Twitter Junior High
Surviving Social Media Adolescence Illustration © Mits Katayama Popular kids, poseurs, drama queens, bullies, geeks and weirdos—all the the archetypes we came to love or loathe in junior high school—can be found on Twitter Although you'll find most people fit into the "normal" category, in recent months several occurrences took some of the shine off my otherwise happy Twitter experience: • A troll attacked me on the open time line. • Someone tried to undermine several online friendships. • I was accosted because I disagreed with an opinion. • A person unfollowed me because I didn't divulge a secret. FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DON'T KNOW, a troll is someone who gets their kicks by issuing inflammatory comments with the intent to provoke. Trolls are cowards and bullies. If you've not experienced one firsthand, congratulations. When it happened to me, it reminded me of how I felt when I was in a car accident—shaken and freaked out. Except ...
