To Tweet or Subtweet....

Mrs. Richardson's class's latest project was creating an emoji and a message.  Mrs. West and I are particularly enthused with the one outside of our rooms stating "They're Clowns".  We are not sure  if this was intentionally placed and if it refers to Drama, the 9th graders, or she and I.  Regardless, I have enjoyed seeing the art pieces throughout the school and was puzzled by this one.

I enjoy Twitter and am fairly skilled at using it.  However, I have never heard of a subtweet.  While the emoji clued me in that this was a bad thing, I wasn't really sure why.  So I checked in with Professor Google for some definitions.  

Started with the dictionary...

sub·tweet

/ˈsəbˌtwēt/

Learn to pronounce

noun

INFORMAL

1. (on the social media application Twitter) a post that refers to a particular user without directly mentioning them, typically as a form of furtive mockery or criticism.

Ahh....and on to Urban dictionary...

subtweet

A tweet (message posted on the website Twitter) that mentions a Twitter member without using their actual username. Usually employed for negative or insulting tweets; the person you're mentioning won't see the subtweet in their Twitter timeline as it doesn't contain the @ symbol that every Twitter username has.

Someone wants to criticize a person with the username @JohnDoe on Twitter but without that person seeing the tweet in their Twitter timeline. Instead of tweeting "I think @JohnDoe is an idiot" they would subtweet "I think JohnDoe is an idiot" or "I think John Doe is an idiot". In each case the @ symbol is missing so the tweet would not appear in @JohnDoe 's Twitter timeline.

And then I read this article-https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-a-subtweet-3486077

My understanding is that subtweeting is basically gossiping about someone and letting everyone know, except that person(hopefully), how you feel.  

Obviously this ex-boyfriend wasn't very good at the subtweeting because she found out.  And yeah, that would make me sad.  It's never cool when people talk about you and not to you.  

I'm pretty sure I won't be intentionally subtweeting any time soon.  I hate when people post really vague things on social media (which may be called vaguebooking?) and I try not to do that.  If I can't say what I want to say directly on social media, I just won't post.  And IRL, I admit, I gossip.  But I try to abide by my personal rule of if I wouldn't say it to you, I won't say it about you.