Thursday, May 13, 2010
I'm God's Lonely Man...
Oh fuck you, Twitter.
Hey folks, are you like me? Do you have natural defenses you carry around with you everyday, a "personality cushion" that protects the scared little child deep inside, that you use to interact with people in the cold, heartless outside world?
Does this cushion somehow not exist when you're on the Internet? My cushion works like that (or rather, doesn't work). My feelings can get very easily hurt. It sucks.
A couple people unfollowed me on Twitter recently. It bugged me. I mean, it *really* fucking bugged me. Why? I don't know. It's like a form of rejection. And the insidious thing is, you're not notified that you're being unfollowed. Okay, maybe that's good. I don't know. And I don't know why they unfollowed me. Was I too verbose? Did I insult their sensibilities? Was I too ethnic?
Who the fuck knows. Okay, I am a fucking pisser. I unfollowed those fucking motherfuckers that unfollowed me.
But it didn't stop there. I found a website, Friend Or Follow, whereby I could find out who I was following that wasn't following me.
Holy shit, there were a lot of people that *used* to follow me that had apparently stopped following me at some point. THOSE FUCKERS. THOSE DIRTY MOTHERFUCKERS.
There are of course celebrities and such that aren't going to follow you. That's fine. And if I want to follow Harry Hamlin, I'm not expecting him to follow me. But what about all the peons such as myself? Well, to me there is an implied reciprocity. I follow you, you follow me. Simple. But then you go and surreptitiously unfollow me? Well, fuck you.
I was following 220 people earlier today. Now I am following 126. Take it away, Travis...
P.S. Um, there are a lot of people that are following me that I am not following back. I'm working on rectifying that, okay? SHEESH.
P.P.S. I unfollowed Harry Hamlin.
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6 comments:
Oh! I love this post. I went through the very same process. I've forced myself not to look at Friend or Follow, because it's like Valentine's Day in elementary school. I have lots of followers, yeah, but I try to follow everyone back. That's what makes it fun, I thought.
Sincerely, mocoddle
I have two things to say about this.
First, I must admit I do feel a momentary pang of rejection when I see I have lost a follower. Then I shrug my shoulders and move on, because I really don't think it's worth dwelling on.
Second, I refuse to even try and figure out who has unfollowed me. There's no benefit in knowing, as I see it.
Third (oops), I don't believe there is implied reciprocity. If I'm not going to feel obligated to follow someone who follows me just for the number or to promote their damn shit that I'm not interested in (and believe me, I'm not), then it follows that I will follow anyone I'm interested in and I expect others to do the same.
I will also say that I've observed different people have strikingly different perceptions of netiquette and such. So, there you go.
If I used Twitter much I'd follow you.
If I could, I'd Follow you twice!
Hey mocoddle, I will hopefully soon stay away from FoF, but for now it is functioning an instrument of petty wrath.
Dena, all the points you made are very good. And thinking about it, there is more nuance to my idea of reciprocity. Basically, people that I like, or find amusing or interesting, I would *hope* they would find me interesting or likable enough to follow me. That's what stings, when these people unfollow me. I know that's probably not wise, but it's how I am wired to some extent.
Dr MVM and Roses, thanks. :)
Being something of a Luddite and anti-social to boot, I don't use Facebook or Twitter..... I don't really need another social outlet to reaffirm that I don't have many friends. I figure, what's the point? But I understand the feelings behind the post.
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