Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Twittering

Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)

I have a Twitter account and I even follow a few, but I hardly ever visit it and don't know how to use it. I got interested in it seeing there news about  a terror action in Mumbai several years ago when Twitter followed it closely and I found lots of information there. Now I don't know where those pages are.

Actually I was going to call this blog: Finns are strange. A Finnish Twitter that had gained some name, tweeted about an elderly guy, who he met in a bus. At the time he was watching news in his smartphone and the guy asked him something like: "Is it all in there nowadays?" This he took to mean that the guy disapproved his using the phone in a bus. So he told the guy: "OK, amuse me!" I cannot remember  how the guy reacted.

I read about this in the Finnish newspaper Iltasanomat, they reported this as news and people sent letters to the editor about it. Some agreed that the guy should not have said that, that he was rude, something about people wanting to be let in peace when they are travelling.

The others thought that the tweeter was rude, the guy was elderly, maybe lonely and just wanted to
talk to someone, was curious of these modern things.

From what was reported I rather thought like the latter, but of course I did not hear the tone of voice or see his expression.

What interested me was how popular this discussion was, it went on page after page. It could be because Finns always like to discuss the Finnish character: are we shy and quiet or what is the truth. I at least have often talked with people in the bus or bus stop quite happily.

By the way this is the bird in Finland that I love the most, the chaffinch. I have a story to tell about it. Otherwise I love the kookaburra.





No comments: