Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Status Drama

Lately, I've stumbled upon a strange phenomenon I just can't seem to get my head around. What is it that makes people decide their Yahoo/MSN/Gtalk/whatever messenger service status indicator is THE place to show the world how bad they feel?

I mean.. I use status indicators, like "Fetching kids & groceries, brb" or "not at my desk" or "cleaning house, please disturb". I do that so my friends know what I'm up to and to give a rough indication of when I'll be back. But why on earth would anyone feel like having "Hurting, please leave me alone" as their status? Or "Pissed, go away" or "Friendship is an illusion" combined with a busy icon. I don't get it.

If you feel that bad, why log onto a Messenger service at all? And if you do, why mention your state of mind in your status almost screaming your pain at the world, but at the same time saying you want to be left alone?

What's really at work here is reversed psychology if you ask me. What those messages really say is: "I do want you to message me, very carefully, ask me how I am and I will at first act a bit reserved, then whine for an hour, then tell you I really don't want to speak with anyone. And you'll feel double lousy, once because you did message me even though I told you not to, and again because my life is so terrible right now". Drama queenism, to the max. And I for one am not gonna fall for it.

Feel lousy, wanna talk? Then talk. I can deal just fine with a "Feeling like shit here, I so need a hug" message. You'll get that hug, instantly. But the drama queens resorting to status indicator guerilla tactics I will fully and bluntly ignore. Unless they do it too often, then I will remove them from my list.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh Mel, I couldn't agree more!!! It's infuriating when people play mind games like that. I prefer straightforwardness when it comes to how one feels. Very rarely will I beat around the bush in a serious situation.
So, without beating arund any bushes at all...
Muah! Hugs and kisses with lotsa love from the South!

Sunil Goswami said...

Nice post, Mel. Very straightforward, I like that.
But now I feel bad that I don't update my status message at all. Even if I get up to go take a shower or go out grocery shopping, I forget to set my status message to reflect that and the "Idle" indicator speaks for itself.
Unless I am working on something while staying online then I set the Busy indicator. And then of course, the people I don't want to talk to will instantly instant message me and the ones for whom I can set my "busyness" aside will be nice and quiet and wait silently. :)

If you ask me Yahoo is in itself a big drama. Nice post, keep it up! More than 1 post a year, if you can help it. LOL.

Kitten said...

*laughs* Heyy now, I do write more than one post a year. Just not every year :D

*enjoys Mac's hugs & kisses to the max then scampers off to cook dinner*

Status: Doing unspeakable things to chicken in the kitchen.