July 6, 2015

"Is it rude to tag people into Twitter arguments?"

"Let's just consider for a moment, the heart of the question. Is it rude to involve someone in a fight they didn't ask for and didn't choose?"
Let's first assume that most people aren't combative psychopaths looking for confrontation and -- on the off chance they are -- they're probably pretty decent at finding it unaided. Then we can try the "in real life" scenario: If you were sitting at home and a friend brought over some jerk with opposing or confrontational viewpoints with the purpose of riling you up or getting you to choose sides, wouldn't you think it rude?

But the thing is, Twitter isn't real life....

38 comments:

Matt Sablan said...

I view tagging someone in a conversation like shouting at them across a crowded room. It is kind of rude, but it matters what you're showing them. If I tag my friend who likes Games Workshop stuff in something about their new rules set, it's like tapping a friend and showing them a cool thing on my phone they might like.

Tagging them into a fight is like tapping them on the shoulder and saying, "Bob thinks this thing you disagree with. Fight it out!" Look, your friends are PROBABLY monitoring your social media; if they care, they'll jump in. If not, they won't. Don't put them on the spot. If someone cares enough to be involved in an argument online, they will be. If they don't, let them be.

Michael K said...

Fortunately, I have nothing to do with twitter

BarrySanders20 said...

I think Ann is wrong to assume Twitter isn't real. It's real to the people who use it.

Is Facebook real? It has a real big market cap.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"a friend brought over some jerk with opposing or confrontational viewpoints with the purpose of riling you up or getting you to choose sides, wouldn't you think it rude?"

I'd think it entertaining. I love to argue politics, history, and social issues with anyone who's reasonably well-informed. Unfortunately, Lefties are dogmatic, ignorant and paranoid and too many Righties are defeatist or conspiracy minded. So that just leaves the rare Catholic or Libertarian.

Scott said...

There is something about Twitter and other types of social interaction with strangers on the internet that makes people's superegos go to sleep, and they end up staying stupid shit that would not be said in polite society.

Sammy Finkelman said...

Well, the thing about Twitter is, what's going on there is already very public - in theory.

Actually, nobody who knows anything about anything going on in the world may be reading it.

Sydney said...

If Twitter isn't real life, how has it managed to destroy so many real lives?

Ambrose said...

You may not be interested in Twitter arguments, but Twitter arguments are interested in you.

Fernandinande said...

"Is it rude to tag people into Twitter arguments?"

Yes. No. What's a twitter?

Larry J said...

"a friend brought over some jerk with opposing or confrontational viewpoints with the purpose of riling you up or getting you to choose sides, wouldn't you think it rude?"

So-called journalists love to play the game of "Hey, let's you and him fight!" It's a way of manipulating people and generating news. Twitter is no different.

Personally, every now and then I'll check something on a site like Twitchy, an aggregation site for Twitter. Most of the time, I want to take a shower afterwards. I just don't see the attraction, but then I've never joined Facebook, either. I'm just not that interesting that I feel the need to post information about myself. Too many years of military OPSEC training make me reluctant to unnecessarily share information.

damikesc said...

Why does anybody, honestly, give the tiniest sliver of a rat's ass what happens on Twitter?

Nobody follows Twitter except narcisstic assholes.

A company won't lose a dime of business because @FuckingMoron has a Twitter bitchfest about them. The media cannot possibly find a way to turn a fucking Tweet into a "big issue".

It's the perfect medium for people with no message.

If I advised companies, I'd tell them to ignore Twitter. Most "followers" are shams anyways and people take bitching there as seriously as if 4 (or 8) chan were really pissy at you.

Danno said...

Blogger BarrySanders20 said...
I think Ann is wrong to assume Twitter isn't real. It's real to the people who use it.

It wasn't Ann that made that statement. It was part of the quote. Read the link.

Bill said...

Twitter: the refuge of twits. Twats, too.

Freeman Hunt said...

Then we can try the "in real life" scenario: If you were sitting at home and a friend brought over some jerk with opposing or confrontational viewpoints with the purpose of riling you up or getting you to choose sides, wouldn't you think it rude?

Someone once stuck me on a two and a half hour car ride with a person they thought would convert me to liberalism. I thought it was fine, but the person who was supposed to convert me cried. The car trip back was quiet.

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

What is meaning "tag?" Is children game?

Sam L. said...

Yes it is. The only way to win is not to play.

Rae said...

Don't get into Twitter arguments. It does nothing but cause stress and harm your reputation.

Paddy O said...

I think it's funny that blog commenters are making fun of twitter.

"Blog comments are real, man, they make a difference. We matter and people really care about what we say. Twitters are twits, blog commenters rule!"

clarice said...

Off topic, but shouldn't Senator Baldwin's degree from the law school be yanked?http://mediatrackers.org/wisconsin/2015/07/02/sen-baldwin-1st-amendment-doesnt-apply-individuals

Freeman Hunt said...

