“Hey Natalie I heard you were moving.
Where are you moving?” – anonymous
“How did you know I was moving?” – me
*awkward silence*
These days you have to accept one thing: You will inevitably learn more than you need to know about your acquaintances and vice versa via online posts. I have accepted this. Sadly I find small pleasure in tormenting those who don’t understand that this is now a social norm. I mean it happens every day: you post, people read, they remember, they find it interesting enough to bring up face to face with you… etc. Be prepared. Don’t make them feel awkward like I do. Unless you feel like embracing some moderately uncomfortable silences.
On another note, if you acquire public post information about someone online, sometimes, it is helpful to preface your statement subtly with where you read about it. Example: “Hey Natalie, I heard you were moving. Just randomly read your post via my minifeed. Where to?” or “Hey Natalie, I follow you on Twitter, am your friend on Facebook, and have been intently reading your posts about your difficult neighbors. How is that going by the way? You haven’t posted about it today yet, I checked 5 minutes ago. Yesterday on Facebook and Twitter you said you were moving? Where to?” … Key is being subtle about the whole thing. This helps a person determine what level of a creeper you are. Just kidding. Personally I like to know which posts people are reading so that I know what my friends and family are looking at to gain current information about me. My hope is to better inform those I care about online since I hate talking on the phone and writing letters. (If you are reading this my dear family member, I hope you have not taken my lack of correspondence personally.)
Anyway, the point of this was to inform those reading that it is ok if you secretly know everything about your friend’s friend’s neighbor and their sick cat. They were the one who posted 14 updates around the whole occurrence. Just try not to sound like a total stalker if you are interested enough to inquire about the situation face to face with them. Proceed with caution. Oh and I promise to only slightly act confused/shocked if you bring this, or any of my other posts, up with me to discuss face to face. Thanks for reading.
May 26, 2011 at 11:46 am
Haha, another great one!