Last year, in the early hours of the morning during my first few periods of the school days, I always settled into a sleepy state of mind as I took notes. After braving a parking lot with speeding, texting drivers—a thrilling wake-up game of car dodge ball—the relaxed nature of the beginning of the school day could be comforting. Just as my eyes would droop and my scribbling hand obtained a mind of its own, the teacher would make a slightly snarky comment, as teachers sometimes do, and I would be jolted awake by a classmate shouting, “@ME!” or “Retweet!”
Of all idiotic trends, this has perhaps been one of my least favorites. The humorous “@ me” isn’t the horrific part (other than being startled into lucidness), but the birth place of it is: subtweeting.
Subtweeting is negatively tweeting about another person but conveniently leaving out his/her name (or not tagging the person in the post, hence the “@me,” or, in other words, if you’re going to talk about me, tag me next time). Most of the time, friends and the victim of the subtweet know who the tweet is being directed toward because the content has just enough information. This often leads to a subtweeting battle. Friends jump to the victim’s aid and trash the original tweeter. Then, the original tweeter’s friends jump to their defense. Each side roars with laughter, as they’re certain their lame comebacks have bested the others. Eventually, they all fall asleep, their chosen weapon of a cellphone still in hand. The next morning, the tweets of the night before are forgotten, except for perhaps sharing the highlights of the historically epic war during break.
I do not have a Twitter. I have experienced the process second-hand through friends proudly showing me screenshots. Similar to second hand smoke, subtweeting tales are unpleasant and not something I particularly want to be a part of. But “subtweeting” isn’t limited to Twitter. I’ve seen it all over other forms of social media. I’ve seen it with all ages of people. Adults in particular use Facebook to subtweet, though they may not be familiar with the term. I’ve even seen people “subtweet” using pointed Bible verses. (I mean, really?) I’m no Bible scholar, but I’m fairly certain Jesus never said, “Go forth and be petty,” or “These are my words. Take, and hate.”
The truth is, subtweeting is nothing more than glorified gossiping and bullying. It reveals immaturity and spreads negativity. It further explodes a relatively simple situation or disagreement. It makes private disagreements public with the largest possible audience. It pits people against each other and hurts both sides. It doesn’t solve any problems. It tricks people into thinking that bullying can be humorous if you call it by a different name.
Social media is a wonderful thing if used responsibly. This is not the fault of Twitter. Bitter people will be bitter, jealous people jealous, bullies bullies. Social media can bring out the worst in people who crave sympathy for a perceived wrong. Negativity has too strong a hold on society. We should be focused on uplifting each other.
Teenagers: School is difficult enough on its own. We shouldn’t be making any other aspects of people’s lives difficult. We face enough inner insecurity. We should never be responsible for making someone feel worse.
Adults: Subtweeting reveals immaturity and insecurity. There are no excuses.
Christians: God’s Word and His people are to be treated with respect. If a person is using Bible verses in a way God has not intended them, he/she is sinning. If a person is disparaging another, he/she is sinning. The reason Christianity has little respect from nonbelievers is because we don’t even treat each other with love. Solomon writes many times throughout Proverbs wisdom such as “The wise store up knowledge, but the mouth of the fool invites ruin,” “…do not associate with a gossip,” and “Without wood a fire goes out; without a gossip a quarrel dies down.”
"Not naming any names," but please stop subtweeting. "You know who you are."
