Within the last couple months, I have been doing what I want to do, saying what I feel needs to be said and so on. There are a lot of things I feel could be classified as topics our generation doesn’t talk about, but that are generally accepted. Social media as well as advances in technology have certainly shaped who we have grown to be. For this article however, I would like to hit on social media, specifically twitter.
I am constantly seeing indirect tweets thrown around all of the time. Sarcastic or not, they portray more than the tweeter's intentional message. When someone indirectly tweets about someone else, and it is blatantly obvious, that’s hurtful and thought provoking. I find indirect tweets to honestly be heartbreaking. When I see an indirect tweet I immediately think to myself, Why would you do something so blatantly mean. There’s no reason. In my mind, it shows age as well as intelligence level.
Here’s the other thing I find extremely hard to comprehend, I COULD be really indirect and rude about a great deal of things — people I am not very fond of (but choose to follow anyway via social media), people dressed differently around campus, even my own roommate(s) or family members or friends or professors. That is what some people my age do on occasion and some on a daily basis. The catch is, I am a good enough and smart enough person not to take part in that form of ignorance. My parents raised me better than to be blatantly mean, and also, I’d rather not publicly embarrass myself on the Internet. How would your parents feel if they looked at your Twitter? The majority of your followers are your friends, so why would you intentionally want to come across as unintelligent in front of them?
I completely understand how one could go about indirect tweeting and what you could say if you wanted to be a sh*tty person who instigates arguments behind a screen. Just hear me out on this, in posting that indirect tweet, you are instigating, and you are bullying. Which means that now you’re being directly associated with being a bully. Why would you want to negatively label yourself and have others perceive you in that negative way? Also, usually the same people that go about instigating these situations are the same people who complain about drama, which is completely ironic and hilarious. Those people are the catalyst. When bullying others via the Internet, their sole intention (no matter what they say) is to create a reaction. Well, that reaction is that “drama” they talk about “hating.”
The next time you have the crippling urge to send an indirect tweet, don’t. Don’t take part in that ignorance. You’re a college student. You’re an adult. You’re smarter than that. There’s no need to hurt other people intentionally and also there’s no need to frighten people into thinking your tweet is about them when really it isn’t, it’s about someone else. Indirect tweeting is just a vicious cycle. Food for thought.