Comments on: Obscure Relationship Commentary on Twitter

By: Andrew Korf

Andrew Korf — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:24:45 +0000

“devastated” i believe is the correct spelling. nice post… I've seen some bad sh*t go down this week with social media and a race to the bottom, tip of the iceberg here baby.

By: Livia Labate

Livia Labate — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:38:03 +0000

Very interesting. When I see this kind of tweet I always imagine the poster looking for empathy, not as a passive-aggressive way to communicate with the other party.

I’ve seen some very explicit and detailed ones (celebrating divorce papers arrival, anniversary of divorce,etc) over the years and observed other people’s reactions (congratulations, etc), but can’t but wonder how many feel uncomfortable reading such a tweet and therefore say nothing.

By: Laura Brunow Miner

Laura Brunow Miner — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:34:03 +0000

Great post.

Sometimes you say/write things that (1) show a great deal of good will towards humanity (2) make me see familiar things in a new light.

So thanks for that!

By: micahsaul

micahsaul — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:32:48 +0000

You unearthed the old post, so I can comment on it.

I’m with Buzz on this. I think it has a LOT to do with passively strike out at the “offending” party. My favorite of these was actually aimed at me. Something along the lines of “Low maintenance doesn’t equate to no maintenance…”

By: Buzz Andersen

Buzz Andersen — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:01:20 +0000

There is an element of authenticity and transparency to all of this, sure, but I have to wonder if there’s a more subtle, less innocent motive behind a lot of these: the desire to shame the offending party in a public yet passive way. I have to imagine that in a lot of cases the subject of such tweets is also their primary intended audience, and the other receivers are merely witnesses. It’s a passive, non-confrontational way of calling someone out, and a way of exercising some social control in a situation where people feel powerless.

Not to discount the possibility that people are just venting, of course. But I think at least subconsciously there’s more going on there than just raw emotions and sharing.