Twitter is something like a 24/7 typing brawl so tagging people in is probably okay.

Anonymous said...

Maybe their in real life test fails because the only argument they know when they disagree with people is, Shut Up!

In my real life, I drag and get dragged into others discussions and arguments all the time. At work there are 8 of us and I'm the most right. But there are others on the right. And often times when they argue with a liberal or libertarian, they'll drag me in because I generally know more about the subject matter. They usually spend their time fishing and watching television comedy shows, not fox news and reading political blogs.

I don't mind being dragged in. I'm honored.

Wince said...

To me, all these "Twitter problems" are akin to the problems stemming from sticking your face in a fan.

Frank Drebbin: I know. You take a chance getting up in the morning, crossing the street, or sticking your face in a fan.

dbp said...

It all comes down to judgement and context. If I comment on somebodies tweet and then someone else comments on my comment, if I reply it can be to all or just to the latest person.

Craig Landon said...

How do arm amputees and people with carpel tunnel, Parkinson's,etc. tweet? Just wondering.

Big Mike said...

"Let's you and him fight" has a long history, particularly on the Left.

jimbino said...

A person who writes: Is it rude to involve someone in a fight they didn't ask for and didn't choose?

deserves to have his typing fingers disabled. The sentence has to be recast as:

"Is it rude to involve someone in a fight he didn't ask for and didn't choose?"

OR

"Is it rude to involve people in a fight they didn't ask for and didn't choose?"

As written, the sentence represents BAD ENGLISH that cannot be translated easily into many foreign languages and thus has to be considered written by a person who is IGNORANT of English and much more.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Well, if tenderness leads to the gas chamber, maybe rudeness leads to man's perfection.

Aussie Pundit said...

The whole point of twitter is open discussion and argument. So yes, it's okay to tag whoever the hell you please.

If you want a dinner party conversation with your friends, well that's what Facebook is for. But for high octane arguments with strangers, choose twitter.

Sydney said...

Freeman Hunt said, "the person who was supposed to convert me cried."
Did you get labelled a mean girl after that?

David said...

The internet is filled with false importance. Take this comment as more evidence of that.

Laslo Spatula said...

"Someone once stuck me on a two and a half hour car ride with a person they thought would convert me to liberalism. I thought it was fine, but the person who was supposed to convert me cried. The car trip back was quiet."

I am going to finish that story. In my head.


I am Laslo.

Laslo Spatula said...

I once got pulled into a motel room where a drug transaction had just went wrong.

From the walkway in front of the rooms you had a great overview of the troubled women bathing languishing in the swimming pool beneath the Modesto moon and the motel lights.

Some in the pool were still wearing cut-off jeans and a t-shirt; others were blobbily naked.

To explain: some were blobbily fat, some were meth-y.

As I was looking down a weedy male meth-head tried to hit me on the back of the head with a motel lamp, but it was still plugged in and he came up short, then curled tight into a ball on the green cigarette-burned carpet. I tapped him in the ribs with my shoe but he didn't move, other than gently rocking back-and-forth.

Someone I didn't recognize came rushing up the outside stairs and a meth-head in the pool shouted "HE'S THE ONE!" but no one could tell who exactly she was pointing at, or what it was about exactly, and the meth-head had a twelve-pack, so everyone ignored the girl yelling in the pool and I figured it was a good time to leave.

I was there to collect a twenty I had loaned an impoverished youth at the bar previously, but he had slipped away sometime earlier; I made my way down the stairs towards the parking lot when someone blindsided me, pushed me against the pool fence and tried to weakly stab me from behind. He cut my side a little, but the knife slipped and he cut his palm wide open, then cried for his Mexican girlfriend.

I don't know if this other girl meant to distract me or help me, but one of the chunky jeans-and-t-shirt girls in the pool with rooster hair shouted "I SHIT IN THE POOL" and pointed at a sad floating dark object at the surface in said pool: she had indeed shit in the pool, and everyone paddled away in big arcing splashes. The shit moved back and forth buoyantly in the water but it seemed like everyone was unscathed: it was relatively solid.

I got in my car and drove home, then passed out on the couch. The next morning I went to the doctor and he gave me four stitches. Four stitches? I was STABBED! BY A GANGSTA MEXICAN! But no: just four stitches.

I am glad to no longer live in Modesto.

I am Laslo.



Mark said...

Paddy O @ 4:17.

One silly irrelevant discussion medium mocking another.

SeanF said...

For crying out lout, Jimbino, using "they" as a gender-neutral singular pronoun is hundreds of years old in English. There's nothing wrong with it, and the only one who seems ignorant here is you.

TCR James said...

Since any Twitter fight you are involved in, whether or not you are actually part of it, is grounds for the Twittermob to doxx you and try to get you fired, I'd say yes, it's rude to drag people into Twitter shitfights.

Sigivald said...

#neverusetwitter

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