the_xena•1mo agoMost Upvoted

I finally understood why my old coworker stopped posting online

Back in 2017, I had this coworker named Jen who ran a small Etsy shop selling handmade candles. She had maybe 400 followers on Instagram and was proud of it. One day she posted a joke about her cat knocking over a candle, and someone dug up a tweet she made in 2012 about a political issue. Within a week, people were calling her shop to complain and she lost about $200 in orders. I asked her about it at lunch and she just said "I don't post anymore, it's not worth the risk." That was 7 years ago and she still has a blank profile. Has anyone else seen a friend just completely disappear from social media like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

spencerm461mo ago

You ever see someone just vanish like that? My buddy Mark used to share these funny dad jokes on Twitter every day, had like 500 followers and a little running gag about his neighbor's yappy dog. Then someone screenshotted a tweet he made in 2010 where he joked about a flood in his town, and people started calling him insensitive. He deleted everything overnight. Now he just watches YouTube videos without an account and said it's been the most peaceful four years of his life.

bens811mo ago

Man, that "most peaceful four years of his life" line really got me. Your buddy Mark basically pulled a digital witness protection move on himself over a flood joke from 2010. Honestly? @spencerm46 I kinda get it. The internet's memory is way too long and way too willing to dig up old garbage. Some people build whole careers on taking things out of context, and regular folks like Mark pay the price. It's like you can't even make a dumb joke anymore without someone running it through a 2024 sensitivity filter. Maybe the real joke here is that he's happier now than when he had those 500 followers.