Bristle

I have become considerably more social in recent years, but retain certain personality traits that probably do not help me in that regard. I don't like being told what to do or what to think, and while this likely does not set me apart from many, the ways in which this antipathy manifests itself may. While watching football with my father, I grew more and more upset at the gall with which the commentators told me what I thought and how I felt about the action on the field. Of course, they have come in for my criticism in the past, so there should be no surprise there.

As I said, I also don't like being told what to do, and there frequently are demands made of social networking site users. Someone will find themselves bored and just order the reader to supply them with diversions. Someone else will find some news article interesting and likewise demand thoughts or an answer to a derivative question they pose. I just don't respond well to that, especially when this is something going out to hundreds. Someone else can provide a tip on a place to eat- I'm not so hard up for validation that I've got to be the one.

What's with these people? Most frustrating of all is that they get results where I don't. I struggle mightily to get responses to things. I'll want so very badly to hear people's thoughts on one thing or another, and I'll go about it in the most decent and respectful way I can- the way that would get something out of me if the tables were turned. Unfortunately, this only brings about one more reminder of how unique I am. Seemingly, what works on me works on no one else. They answer better to people to tell them to do things. That's the only way I have ever managed to make an event happen.

It does occur to me that what appear to me to be technically a demand or an order may not be so in the eye of the maker. Assuming that to be the case, then the problem faced is not one of presumptuousness or imperiousness but poor choice of words. Now more than ever, we must be careful about how we put things since it's increasingly likely that only the words are what come across, and not tone, body language or facial expression. The less someone knows us, the more likely it is that they will take those words at face value as I so often do.