Blocked

Have I used this title before? I think I have, when referring to writer’s block. Which this isn’t about.

Having followers is nice. It means someone’s willing to put up with your ramblings. But of course there are those who turn the process into a crapshoot by being the digital equivalent of the creepy guy on the bus who sits next to you when there are like ten empty seats and some of them are next to each other so why are you here?

1. People with pornographic avatars.

One time, on my old blog, I gained a new follower and was like, yay. I clicked on the followers button on the dashboard. I look at the picture of my new follower, and I’m like, “What is that? It almost looks like a…oh, crap, it is.”

2. People who don’t use correct grammar in their bios.

It’s usually a sign that they just put something through Google Translate and posted it, which means a spammer, of course.

3. People with an advertisement in their bio.

I’m not talking about people with links to their books on Amazon or something. These people (okay, spammers) will want you to buy whatever it is they’re selling, whether it’s spambot followers or Vitamins to Help you lose wieght.

4. People with innocuous sounding handles that turn out to mean something way crazy/offensive.

I was so excited to get a new follower on Tumblr, and I followed “Thingtwoknow” back to be courteous. And then my dashboard was filled with rants about how mass shootings have nothing to do with guns, but are actually the fault of the medications people take for mental illness. Annnnnd block.

5. Anyone anonymous.

It should be pretty obvious why. People are a lot less likely to be jerks when their name is attached to whatever idiocy they’re spouting.

Seriously. Pick another seat.

Playing Nice

It’s going to be a rant this week. I gave you something fun last week, so now you must listen to…read my complaints. Although honestly, I think this is something that should be complained about.

In general, people don’t play nice on the internet—see GIFT or the comment section on any YouTube video for further reference. What I’ve never understood is why, why people act like bullying jerks just because they can get away with it. I don’t get why treating someone like total shit is in anyway beneficial.

For example, several months ago I saw a tweet that said something like “If you unfollow me because of what I say, I will block AND report you!” First, let’s get it out of the way:  block and report on Twitter doesn't automatically result in ANYTHING. If you get a Direct Message that says “LOL look at this picture of you I found online” or accidentally mention the word computer and get fifty million replies to buy one, you can click on the options button and select “Block and report for spam” and it keeps the person from tweeting at you again. It does not necessarily suspend them, although having a report can cause sometimes non-spammers to be suspended. Now, f you are being harassed, you can fill out a form to report people, but that’s not what this person threatened to do (not like that would have been right, either).

This person used the block-and-report as a threat. Keep following me (and listening to my unpleasant rants) or I’ll get you in trouble. I had to deal with this crap in middle school. It was why I was happy to get out of there. People told me that things were supposed to get better once I was out of school. Well, they lied.

These days, the internet is freaking middle school, and we’re all students trying to psychologically destroy each other. The teachers are the social networking sites, the YouTubes, the Twitters, the Facebooks, who have these rules and don’t really enforce them because they don’t really care, but might if someone screams loud enough—and that’s usually the bullies. Follow me or I’ll report you.

What did I do about that Tweeter? Blocked her, naturally. One benefit of being bullied for six solid years in school is that I have no interest in giving in. If you act vicious and hateful online (not that any of you would, thankfully), I will stop following you. Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from consequences.