Tuesday, October 12, 2010

There are snobs, and there are snobs

I can be a snob of the first order, but something I really don't get is following people on twitter for the singular purpose of retweeting them and mocking them.

Calling someone an orkutiya or a bulb, because their idea of expressing themselves is different from yours? Because their English isn't as articulate as yours? Heck, my English is quite decent, but I'm atrocious in both Bengali and Hindi, so what do I have to be so proud of?

Following celebrities on twitter, and then spending your time coming up witty one-liners to mock them? Really? I have the utmost respect for most of these people I follow on twitter - they're intelligent, well-read, and outrageously funny most of the time. But it infuriates me when they judge people they don't know or have never met simply on the basis of their ability (or lack of it) to articulate decently in a tweet.

A lot of people cribbed about Aisha, and not purely because of its terrible script or the utterly flat and annoying personality they gave to the eponymous character (which, to be fair, was exactly how it was in the book, so you can't really blame the makers of the movie). No, a lot of people actually cribbed about what snobs Aisha and her friend Pinky were. (Like, hello, have you ever been to urban India? South Delhi, or even South Bombay from what I hear?)

My point is, people criticized, or even mocked the utter snobbishness displayed by the characters in that movie. But you, who retweets a guy because his opinions aren't completely in tune with yours, or mocks the guy who tweeted his admiration for that celebrity who may not be so great in your eyes. How different are you?


9 comments:

Shruti said...

I do agree to your rant, but such is the world of twitter!! That's how it's meant to be. :D
Well written post. :)

antiglam superstar! said...

Thank you! Somebody had to say it.

That's me said...

That is the biggest advantage of Twitter. You can be a complete loser kinda snob and still get away from it. Thoughtful post.

R said...

Disagree with all of the above because I can.

Especially the 'biggest advantage of twitter' bit. WTF, the biggest advantage of twitter isn't how much of a douche you can be, twitter is s a flawless demonstration of a rapidly shrinking global populace.

As for the rest, well how can you make your opinion known when you disagree with someone without retweeting them? A bit of debate is always good.

a traveller said...

There's a difference between debate and mockery, surely? I've seen some healthy debates on twitter, I've seen some not-so-healthy ones (where people basically declare whoever's disagreeing with them as a troll and block them), and I've seen people make fun of others for all the reasons I've listed above.

I don't have a problem with one, I do with the other. C'est tout. :)

R said...

ah, so is this your first time on the internet?

a traveller said...

Eh? So because I've been around on the internet, and have seen this happen for ages, I shouldn't have a problem with it? Might as well shut this blog then no?

Flaw in the logic, there :)

shruti said...

My pet peeve is when people incessantly tweet/mock certain TV shows while diligently watching them day after day.

On a different note, thanks for articulating my thoughts.

a traveller said...

True, true, true! It's alright once in a while (heck, I watch all the daily soaps once a month to catch up on how inane they've got), but the daily live tweeting of certain shows can be totally annoying.