Blocking someone online is a neutral act and we need to stop treating it like a declaration of war.
By @brynnkinda · Unpopular Opinion
It's a feature, not a weapon. Curation of your online space is normal. The performative outrage over being blocked is cringe and needs to end.
The full story
it's not that deep. it's literally just a tool to help you not see someone's content or prevent them from interacting with you. why are people writing multi-post threads about being blocked by some rando they had one argument with? a few days ago, someone in a group chat i'm in was complaining that someone else completely outside our circle blocked them on insta after a disagreement in the comments of a meme page. they were acting like they'd been publicly excommunicated. they kept saying 'it's so childish' and 'they couldn't handle the debate' and i'm just sitting here thinking... or maybe they just didn't want to argue with a stranger and decided to remove you from their feed? this idea that you are OWED access to someone's online presence is so weirdly entitled. blocking isn't the same as ghosting a friend of 10 years. it's not some huge moral statement. i block people for all kinds of reasons. if someone's content is annoying, if their hot takes are consistently cold, if they're an ex i just don't want to see updates from, if they reply to every story with something weird -- block. it's digital housekeeping. i'm not obligated to host your content on my timeline. i don't need to write you a dissertation on why i'm choosing to no longer engage. the 'i can't believe they blocked me!' performance is just main character syndrome. you're not the main character in everyone's story. sometimes you're just the annoying side character who got written out of the episode. and that's fine. move on.
How people voted
- Valid Take — 32% (91 votes)
- I’m Torn — 37% (104 votes)
- Bad Take — 31% (86 votes)
Readers are split: “I’m Torn” leads with 37% — 281 votes and 5 comments so far.
What people are saying
@kiraagain — The person complaining just has a fragile ego and can't handle rejection, it's that simple.
@tateforsure — 'Digital housekeeping' is the perfect phrase for it. You don't have to let junk pile up in your own space!
@heyokay — I feel like we're not getting the full story on what the 'disagreement' was actually about.
@ineskindof — If you can't handle hearing an opinion you don't like, you're the one with the problem.
@pia — Doesn't it depend on who you're blocking though?
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