Upset Over The Year of Elan? Chill Out- Here’s Why:
I can’t believe people are SO MAD over the live tweets from @TheYearOfElan – this is the guy who live tweeted one woman’s meltdown over her flight being delayed and the encounter between the two of them.
Some people are writing about how it’s just OH so HORRIBLE to make fun of a woman in distress. If she were having a true emergency, like someone is I dunno dying or something, then yeah I could get that. But it seems her greatest stress is she has to help with the stuffing:
https://twitter.com/theyearofelan/status/406095119561928705
Ok look, we’ve all been there. But I would wager plenty of us have also been on the side that the flight attendants were on: you’re trying to make a customer happy- and there’s not jack shit you can do about a flight being delayed because of you know- like weather or GOD or something.
In these days of social media I think we should all be aware of what are called “YouTube moments”- this is when someone can video tape you being a complete idiot and post it online. And unless you are in your own home if you are in a public space there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it. The only way someone cannot video tape you or photograph you without your permission is if they are seeking to make money off of it- otherwise we are in this era I will call “the citizen reporter” and any event can be considered news.
Does it kind of suck that there is no privacy ANYWHERE?! Yeah it kind of does.
But then again- maybe we shouldn’t be jackasses to those who are just trying to help us?
How many of you have had a customer completely lose it over something you had zero control over?
Let me tell you- I wish I had live tweeted some of the moron things people would say to me when I was a manager at Enterprise Rent-a-Car. Hell I’ve even had my life threatened.
Of course- had the flight attendant been as ass to this lady and she had known anything about social media she could have tweeted it to Delta and the attendant probably would have been fired. Would people be wanting to burn @TheYearOfElan in effigy in that case? Most likely not.
Now I’m going to get back to writing my paper that I should be doing instead- and I might just update this later if I have some more thoughts.
I haven’t read any responses to the situation myself, but my thought upon reading the exchange was this: the problem is that his response wasn’t better than her behavior. He reacted to a person behaving like an ass by behaving like an ass. No matter how much he felt he was defending the victims of her tantrum, his actions seem at least as much inspired by his thrill at being involved in the fued. So instead of one jerk, the world got two. That doesn’t make him a hero.
It also occurs to me to wonder, based on her behavior, whether the shouty woman may have had some kind of mental problem. Something to consider.
Yeah, I can agree with that. I still think it’s rather amazing though.
It kind of reminds me of when my little brother annoys me and I would respond in kind just to annoy him more.
Or when customers would scream at me and I’d just put a big ol smile on my smile and be nice anyway just to make em more mad. Maybe that should have been his response is to come out with- what we call in the South- a “Bless Your Heart” response.