S&C contributor and Pompey Politics Podcast host Ian Morris shares his experience of self-isolation as someone with diabetes. It’s Day 9, and Ian says goodbye to some social media friends in a disagreement over an ice cream van.
Tuesday 24th March, Day 9 of 89
We are never, ever, ever getting back together.
I do love a bit of social media. Facebook I find particularly excellent as it gives me scope to keep in contact with all of my friends and acquaintances, along with the odd random person. One of my challenges with FB is the ‘Can I be your friend?’ request: I’ve always felt you would have to be at Disney levels of villainy to say, ‘No, you are not my friend’, so I tend to tap confirm if the person appears to be a genuine human being and I have some vague connection to them.
I have never been great at the act of unfriending either. Prior to this incident, I think I had only ever done it once before and that was to someone who felt they had to detail every aspect of their life every 10 minutes (ok, ok, as a blogger I know I am not shy but it’s only once a day).
So yesterday was unusual in that I had to terminate 2 people from my friends list, both over Covid-19.
I was driven to this unprecedented act by: ice cream.
The Facebook thread opened with:
‘Oh that’s really nice, the ice cream man is driving around the estate and with all the kids at home they are running out to get an ice cream, I guess they might not see him again until September.’
I responded with:
‘Flake? Sprinkles? Coronavirus?’
I got a list of responses along the lines of: ‘Killjoy’, and ‘Dying from ice cream? What a way to go!’
Most of the people posting seemed to think it was all a jolly good laugh and only a few people seemed to get the fact that this pandemic is real.
So the ‘unfriend’ button was deployed and again later in the day. Social media at the moment isn’t as much fun as it was. Let’s face it, these are dark times. What we really don’t need is the dangerously stupid and irresponsible in our lives as we sit here indoors trying to do our simple little bit to try and make this less bad.
So I am done with these people and in the words of one of our greatest lyrical poets, Taylor Swift: ‘We are never, ever, ever getting back together.’
Sidenote: If you have a digital assistant, ask them to play the album Fearless by Ms Swift. It’s a powerful piece of work – enjoy!
Image by sprinter914 from Pixabay.
Don’t miss Ian’s self-isolation diary in the coming days, keep an eye out for new pieces here, along with past editions of the Pompey Politics Podcast.
How are you managing at the moment? Get in touch with us over on Facebook or Twitter and let us know your experiences and any hints and tips you’re finding helpful right now.
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