Considering my ever-increasing presence on the Internet, particularly my often fearless (and obsessive) tweeting, it's all too often I'm reminded that I'm not fearless, and in fact am quite the opposite. I'm a wimp, and I'm sensitive and the Internet is a scary, angering place. Something simple and silly happened this morning, yet I'm still reeling over it, and reacting in a way that's not the norm for someone who should have impenetrable skin and a backbone of steel. The incident went as follows:

@krittabug: My shoes are squeaky. Only marginally annoying.

@Person_I_Don't_Know_Who's_Never_So_Much_As_Blinked_At_Me_On_The_Internet: What's more annoying than marginally annoying squeaky shoes? Twitter posts about marginally annoying squeaky shoes.

This person - a total stranger - who follows me on Twitter, yet has never peeped a word at me, responded with that post. A pointless Twitter post (much like mine), yet its only intention was to be a jackass. Why? It's, like, beyond me on several levels. If my Twitter habits are annoying, and I don't blame you if you feel they are, then don't follow my Twitter feed. Feels like a simple solution. But to reply to a harmless Twitter post with some bullshit snark solely to be a bullshit jerk seems rude.

No?

Do you see this? I am so sensitive. The fact that I came to the Internet to write a blog post about this is silliness. But I feel I've been attacked in my safe, little corner of the Internet. Violated. Why you gotta pick on me, jerk? (Yes, I'm 5).

Whenever something like this happens, I cower into my shell. It's such a dose of reality. I very quickly remember it's the Internet, and there's something out there beyond my computer screen. And this incident was just a jerky quip in response to my pointless tweet. Imagine if my actual character had been attacked? I'd probably never come back to the Internet again.

Wait. No, that's a lie. So don't try anything funny, assholes.

Lesson learned. The Internet is not a magical land of candy and unicorns and elves. There are people there with squeaky shoes. And there are people there who don't like squeaky shoes even a little.