I am often intrigued by what annoys people, especially on
Twitter. A subject which I saw recently, which was causing a heated debate
was a discussion about whether there should be a double space after a full stop in a sentence. When I did a word
processing qualification about 30 years ago – that is exactly what we were
taught, but it seems that is not the modern way. But folk on Twitter were
getting very irate about it! Fascinating! (god knows what they would think about the overuse of
exclamation marks!!)
This is not really about punctuation, it’s my
fascination with how people can get so annoyed and upset about something like
this.
Another interesting spat was triggered by a famous singer
tweeting about hating the word ‘hubby’. Again,
I was surprised that the use of a certain (albeit slang) word could cause so
much annoyance. My second thought was – well if that’s all they’ve got to worry
and complain about, they are doing ok. But then I considered it a bit more and came to the conclusion that it
is about connecting with other people, about finding others who think and feel the
same way as we do. After all we are social creatures, even us introverts like
to have connections with fellow humans sometimes.
I often think gossip works in a similar way. I really try not to engage in gossip, but I
can feel that tempting pull when someone says ‘oooh did you hear about so and
so….?’ It’s about that slightly
conspiratorial connection with someone, a bond and a link with another
human. Often gossip can lead to people
getting hurt but I think, most of the time that is not the intention when we
gossip.
When we feel a bit lonely or isolated,
or perhaps need to feel a connection or validation from another – we air what or
who annoys us and see if others feel the same way. Or we’ll indulge in a little
bit of gossip.
I think the recent fear and uncertainty has heightened this
response in people too. I’ve certainly found myself getting irritated by some
things, that pre-Covid – I wouldn’t have given a second thought to……
