6.11.14
4 Reasons You Shouldn't Sub-tweet Your Parents
I have been trying hard to avoid sub-tweeting, and it clearly takes some effort. The science behind sub-tweeting isn't complicated. It's speaking negatively in an indirect manner about someone who happened to offend you in the utmost terrible manner, and you couldn't take it so you decided to do it on social media for the whole world to see. Suddenly the Twitter timeline becomes the personal diaries of twelve-year-old girls complaining about their worst enemies. Sub-tweeting is bad, but it's worse if you're doing it to the people who birthed you. (Is 'birthed' the correct term here?)
1. It's rude.
They're your parents, for goodness' sake. Sub-tweeting about the way your mom lectured you isn't the best way to approach the problem. That's like telling the whole world your mom is annoying and doesn't deserve a child like you... Oh, wait. You already did that on Twitter. You wouldn't go up to them to privately say it, so maybe you should think twice about telling everyone BUT your mom.
2. It's unnecessary.
So you've told the world that your dad is the meanest person alive for not being too busy to chauffeur you somewhere. Now what? Is he going to read your tweet and suddenly feel like driving you places? Is he going to read your tweet and apologise? No, because if he read your tweet, he'd go ballistic. He'd be upset when he reads how his child responds to his busy schedule, and he'd be angry with himself for raising such a self-centred child. Besides, it's highly doubtful that your dad owns a Twitter account anyway.
3. It's negative.
Sub-tweeting makes people feel uncomfortable. People take a casual scroll down their timeline and they see hate, anger, frustration. They see mean things being said about your old folks; they see your unappreciative spirit. (Spread the love, people say. Yeah, right.) You say you love your parents. I'm sure loving parents also means honouring them and upholding them in the image in which they want to be seen.
4. It's hurtful.
Let's say your parents did have Twitter accounts and they saw your tweets. Or worse, someone showed them your hateful tweets. What are your parents going to feel? What are your parents going to say? Will they hide it all under a hard mask of invincibility as parents? Will they ask themselves where they went wrong? Worse still, they will hunt you down and give you the lecture of your lifetime. There has been one too many cases of this. If lectures from parents are the last thing you want to hear, avoid getting into trouble at all costs. It seems obvious enough, but ten times harder to put into practice. And I'm pretty sure that resisting the urge to sub-tweet is one of the easiest ways to avoid getting into trouble.
Show some respect; stop sub-tweeting your parents (or anyone, for that matter).