The Modern Resurgence of the Subtweet

It’s 2012 and someone just stepped on your backpack without ever apologizing. How vindicating it would be to tag them in a tweet, airing them out to everyone and letting them know how you really feel? You have to see them the next day, and that might make things weird.

You have to tell someone to ensure you’re not being delusional. So you make a subtweet about how you feel, trying to subliminally message them, and post it for all to see. Something to the effect of “Stepping on people’s bags is crazy.”

The word subtweet itself is a mix between subliminal and tweet, and is a tweet that nods towards a person or something that they did to you without directly tagging them. A subtweet was basically a passive aggressive way to let everyone know how you felt without being confrontational. This was popular in the 2010s, and was used by everyday people to celebrities and their online beef. 

Over the years, X, formerly Twitter, has undergone many developmental changes and had a major leadership change in 2022. Elon Musk’s $44 billion buyout has seemed to shift the demographic of the average Twitter user and the things they post. Things like the introduction of paid verification and AI models like Grok, along with many other accessory features and changes, serve to show how far the site has shied away from its early 2010s glory.

But fairly recently, social media sites like Instagram and TikTok have begun to employ features that call back to that time. Intentional or not, Instagram’s Notes feature and TikTok’s repost feature hold so much shady potential. 

In 2022, TikTok rolled out a repost feature which allows users to “repost” or add videos made by other users to a separate section on their profile, visible to all users. Users may also add a comment to their repost, which can serve as added context.       

Many TikTok accounts post content that could be considered “repost-bait.” Videos that consist of an aesthetic background with popular music and plain text on the screen, featuring common sayings like “At the end of the day it’s always you” or “I’m no longer letting you disrupt my peace”.

In my experience, if you repost something concerning or something that makes people curious, there’s a fairly good chance someone will ask about the context, and that opens a door for conversation. I like to say I’m nosey (in a good way!), so if a friend reposts something that leaves me wanting to know more, 9 times out of 10 I’m shooting them a message and trying to figure out what’s going on.               

Instagram Notes were introduced in late 2022. These are a little different because they’re only visible to a user’s friends, or people that they follow who follow them back. Instagram Notes allow users to express themselves in 60 characters max alongside GIFs and 30-second clips of music, fashioned as a thought bubble over the user’s head.

I’m sure we’ve seen someone post emojis that obviously suggest they’re upset, like a broken heart or wilted flower. Another common thing is posting a song. Notes have a feature where it shows the lyrics of the song while it plays. This way, if a user has a clear message they want to get across with the song they pick, it’s visible.

It’s not all bad, though. There can be sweet, funny, and relatable Notes and Reposts—much like tweets. 

I find the modern introduction of features like this serve to show that at our core, we’re still so much like the young people of past generations. As much as Gen Z likes to say that we’re not like millennials, we are. The cycle seems like it will continue with the newer generations that are emerging and will emerge after that. 

Some may feel it’s attention seeking, but I think it’s more about a want for connection and someone to talk with and vent to. 

And honestly, at the end of the day, it’s just so much easier to be shady.

• emojis
• Gen Z
• hcusf
• instagram
• subtweet
• tiktok
• twitter
• x