You would have thought that at my great age and considering the vast and varied experience of life I have stumbled in and out of that I would have had more sense than to enter into a social media spat with someone - well wouldn't you? But clearly I have learned nothing over the years and am incapable of taking advice. My family would say they've been pointing that out for years but predictably I've never been able to absorb any part of their combined wisdom.
No - I still know best! With hindsight I have just the sneakiest feeling that she who challenged me, and `challenge' is not really the most apt word, had a great deal more experience of social media combat than me. She proceeded to tear me apart with admirable precision, pursuing me relentlessly over hours. I spent a great deal of time looking up definitions of the terms she was using as she repeatedly accused me of `Gaslighting' her and advised me that this wasn't my `first rodeo'. Despite Googling through the small hours I'm still uncertain what it was I was actually doing to her because I rather thought that she was the perpetrator but there you go!
How often have I advised others to simply ignore verbal insults because sticks and stones break bones but words can't hurt? Well I won't be saying anything like that again for a while. Insults and abuse from behind a keyboard, coming from an unknown adversary are indeed strangely hurtful and I am at a loss to understand why. Little wonder that teenagers exposed to the same cyber vitriol find themselves completely unable to cope with it. I can only repeat - what on earth was I thinking to get involved in the argument in the first place? I should have listened to those who Know Better.
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