….well not really at all! However there is a little story I’d like to share with you……. Yesterday I had a slightly different thing happen to cut through the day-to-day school run, work type of thing. I got retweeted by Piers Morgan …not the biggest thing to happen I agree but to me it added some excitement, a bit of a laugh and certainly an eye-opening experience to my day.
Here’s what happened…. I like to watch Piers and Susanna on Good Morning Britain in the morning as I think the whole ‘thing’ they have going on is pretty compelling and takes me back to the type of chemistry of Johnny and Denise on the channel 4 Big Breakfast sofa years ago (too early for some and a throw back memory for others). To be fair I think the whole team has a good balance and it suits me to have it on while I’m doing all the things I need to do to get the family ready for the day ahead. Yeah it’s sort of yelling, telling the boys to hurry up and putting my make-up on in the dark with normally tango faced horror results….normal stuff.
So, later in the day while I was scrolling through my phone, after work and waiting for my car to get sorted I came across a link to an article. It was about how Ewan McGregor had left the GMB studios where he was scheduled to be interviewed by Piers and Susanna because he found out it would be Piers interviewing him. Now apparently he then left because he disagreed with some comments Piers had made about a recent rally in America where people had flooded the streets of Washington in protest to the Trump administration. This link then took me to an article Piers had written in the daily mail in response to this.
Now, by this time I am stressing in the garage because the kids are due to come out of school in 20 mins and the garage I’m in is 15 mins away from there and my car is nowhere to be seen. I had already given the receptionist the story of how I needed the car quickly because of the kids etc but nevertheless the car is not there. I decided to read this one article so that I could divert my stress and give them another couple of minutes to produce my car and set me on my way. The article was really pretty good, a little direct and clearly taking a swipe at Ewan McGregor but it was direct and made some good points about pointing the finger and being able to debate if you feel strongly about something. It also made me smile in the ‘oh my goodness this will set the cat amongst the pigeons’ sort of way. So, because I enjoyed it I tweeted it and tagged Piers Morgan in – just because I felt like it at the time.
I then leapt up and made another plea for my car which by sods law was being driven round to greet me just as I was starting to huff and puff at the receptionist. I didn’t think anything of the earlier tweet until I stopped outside school, amazingly still having a couple of minutes to spare and checked my phone. To my surprise Piers Morgan had decided to retweet my tweet! Now bearing in mind he has over 5 million followers it has the potential to get quite a bit of coverage. I smiled at that and though it would be a good story to tell the boys when they came out of school, a little bit of fun to add to the ‘what we all did today’ stories that we fill up our home run with.
When we got home I had another quick little look and realised that there were a few comments coming through that were OK and people were retweeting which was ok but I started to see that some were being really rude and offensive. I just stood there and was really taken aback. What was strange was the strength of either love or hate towards Piers Morgan and now me by association. Any real message was getting lost, pushed aside by people’s twitter relationship with the man himself.
When I wrote “Great and interesting read, spend 5 minutes and have a look” In my naive head I meant just that, that I thought it was interesting and because it had fitted right in with the 5 minutes I had I tweeted words to that effect. No more – No less.
What people seemed to read into that was…. 1. I think everything Piers Morgan says is true. 2. I agree with everything Piers Morgan has said, did say and will ever say, whenever that may be. 3. I’m an awful person for reading anything that he writes.
Such an eye opener because shock, horror but I don’t know him and he doesn’t know me and I’m sure that there would be many things to disagree on. Exactly the same as my own nearest and dearest to me have different views which we can all talk about and get an understanding of even if we don’t agree.
What I did learn from this merest of delicate brushes with the wider twitter world outside of my cosseted blogger circle? Well, First and foremost I learnt that I need to think before I tweet. Secondly there are loads of people just waiting to pounce and shout their views, however mean or bitchy they come across they seem to revel in that outlet. But thirdly….. and on the flip side – look at this photo!!!
The one and only time I’ll see stats like that! Now it’s back to the world of being happy with 3 retweets for me!
Wow, what an interesting day you had… Yes, the twitterworld scares me to be honest!! #globalblogging
Social media is a funny fickle thing, I once tweeted a picture where I was dressed like Dr who and it went mental and I had lots of Dr who based followers that all swiftly un followed me when they realised it was a one off post.. Its a shame you had people tweet negative things to you for sharing an article that you suggested people take a look at, not that you were saying you were off to marry Piers..it is a vv impressive reach though! #fortheloveofBLOG xx
Thanks Jade, I love your Dr Who story too. It’s a funny old world of blogging and twitter and I guess I learn something each day x
Wow you went viral on Twitter!! I can’t believe how people online are so quick to judge. All you said was “good read” and that apparently means you agree with all his points?
I hope you took it all with a pinch of salt.
Thank you for linking up to #KCACOLS and I hope to see you back again on Sunday x
Really interesting post. I read that article and agreed with certain points Piers raised. I admire Piers, always have. He has the courage of his convictions and is a bloody good journalist. PS. He follows me on Twitter – literally my life was made the day he hit that follow button! #globalblogging
Omg you have got celebrity clout, I’m impressed:)
Haha what a fab afternoon, it would definitely have made me smile! It always amazes me how many people are lurking in the shadows but ultimately this is something to have a good giggle about! Thanks so much for linking up #Blogstravaganza, it’d be great to see you again next time xx
Now I see what it takes to get viral on twitter ;))). People will always judge and see things the way they want to with no reasonable argument. With social media it’s even easier to be passive agressive and sh… on others… Just don’t let it get to you! 😉 Thanks for linking with #globalblogging
Too true:) and there seems to big far bigger things happening since then!:) Mainy x
You went viral! I see you posted this before Piers’ latest article where he slams Trump for his immigration ban, (despite being friends with the guy. Yeah friends with Mr Orange!). So he’s seen sense at last though it’s still all about Piers.
I had a run in with something similar a couple of weeks ago. One of my posts was published by Mail Online with 29m readers but did this prevent the trolls? No. I couldn’t belEEVE some of the comments. My favourite was that my cartoon post didn’t do justice to a serious newspaper (or something like that). Trouble is the news is no longer tomorrow’s chip paper and it’s there forever. At least you, and I, weren’t photographed in a state of undress that would remain for perpetuity on Google images. People who have nothing better to do leave comments. Oops that’s me ! 😉 jo #eatsleepblogRT
Lol I love your comments:) I’m going to check out your article too x
Haha, it was definitely a fair comment to make. But there are always going to be people who both love and hate what you’ll write – you’ll never win! 🙂 On a plus side, those stats are frame-worthy! Haha #KCACOLS
Really good read and wow people still manage to amaze me on twitter, they have such a strong opinion and not afraid to say it. I know a few times I have wanted to say something but stopped myself from doing it. #EatSleepBlogRT
Two things. 1. Peirs Morgan is a knob but that doesn’t make you one but people only ever see what they want to see. 2. I had a tweet read out on The Last Leg once. #kcacols
Yes that’s true. Love that you had a tweet read out, that’s the fun side of doing this:) thanks for commenting x
Ha ha good for you chick! I think it was a perfectly fair comment – people are very passive aggressive on twitter so take no notice of the negative ones xx #KCACOLS
I daren’t share this now!!! I’m scared! No, I’ll be brave and share this post because I really like it! #Fortheloveofblog
I know! I felt scared writing it and then more scared publishing it!:)