I love social media, which is the boring way of saying "Twitter" or "Facebook." I get my news from those sites. I keep up to date with touring bands and writers I enjoy reading. Sometimes, it's how I find out about the small victories and minor failures in the lives of distant friends. Mostly, it's a way for me to rant in 140 characters or less. I crowd source blog topics, or just write really short stories. It's an ideal place to have a conversation, specifically because I can have a one-sided one if I chose.
But I do "like" other people's updates. I retweet witty jokes or quasi-important thoughts. But there's one thing social media should never be used for: flirting. Openly flirting via Twitter or Facebook is obnoxious. It's also not effective. I mean, friending or following someone you just met is a form of flirting. But full on engagement in the public internet sphere pollutes everybody's feed and it makes you look like a little bit like a stalker.
The rules for public online flirting are similar to mobile phones. Too little can be too much. A playful response to a status update here and there is cute. Like an occasional peck on the cheek between two sweethearts. But we've all read full-on one-act plays between two people via Facebook or Twitter. I swear, I've seen couples "LOL" each other so much in one post that it's the IRL equivalent of two people slobbering all over one another in the middle of a movie.
The public discourse that social media allows is a wonderful thing. It's half dialogue, half monologue. It really is a communication revolution. But it's not a bar/backseat of a car. This is why Internet God invented IMs and texts. If you want to flirt and turn on the heat, take it there. Don't befoul our beloved social media with your come hithers, and come ons. Flirt out of view of the rest of us who are busy telling the world that we just ordered a pizza and ate the whole thing.
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