I gave up Twitter some years ago. I still tweet from time to time, but I rarely check my timeline any longer. Why? There are many reasons, but a big one is how quick people are to jump on you for anything you say. I don’t mean the big stuff that should be jumped on, but the smallest thing can be called out. For example, I like snow and cold. Every winter, I will tweet excitedly when we get snow.
Every damn time, there will be someone who points out that I don’t have to shovel it (which I make perfectly clear and that I would feel differently if I had to shovel it). To which I say that I wouldn’t like to shovel it, but that doesn’t dampen my enjoyment of the snow itself. It doesn’t matter how much I preempt my declaration of enjoyment with caveats, I still get negged about the fact that I don’t have to shovel.
And yet.
I hate the heat with a passion. It makes me grumpy, lethargic, and as it gets hotter, drained, sick, and nearly catatonic. But I don’t go around bleating about how I hate the heat when other people are enjoying their days on the beach, am I? No, I am not. I am not yucking their yum as the saying goes, but I’m supposed to grin and bear it when others slam me for liking snow and cold?
It’s partly because what is popular/considered normal. Most people do not like cold and snow so the fact that I do is weird. Heat and sun? Liking that is normal and, indeed, even welcomed. I’ve learned to diss the cold with the best of them for daily Minnesotan chat, but is it too much that I be allowed to enjoy the snow? Who is it hurting?
Another example of this is Christmas. I used to hate it. I used to hate all holidays except Halloween, and, yes, that includes my birthday. When I joined Facebook, you had to put your birthday and they advertised it. I lied about my birthday and would be surprised every year when I got birthday wishes on the wrong day on my FB wall. Fortunately, they no longer require that your birthday be mandatorily visible on your page.
Anyway, Christmas! For many years, I hated it. And I would make my hatred known on my socials. I’d use profile pics of Grumpy Cat dissing Christmas and post about my hatred. Not a lot–but at least once a Christmas. And without fail, I’d see people posting about how they hated their joy being dimmed by other people posting about our hatred for Christmas. We should just shut up about it and not diminish other people’s enjoyment! Except, I’m allowed to say that I don’t like something on my own goddamn FB wall or Twitter feed. Why should I have to hide that?