Twitter goes on in parallel to real life. We all have good moments and bad moments.
There is a legal principle in Tort – “the eggshell skull rule” or “thin skull rule”. It stems from the hypothetical where person A knocks over person B and the victim turns out to have a rare condition which means the bone surrounding their head is extremely thin. B suffers disproportionate injury. The defendant A may argue that this was not “reasonably foreseeable”. This is rejected. Basically, you have to take your victim as you find it.
And so it is with twitter and a stranger’s mood. If you choose to message somebody you don’t know and offer a comment that could be construed as bitchy, crass, sarcastic, insensitive, discriminatory or offensive, there is a chance that:
a) the stranger might be an angry loon; or
b) the stranger might be (like me) usually patient and reasonable, but caught at a really bad moment.
Either way, as a result they might turn around to you and tell you, in no uncertain terms, to fuck off and die. The catalyst is still your comment – not their bad mood. I accept this risk when messaging a stranger. So should you.
My advice? Have a little look at their timeline, their biog… Try to assess whether this is a good moment. Test the water, maybe introduce yourself?
After all, it would never occur to you to eavesdrop in a stranger’s conversation in a pub, pull up a chair and explain to them why they’re an idiot. At least, not without an assessment of the percentile possibility they might smack you in the gob.
With love
Alex
Thursday 22 March 2012
Twitter and The Eggshell Skull Rule « sturdyblog
