Which SA Celebrity blocked you and why? (5 SA Celebs blocked me)

One of the most artistic aspects of Twitter is that if someone is annoying you or being rude, you can just unfollow them or even block them. I have stuck my fair share of people, and most of the time I’ve done it without presenting it a second thought.

Blocking someone is uncommon because it’s like cancelling him or her from your life. With the click of a button, they are gone. It’s like they never survived. I’ve also encountered being on the other side of a block. When you are the person being blocked, at least for me, it is harmful. It is the ultimate way that someone can send you a distinct message that they need you gone, never to be discovered from again.

Being unfollowed, to me, is no big venture. People unfollow each other all the time for multiple reasons. However, being blocked, on the other hand, implies that person also precludes you from following them; they want you to go away in all ways.

5 SA Celebs blocked me and why?

Bonang Matheba @bonang_m (Love triangle AKA, Bonang DJ Zinhle saga)

Lerato Kganyago @leratokganyago (True Love Photoshop scandal)

Boity Thulo @Boity (Vagina SAMAs saga)

Thembisa Mdoda @tembisa (Probability of Paternity: 0.000%)

Phindile Gwala @Phindile_gwala (weds Congolese beau)

10 Bases Not To Block Someone On Twitter

1. Everyone warrants a second chance

Some people will oppose me here, but I believe this is valid. So someone was a brute to you on Twitter – if they apologise and are real about it, do you think you sway be able to give them a second opportunity to do the right thing?

2. Their tweet was merely the result of having a bad day

We all have sick days every now and then, and we all say stuff that we regret when we aren’t feeling our best. Sometimes we have to just give people a break, even on Twitter.

3. Are you making an emotional decision? Can you sleep on it?

Although it’s hard sometimes, I’ve found that it is best to not make decisions when we are emotional. You want to block someone? Would you consider sleeping on it just to be sure you feel the same way in the morning? If you think the same way when you wake up, then blocking is probably the right thing to do. But chances are, you’ll wake up and think that person is annoying as hell, but you don't believe it is necessary to block him.

4. Alcohol might be involved

C’mon, be for real, you’ve never had too many glasses of wine and then gotten on Twitter? You must be an angel. My personal view on this is that if someone gets on Twitter after having too much to drink and they make a fool out of themselves, they are going to have to deal with the embarrassment and the tarnished reputation the next day. They don’t need me to rub salt in that already fresh wound by blocking them as well.

5. We may have taken their tweet out of context

Online humour is different than ‘in person’ humour because many things do not translate from one to the other. I see it in blog posts and tweets all the time, people trying to be funny but it’s just not working out. Can we give them the benefit of the doubt? Maybe we just took that humour out of context, is that possible?

6. A slip of the tongue

Oh… this is a good one. Watching on Twitter is fun. Someone will send a tweet, and then their very next tweet will be either justifying what they were really trying to say or apologising for how it came out. We all have a slip of the tongue every now and then in real life and on Twitter. I open my mouth and insert my foot on a regular basis.

7. You never know

You never know what is going on at the other end of someone’s tweet. They could be in a terrible situation, and you don’t know about it. Their twitter account could be hijacked by their kids, they could be trying to use Google translator, and it’s not working, they could be in a horrible relationship, and it’s causing them stress. You just never know. My own personal rule of thumb is that they have to be a jerk on more than one occasion for me to block them because I don’t know what is going on with them in their life at that time.

8. Forgiveness is always a better path to take

Wow, I have learned this lesson the hard way, and I’ve learned it on Twitter. When you don’t forgive someone, it’s like you are allowing a snake to bite you over and over again. If you want to break free of that, you have to forgive. Don’t do it for the other person, but do it for yourself. You will feel lighter and happier.

9. Do you have followers to spare?

A friend of mine has 5 followers on Twitter, and she is so cute because she is proud of every one of those followers. Even though she’s only sent about ten tweets, the way she looks at it, she set up an account, she wrote a bio, she found a picture, and she tweeted. That is a lot of work, and she got 5 followers out of the deal. I know for her, if she blocked one, she would lose 20% of her followers which would make her sad. You know I don’t believe that the numbers matter much; however, do you have followers to throw on the pile and write off forever?

10. Karma

As you know, karma is a mother and just be careful you aren’t blocking someone because you want to hurt them, get their attention, or just to be nasty. If you do that, you know you will attract that same kind of followers to you, and it’s not a pretty sight. I saw this play out on someone’s Twitter page about a month ago, and she was so clueless and still kept throwing out insults, and I just wanted to say to her, stop and take a look at what’s happening. However, it’s easy for us all to get caught up in a self-righteous moment, I’ve done it myself a million times. Let’s try to remember about karma next time it happens.