Tuesday, August 02, 2016

Anti-Social Media

Subtitled: This is why I'm not a joiner.
Subtitled: Get over yourself.
Subtitled: Reading is fundamental.
Subtitled: It's not that deep--It's just fucking bread.

Elsewhere on the internet, this took place today. And I'm irritated to report that it actually got my blood pressure a-pumpin'! Ridiculously so.

So within one of the other comments (see Evelyn Lee replied 3 replies), she shares the link to her recipe, of which, here is a nice crop of the ingredients, which is what prompted my question.
Perhaps it was an issue of semantics, of word use, and I just needed a clarification, however, WHOAH-WHAT-THE-FUCK? I was unprepared for someone to respond to a direct question, asked out of curiosity, to be just so utterly negative.  Fortunately, I was not the only one who read the reply, as anything but what it was:
Perhaps it was an issue of me jumping right to the question at hand rather than softening her up with the ego stroke, and complimenting her on her lovely baked goods. And they ARE truly stunning (look at the photos of the crumb of that bread! That's definitely not a crumb I am familiar with as sourdough), which is of course, what prompted me to check out her recipe, which is what prompted the question.  

Perhaps it was a language barrier thing, given the author in the OP appears to be from/in Malaysia.


So, my take-away here is, no matter how direct, or seemingly innocuous my questions or contributions ARE (intended) within groups (or even amongst people I know IRL), there is absolutely no accounting or predicting how the receiver will CHOOSE to process my questions or contributions. None. And while I view her reply as speaking more about HER as a person, I cannot help but feel as if I were attacked (albeit, verbally) by a stranger. 


In the meantime, I've blocked the person, so I won't have to be subjected to what she thinks is polite communication. 

 

ETA: After one too many unpleasant interactions on FB, *PLUS* the aftermath of the 2016 election, it took me a while, but by August 2018, I dumped Facebork completely. I don't recall if it was right before or right after the Cambridge Analytica security breach and scandal. But so be it. And in doing so, the circle of friends I socialized with online diminished markedly, and despite transitioning to MeWe for a social media platform, not enough friends moved there and are active there, and the application remains on my phone almost as an after thought. But I'm here, and on Twitter, and well, that's all I'm going to say on that. You know where to find me if you need me.

3 comments:

Elisson said...

Your question appears to be perfectly justified and inoffensive. I'm confused, too, by Evelyn's terminology.

Maven said...

As I said on FB, I'm cracking it up to two things:

1. A linguistic speed bump due to her being in Malaysia.
2. Poor self-esteem on her part.

While it appears I took the low-road, I blocked her there, as I really don't have time to quibble over lapses in linguistic nuance, and of course be momentarily stunned by her unnecessarily negative & zesty riposte. I just want to bake fucking bread. It's really not deep enough to get offended.

Maven said...

Interestingly enough, the Maharajah (who also hails from Asia, much like the "pearl clutcher") says this person's response wasn't due to a linguistic glitch, but was an indication of asshole-ishness.