A few days ago there was a post about US foods; one commenter gently laid into the writer for missing out a boat load of related topics and proceeded to include them in his/her quite lengthy comment. To explain the omissions, I left a comment "Two words - word count". What I meant was, we can't write a tome because we have a word count to stick to. Many people thought I was telling the lengthy commenter to button it, which, hopefully you'll know, I would never do.
My goodness, the comments I received in retaliation were amazing, even when my meaning was explained.
"You must be a hoot during festivities." - Anon (of course)
"I find that sort of attitude frankly pathetic. Too many people feel if it doesn't fit in a tweet, it's somehow unfit for consumption; or the thesis inexplicably invalidated.""hahaha... sounds like the time it takes for people to realize you have nothing to say... NEXT ......... "(scootergirl)
Seriously people? Even when the middle commenter admitted that s/he had misunderstood my comment, s/he still went on to reprimand me for that fact that no one writes more than two minutes' worth of copy these days. Yada, yada. I was going to explain that I'm not head of the BBC and if someone gives me a word count, I stick to it. Instead I took the highest road possible and apologized for the massive offense I had obviously given. Yes, I know - passive aggressive. Couldn't resist.
But to my point - can you imagine if real life were played out like our social media experiences? You'd be sitting in the park watching your kids play with a group of random kids, the parents all sitting a comfortable distance apart.
You - "Thank goodness the weather's finally broken. I thought summer would never come."
Random parent - "Oh quit whining you pathetic douche."
2nd Rando - "Yeah, whatever......next."
Or perhaps you're with a group of friends and there's a couple of people you've never met before. You're sitting around, chatting -
You - "How about them Cubs/Dodgers/Marlins?"
Newbie - "Oh, how did I know you'd be a Cubs/Dodgers/Marlins fan?"
You - "I'm sorry what?"
Newbie - (Mimicking) "I'm sorry what?"
Obviously in the virtual world we can block people, not engage in conversation or leave groups, but it still absolutely bloody amazes me that people talk to complete strangers like that, assume fairly negative character traits about them with no evidence at all and insult them in the most appalling way. Obviously such people aren't the type I would mix with in the real world so I tend to give them a wide berth on social media.
But really!