I was on Twitter recently when I noticed a large amount of tweets insulting one of my friends without directly speaking to them. Many people on Facebook and Twitter constantly complain, gossip or attack someone without using names. This form of communication is known as “subtweeting” because they subliminally tweet about a certain person without any specifics. This is meant to communicate their feelings to the entire twitterverse and the person in question without calling them out or creating a scene.

The issue with this is that it is cyberbullying. Usually cyberbullying is seen as texting or posting something to a person’s wall that is rude or offensive. However, subtweeting is attacking the person without direct confrontation, and it is disgusting. People will tweet things they would never say in real-life because they aren’t afraid of reprecussions, since they don’t directly confront anyone, but this allows really vile and hurtful words to be said.

While I have never been the target of a subtweet (I don’t think at least…but how would I know?), I have had friends referenced on Twitter and the kinds of things being posted about them are vicious. There should never be a reason to say these things, but even if there were it shouldn’t be posted publicly, it should be in a group of friends where it is said once and disappears. Subtweets stay around forever and can hurt more than just the subject, because it can referenced by countless people and hurt the original poster. Some of the subtweets I have seen have been pretty vicious and inappropriate, considering the posters don’t act like they tweet to the person in question.

Subtweeting should stop. If you subtweet, look at what you are about to post and think about how this could be portrayed and why you are doing it. if you actually have an issue with someone, say it to their face and work it out. Don’t fan the fire, put it out.