Looking, looking, not liking

I am quite messy with my phone. Anyway, I follow thousands of people and moreover, in the evenings and on weekends, I often hand my phone over to underage girls who turn out to be my daughters. So I sometimes miss a message. Fortunately, the people I love know that and don't take it personally when I forget their birthday, even though it was exuberantly visible on Instagram.

There are people who check all their likes. Did this person give a heart under that nice post? I don't belong to that club, but sometimes I do notice something like that. Then I briefly look at how many people have viewed my Stories and see the list of names. Just as I think: wow, how nice that this person has viewed it too, I suddenly realize that this person never leaves a comment on a post. And before you know it (oh, how much nicer and clearer the world was before social media), you start checking if that person has ever liked a post.

I brush it off as a case of ‘coincidence’ and think that this person is just not the type to be generous with hearts and comments. Until you suddenly see ‘whoop whoops’, dancing emojis, and exuberant comments on a mutual acquaintance's post. And then it suddenly stings. A little. I felt quite childish (come on, you're almost fifty, are you really getting worked up over a like on the left and a heart on the right? Get a life.) when a colleague said she found it so annoying that someone who worked for her never liked her posts. She thought it was passive-aggressive behavior indicating that someone ‘would rather be at another party’ than at her desk every day.

Of course, it's all not a matter of life and death, but I would like to say to everyone: if you check out someone else's account, just give a like. It's free, come on, be nice.