Act like Harry and Meghan

Harry and Meghan did it voluntarily, Uncle Donald is probably still stomping and snorting through the White House because he has been silenced, but all three have been Twitterless since last week. I have had an account for years and haven't used it for years. Occasionally, I receive an email from Twitter telling me that there are notifications for me. For convenience, I assume that those will fall more into the category of ‘old hag with your Chanel bags, do you have nothing better to do than to bother the world with your nonsense about nothing’ than ‘how nice that you provide entertainment and distraction every day and also all for free’, so I leave those notifications as they are.

This weekend I read that someone had received a fine of 1500 euros because he had driven someone else completely crazy on Twitter for so long that the other person filed a lawsuit. Do you know what the response was from the instigator? That the 1500 euros was ‘money well spent’.

Eva Jinek once called Twitter the marketplace from the Middle Ages where people were publicly harassed and hunted. I would now like to call Twitter a witches' den. I was there for a moment yesterday. I had to retrieve three passwords, it had been so long since I had been on it. I was curious if anything was trending, so I knocked on the Twitter gate. The first message I saw was directed at Hélène Hendriks about whom I had just read a really nice interview in Volkskrant Magazine. I won't quote it literally, but it was about her appearance (not positively), she was compared to people with disabilities and the suggestion was made that she would tie a bag around her head and end it all.

My jaw dropped onto the table. My heavens. Because what exactly did Hélène Hendriks do wrong this weekend to deserve this tweet? Hélène herself deserves a statue for her response which was as follows: “And do you have a particular preference for that bag or can I choose that myself? Well, greetings, big kiss, H.” Something like that.

I thought it was impressive of her but actually also too much honor for someone who throws such things into the air. For me, this visit was reason enough to join Harry, Meghan, and Marieke Elsinga. Twitter is doing just fine without me. Lid on and let it simmer there, but I (and now I quote that lovely Famke Louise)? I'm not participating anymore.