It's a Cyber Psych Ward Out There, Beware the Freakshows...

Has anyone ever experienced the creepiness of undue, sinister attention on twitter? I have.

I'm not talking about the harmless ones sniffing around for a cyber fuck. Who cares, one can simply say yes or no. There is no harm done by asking, that never offends me. I mean the types who constantly bombard your DMs with aggressively personal questions, who are always in your face, and if you ignore them, start trying to make trouble for you.

I've recently had 2 such experiences. Both people involved are now blocked. One of them, invented another account and sent me DM after DM trying to get me to bitch about people I tweet with. It was all so fucking transparently an attempt to cause trouble. Eventually I made it clear on the timeline that I knew it was all a sham. Within a few minutes, the account was deleted. Good riddance evil destructive cunt.

A few months ago, there was someone who sent me some very bizarre DMs, not a day went passed that I didn't receive something barely coherent and aggressive. It was like getting a DM from a fucking ape. When I politely made it clear that I preferred they talk to me on public timeline, their tactics changed.

They began to ask me openly as well as obliquely for personal details, and tried to act as though it was a joke. They started to make bitchy comments about me based on tweets I'd sent to others, in other words, they were letting me know that they were watching me. A very close friend later told me he'd received DMs from one of them hinting quite broadly I was an arsehole, didn't he agree? etc etc.

A few days ago, they started to get very nasty. It's my policy to never bother responding when this happens, I just block and forget. It isn't possible to beat the insane, the stupid, the vicious at their own game. They enjoy fucking with people, engage with them -and they've got you where they want you.

I don't doubt that I bring a lot of this on myself. Anyone who says the ridiculous half witted things I do is probably going to invite fixation of some form. But all the same, it's very creepy.

There's a lot more to the story, too much to relate here, but this I found especially unnerving, the 1st psycho I mentioned, would constantly imply both openly and on DM that I was mentally ill, that there was something very wrong with me. I think he got quite frustrated when I told him, that not only did I completely agree, but I also rather enjoyed psychological instability. It's not a point I'm terribly fragile about, but I do wonder though, how it would have affected someone a lot more easily hurt than me...

I have many extremely good friends here that I'm very tight with, I can tell them anything, so on the whole, I don't feel vulnerable or isolated when freakshows fixate on me. But I can't emphasize enough how
unnerving and eerie it is.

I've learned that just because someone has an avatar with something furry on it, doesn't mean they're harmless, twitter is the same as any public space anywhere, the same levels of good nature, evil nature, kindness and nastiness exist. Politeness and friendliness won't save you if someone is out to hurt you. For your own sake, be very very discerning about who you allow into your headspace.