As Twitter becomes more and more popular, new words have been added to the Urban Dictionary to describe how we use it. A few infamous words include: subtweeting, twatching and twitching. These words are becomming prevalent in our generation, so I have provided a guide to help a Twitter-newb better understand what these terms mean, and how to deal them in real life!
The term
subtweeting is the shortening of “subliminal tweet,” which is a Tweet that directly refers to a person or a person’s Tweet without mentioning their name. Subtweeters, it seems, are trying to ambiguously talk about another person with them knowing and not knowing at the same time. However most of the time it is plain obvious! One way Subtweeting is noticeable is when a person Tweets subliminal responses shortly after another person posts something. To further understand subtweeting, lets use Girl A and Girl B to exihibit the act.
Girl A notices that one of her Tweets is subtweeted because Girl B posts a related Tweet soon after Person A posts it.
Girl A Tweets: “Essie nail polish is on point! “
Girl B Subtweets: “Nail polish is the same no matter the brand. People who insist on buying trendy brands are wasting their money.”
In the blatant case above, Person B is twatching on Person A and then subtweets her.
Clearly looking for trouble, subtweeting and twatching go hand in hand.Twatching is the act of Tweet-watching; literally clicking on someone’s profile and reading each Tweet as they appear on the timeline. The name “twitch” is used to describe a “bitch on Twitter.” Twitching is the word for “bitching” on Twitter.
As fun as
Twitter can be, subtweeting often leads to drama because it is a passive-aggressive form of confrontation. After speaking to some VCU Mass Communications students, some say it should not be considered a form of confrontation at all. Subtweeting is a way for someone to feel as if they solved a problem by expressing themselves and venting, while actually brewing more conflict and drama.
Most of the time, subtweeting creates unecessary problems between friends and aquiantances because no one likes it when people talk bad about them. What is even worse, there is no real way to prove subtweeting unless someone admits it!
After speaking to some of my friends at VCU, I have concluded that subtweeting is not just a form of miscommunication, but a form of cyber-bullying too. I would not be surprised if it leads to low self-esteem and insecurities in young people in the future. However since posts on Twitter are public to some audience or another, I supose it is inevitable that judgements and opposing views will follow. In that sense, subtweeting should almost be expected. From the students that I talked to, most of them even admitted to being subtweeted, but they have, or currently are, subtweeting others on Twitter.
However if a subtweeter is becomming too unbearable to handle, then my best advice is to:
1). End a war online by bringing it to real life
2). Delete them
Simply pick up the phone and call your subtweeter, send a personal message, or try and schedule a lunch or coffee-break to solve the problem. Direct confrontation is much more mature than subtweeting or calling them out online. If this does not work, just delete them! All it takes is a click of the button!