuff, liking other people’s tweets while it’s happening. They’re just on the hashtag and you can be like “They should be paying what’s attention the show” but they’re watching it. It’s kind of like a sporting event at the same time is the thing. All these big moments are happening, they’ve got Twitter open, they’re looking at the hashtag, they’re tweeting their own responses. They’re liking other people’s stuff, they’re replying like “Oh my God”. They’re connecting with people because it’s such a massive thing. Game of Thrones is on another level. It’s one of these massive shows and people each week are just going to be live-tweeting it like it’s a huge Super Bowl event basically because it is that big of a thing. Now, as I said before, don’t tweet spoilers or heavy spoiler stuff full stop because that’s just mean. M y general rule used to be “don’t tweet about spoilers for a TV show until out on DVD”. It’s like for movies don’t tweet spoilers until it’s like been out on Blu-ray for a couple weeks or something. At some point they’re kind of has to be a line. I feel for Game of Thrones, if you don’t think you’re going to be able to watch when it airs just do what’s necessary, take control of your time timeline, mute Game of Thrones, mute the hashtag, mute the word “Game of Thrones“.

Ashley: Mute every single character name.

Dylan: Mute all the character names, do what you need to do. I understand it from both points of view but when it boils down to it people are just using it, it’s called social media and people are wanting to connect with other people who are watching it at the same time and they want to cheer and yell and celebrate and be shocked together. So it’s just a double edged sword really.

Ashley: I saw this tweet which I think you summed it up pretty well from a guy called Andrien Gbinigie: “Second screen experiences became popular specifically because the use of social media changed with regards to how people consume shows. The shows themselves live-tweet for engagement. Landscape has changed.” I feel like this is the only dramatic scripted show that it kind of feels acceptable to do it with though, or is done to the scale at which it’s done.

Dylan: When I’m watching it I have my thing up that I’m taking notes on for our show (South of King’s Landing). I’ll pick it up quickly, jot down some notes and then put it down to continue watching the show. That’s my level of disconnect. If I wasn’t taking notes, I would just be fully invested and not want to interact with anything that’s but that’s just me. It’s kinda like how I enjoy going to the cinema and I just put my phone down because Game of Thrones is an epic. I want it to have my full attention. It’s like all these reality TV shows, cooking shows and Masterchef and whatever else, they encourage you. Hashtag this, talk about the show while it’s airing. So you kind of gotta remember that. Even though they’re not encouraging it at the bottom of the screen for Game of Thrones, television culture in itself has been encouraging this type of behaviour for years and years.

Ashley: That’s because they want you to watch it when it actually airs. That’s what they want you to do. Game of Thrones is one of the very rare, rare, rare shows that has gotten a bigger audience through its run. There’s more people watching it this season than any season ever before.

Dylan: And also one of the few remaining huge shows that actually releases on a weekly basis. Most other big shows like Stranger Things and stuff are just dropped.

Ashley: You can’t live tweet about that stuff. And I think that people like getting in with those zingers and those memes first as well.

Dylan: They do. You could be like “they’re just doing it for likes, followers and stuff.” To a point they are but at the same time, it’s no different than when we’re watching E3 or something and people want to be the first to have a fucking good funny joke when something funny happens at E3. It’s the exact same sorta thing. You just want to be part of the zeitgeist, just being part of the bubble as it’s happening. It’s not for me personally, I would rather just be fully paying attention to it. But I understand that day and age that we live in and I say it again, it’s called social media and people are using it to socially interact around a program. So don’t @ people spoilers, try to use the hashtag #GameOfThrones. If people use the hashtag in all the spoiler stuff, then you just mute the hashtag and then your problem’s kind of solved. If that was a golden rule, that would solve it. If you want to live tweet spoilers for shows, make sure you use the hashtag. And then if you’re afraid of spoilers, make sure you mute the hashtag. I feel like that kind of evens it out.

Ashley: I think it’s interesting just that this show is the only show that you can do that with. Other than reality TV and sporting events or anything but it’s definitely a cultural thing for people, I wouldn’t say people who aren’t as invested as us, maybe people who love multitasking and can’t just sit and watch a show.

Dylan: I feel it’s different from movies too. If people come out of Avengers: Endgame straightaway and they’re tweeting spoilers, I’m like “No, that’s not the same thing”. People will be like “It’s exactly the same, they’re tweeting spoilers” but it’s not. The reason people are tweeting what you consider Game of Thrones spoilers is that they’re doing it at the time, they’re live-tweeting and they’re being part of the moment, as it’s happening, as it’s airing. People that walk out and start tweeting Endgame spoilers or general movie spoilers are just being inconsiderate. I do think there is a line between movie and television live-tweeting and stuff. It’s your Twitter timeline, take control of it. The mute function is there for a reason. If you see the spoiler posted in the comment section of a cooking YouTube video or something for a movie, that’s when people are just being dicks. People used to go and post Star Wars Episode 7 spoilers, Harry Potter spoilers, these types of things in really random videos and places all the time. Those people are being dicks. If people are posting #GameOfThrones, live-tweeting it, it’s just the world we live in. People want to live-tweet stuff.

Ashley: It’s not just people, it’s also websites that are trying to get in as quickly as possible. The number of sites I saw that said “Oh you’ll never do guess what Arya did this episode” was insane.

Dylan: There is a level of that to. There are straight up spoilers and then there’s people who get angry about stuff that’s hinting at stuff that happened in the episode like article headlines. I tweeted stuff that I’m sure people consider spoilers but I’m like I didn’t tweeting anything directly spoiler related. After the latest episode aired, I tweeted out a couple of remarks and stuff but people would take that as spoilers! There has to be a line. Websites have to be allowed to write articles with headlines that you’re going to consider spoilery. It’s no different than I saw people can shitty because websites were writing about Palpatine and people were spitting it like “You put a spoiler in your fucking headline” I’m like “It was a trailer dude. It’s not a spoiler if it’s in the headline.” After the episode airs, people are going to want to write about it. That’s a lot of people’s jobs. How do they not have slight spoilers in the headline?

Ashley: Yeah I know. Just save yourself the trouble. Watch the show as quickly as possible.