I'm the queen of petty annoyances. I get grumpy easily, and unfortunately this tends to occur about 5,000 times per day. Does this make me an approachable, friendly, low-maintenance person? No. It makes me a testy son of a bitch, but whatever. I'm old, so I've pretty much accepted those personal quirks by now.
She said WHAT?
I was thinking about my testiness the other day -- specifically, the dumb little things that get me pissy an irrationally intense amount on the regs. Do any of these ring true for you? For instance…
1. When you're having a text conversation with someone and you're, like, IN THE ZONE, being all witty and smart and zingy, both volleying messages back and forth with only a minute or so between texts, and then all of a sudden the other person vanishes and doesn't respond to your last message for, like, 24 hours. This is especially off-putting when you're discussing something "important," like making plans. This is also especially irritating if it isn't a person you know well enough to pester repeatedly until you get an answer.
2. When people send pre-formulated direct messages on Twitter thanking every goddamn new follower for being kind enough to follow them. I DO NOT WANT YOUR DUMB BULLSHIT MESSAGES CLOGGING UP MY NEVER-CHECKED TWITTER MAILBOX THINGEY. In fact, I do not want Twitter DMs at all.
3. When people send pre-formulated direct messages on Twitter asking you to "like" them on Facebook too. Dude, cut it with the self-promotion for two seconds, K?
I'm stalking -- er, following -- you on Twitter now, isn't that good enough for you?!?!?4. When real-life acquaintances or colleagues just randomly decide to ignore -- or at least not accept -- your friend request on Facebook. Or don't follow you back on Twitter.
5. When people say they'll respond to your email, but then opt to text you instead. EMAIL AND TEXT ARE NOT EQUIVALENT, guys. I get it that you're busy and juggling a trillion balls in the air, but so am I (and everyone we know), and not putting in the minor amounts of time and effort to send at least a semi-equivalent-length email response just seems like kind of a cop-out to me. Not a huge deal, of course, just a little grating.
6. When people call you to let you know they've arrived outside your house instead of just texting to say as much. I generally try to avoid talking on the phone at any cost. Texting feels so much less obtrusive to me, easier to deal with quickly and move on. We don't need a phone chat to establish that you're outside.
7. When people flagrantly decide to stop responding to emails, even if said emails are kind-of important, or a question has been posed. Editors do this a lot when dealing with writers pitching article ideas. I'm sure I've done this many times without realizing it myself -- usually when I don't have an answer for the person at hand or if I haven't quite decided what I want to do/say. I try to avoid this, however, because I'm well aware of how frustrating it can be. It also puts the other person in the awkward position of having to contact you again and worry that they're pestering you.
8. When people respond to one question from your email or text but ignore the other ones for no apparent reason. Again, this makes me have to pester you for an answer about the other question(s), which feels awkward and vaguely humiliating.
9. When you're driving in your car and you have a rare urge to be a kind-hearted, generous human and let that other driver turn in front of you (even if he didn't get there first), or you let a pedestrian cross in front of you when you kind-of didn't have to do that, and the people don't acknowledge your kind deed. At least give me a smile or a wave, man. Can't you at least spare a little tiny half-assed WAVE?
10. When you have one-on-one plans with a friend, and you're all excited to see her and talk and analyze and catch up over a nice, leisurely dinner or coffee or movie date or whatever, and then you show up at the spot and find not only your friend, but HER friend Jenny -- and she'd made absolutely no mention of someone else coming. This is especially grating if you don't know the friend's friend very well.
What are some of your dumb little social etiquette rules or annoyances?
I'm on the Twitter here.