Dear people who say anything along the lines of “ugh social media? Calm down, why do you even care what happens on there?”
Are you waiting for your medal? Let me go whip up a ‘Self Righteous Wank of the Year’ sash for you real quick.
Like congratulations, you are unable to grasp the concept of what is arguably the most prevalent form of communication in our time. Love that for you, you special little superior being you!
It conjures an image of early humans learning to communicate via written language, I’m imagining a bunch of sanctimonious cavemen rolling their eyes like “ugh look at these idiots with their cave drawings, no one just minds their own business anymore!”
I mean do you really think human behaviour has changed that much with the introduction of social media? I watch people bitch about the way we all care too much about what happens to other people online as if back in the fucking 19th century gossip wasn’t everyones favourite pastime. OH and we just KNOW the aforementioned cavemen would’ve been all “did you see what those assholes next door drew about us on their boulder?!”
Whether someones’ maid told the cook who told the grocer who’s overheard by a neighbour who wrote a letter to their aunt in the next village or some bitch screenshots your instagram story and shares it in the group chat – humans be up in each other’s business!
The only difference is the means by which we’re sharing information. And I’m honestly so sick of people (who most often are people who actually use social media to post about things that are important to them and would themselves be offended if someone was negative about that) acting like the energetic exchanges that take place online should be of no consequence.
For example, say you’re on Instagram. If somebody doesn’t follow you, that means you’re not automatically popping up in their feed of things to passively consume. Therefore, if someone who doesn’t follow you frequents your page and watches your stories, that means they are actively going out of their way to consume your content. This means for some reason you are of interest enough to make the conscious decision to seek you out, but not want to follow you (ie. let you know they are watching).
There is -like everything that happens ever- an intention and energy behind this. I’m not saying it’s necessarily a malicious intention or spiteful energy (even though we all know it usually is in these circumstances) but what I am saying is that personally I find it extremely reasonable to be inclined towards taking account of anyone in your vicinity who’s consistently exhibiting this behaviour.
It is human fucking nature to be aware of our surroundings. If you notice the same guy turning up everywhere you go, watching you from a distance, you’re going to take note and keep an eye out because that’s odd behaviour and quite likely has malicious intent that you should be aware of – it’s called survival instincts. If you ran into the same guy a few times and he said “we’ve gotta stop meeting like this, let’s go grab a coffee together” he’s openly stating his intention as friendly and interested in you – normal non threatening behaviour more than likely of a positive nature.
We are in the digital age. Some of it’s awesome, some of it sucks. But what we can all agree on is THAT’S WHERE WE FUCKING ARE. We all have the same human nature and instincts and social behaviours, it’s just moved to a different medium sometimes.
So are you really still going to sit there and say “why do you even care who’s watching you or what they’re saying, it’s just social media” or would you like to join those of us who can acknowledge the relevance of your social surroundings and the intentions of the people in your vicinity, if only for the purpose of making informed decisions regarding your interactions in the future TO KEEP YOURSELF SAFE (whether this be physically, mentally, emotionally, energetically etc.) ?!?
Whether communication is taking place in real life, on a cave wall, in a letter or on social media – it is still happening. Just because interactions are happening through a screen doesn’t make them any less of an interaction. So shut ya fucking face and just acknowledge someone’s experience when they expresses their concerns over strange behaviours in their vicinity for fucks sake.
*disclaimer* obviously OBSESSING over what people are doing or saying about you is not healthy. There is a distinct difference between being aware and letting it consume you. My bone to pick is with the people that refuse to acknowledge the merits of behaviours just because it’s taking place online. So again, just to be very clear, shut ya fucking face.