Chicago Tribune, a newspaper that circulates in both printed and online form has a column called Ask Amy. It is a segment where readers who have personal concerns can send a letter to Amy Dickinson, Chicago Tribune’s signature general advice columnist, and the segment’s host.
Ask Amy started to be published back in 2003. This column appears in more or less 200 newspapers around Canada and the US. Before Amy became a columnist in Chicago Tribune, she was a writer for a parenting column in Time Magazine.
Ask Amy receives many letters. However, in some of the questions sent to Amy, it clearly shows that some individuals are already going overboard on the way they use the social media platform buying more Followers.
Ask Amy: Are Some People Going Overboard With Their Social Media Use
One of the letters sent to Amy came from a man who hides behind the name Sad & Lonely in Illinois. In the letter, he said that he has been following a woman on Twitter for some years now. He admitted that he always thought the woman he follows was great. However, he started to like her recently and finds her hilarious, endearing, beautiful, and passionate. Find out here how you can use your Twitter account to change the quality of your life.
However, Sad & Lonely Illinois already know the woman on Twitter. Meaning, he has not met her personally yet. Still, he occasionally sends direct messages to the woman. Those messages contain topics relevant to her interests. There are times when the woman will politely respond with “lol” or “haha.” This made the man question if the woman likes her too. According to him, if she does feel the same way about him, she would have replied with shorter responses that will make him stop bothering her.
Too Much Social Media Followers
Although the man admitted how much he liked the woman he follows on Twitter, he asked Amy whether he was just infatuated with the idea of that woman and not the woman herself. He also admitted that he does not want that to be the case. Instead, he wanted his feelings for her to remain virtuous and not borderline creepy.
Amy responded to this message and confirmed that Sad & Lonely in Illinois is feeling infatuated with the idea of the person. She also agreed with what the man said that the woman she liked would have responded more fruitfully if she likes him as well. Furthermore, Amy also confirmed that the man is already crossing his border and is starting to become creepy. She added that what the man feels is the same as having a crush on characters on the books he read or an actress on the movie he watched.
Social Media Writers Need To Think Too
According to the writer, if the man is thinking too much of the woman he likes that it already interferes with his other activities, then he should start to decrease his access to her postings. Repeatedly seeing posts that make him believe how awesome the woman is would not help him stop his overboard infatuation.
Another letter was sent to Amy. This time, it was from a person who chose to hide their identity. This person was asking whether or not it is beyond the border to reach out to a man he or she has a high regard with.
The person who sent the letter is a 59-year-old individual who is currently reflecting on both the good and bad aspects of his life. According to the sender, he or she had a friend in high school whose father used to play basketball with them. The friend’s father also invited him to go along their family outings and dine outs.
After 20 years, this person ran into the father due to some work-related stuff. He or she could not believe how helpful and warm the father remained despite the years that have passed.
Twitter Users Relationships With Their Fathers
According to this person, he or she would like to reach out to the father and let him know how much admiration and respect he or she had for him. The letter’s sender already has kids and oftentimes, he or she thought of the friend’s father with a desire to emulate his positive aura. However, this person does not have any plan to reach out to the man’s son– a former friend. The reason is that it feels odd to reach out to the old friend about his father, but not directly about him.
Amy’s response to this letter is much more of an encouragement. According to her, the person who sent the letter is almost 60 years old and high school is long behind them. She then encouraged the letter’s sender to write the father a note if he or she knows any of his contact information. However, if he or she does not have the contact information, the father’s son must be the one to contact so that the sender can get the contact information of the man he looks up to. Amy also added that there is no need for the sender of the letter to include the former friend in his or her outreach.
Lastly, Amy emphasized that what the sender wants to do is something kind and thoughtful. For this reason, the sender must not hesitate to take a step forward and reach out to the father that he admired for so long.
Final Thoughts
Clearly, the two cases above show how and how not people go beyond the border with their use of social media. In the first case, the man went overboard in such a way that he liked a woman so much even though he only met her on Twitter. On the other hand, there are also some people who use social media in the proper way. In the second case, the sender wanted to reach out to a man he has high regard with. He can simply do such by sending him a message on Facebook or Twitter. However, because he or she does not want the father and the old friend to think that he or she is going overboard, the sender hesitated to reach out to the father.