Twitter drama is blowing up newsfeeds, and friendships.
A subtweet is defined as a “subliminal tweet” which directly refers to a particular person without mentioning their name. Basically, subtweeting is talking behind someone’s back for them to see as well of all of social media view. This oftentimes triggers mean responses from the person being tweeted about, then their friends come to their defense, and before long the situation escalates to a full out digital brawl.
Fossil Ridge High is not blameless when involving Twitter drama, either.”Kids from Fossil definitely take part in drama on Twitter,” said sophomore Cassidy McCarthy. “I see it on my news feed all the time. But everyone does it.” Not only do high-schoolers get pulled into the petty online drama, but celebrities, who send nasty tweets to each other, whether mentioning someone directly or in the form of a subtweet.
According to junior Jenna Dolan, “The drama gets way out of hand and the whole subtweet thing is really indirect. Things get pushed way too far on Twitter.” Dolan even went to the extent of deleting her Twitter. “I deleted all the negativity and tried to ignore it. I didn’t want to fight fire with fire,” said Dolan.
“Pushed way too far” is certainly accurate, as some teens are even committing suicide because of the things that their peers are saying and posting on social media. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, and students being bullied are two to nine times more likely to consider suicide than non victims, shown in studies done by Yale University. More than 14 percent of high school students have considered suicide, and almost 7 percent have attempted it.
Yet Twitter certainly isn’t the only digital medium used that amplifies drama and gives bullies easy access to their targets. Kids are being tormented on Facebook, Ask.fm, Kik, and many others social media sources and new kinds of applications are being created each day. According to Psychology Today, “Cyberbulling potentially can be more upsetting for the victim because bullying behavior might include a wider audience and be more permanent.” Social media has allowed for bullies to follow their victims into their personal lives, which can cause even more damage than any school-yard scuffle ever could.
“It could ruin your day, honestly. The power people have over any type of media is not OK,” said Dolan. Yet it doesn’t only ruin someone’s day, it can ruin their life. Stories about teens killing themselves due to cyberbullying do show up in the news, yet it’s hard to take the statistics seriously if it hasn’t happened at your own school or to people you know. Yet the bullying is taking place all over and teens are more susceptible to this type of bullying than ever before. Consequently, think carefully before you make fun of a peer on social media; you could be inflicting more damage than you think.
