Starry Night Thoughts

The Dreaded Private Message

You're writing on Wattpad and leave for your home page for a second. A red dot catches your attention. A rush of adrenaline hits you and, like a maniac, you check your notifications.

And see a private message.

Now, let me be clear: I have nothing against private messages.

Except for maybe the fact that they're private.

I'm not really a fan of them. I mean, they're fun to get. I've actually talked to a few people through them. It's just the issue of not knowing who is on the other end.

Here's an example.

I'm Noa Calleigh. I am male, and 17 years old. I live in New York.

Believe me?

I fooled you if you did.

I'm really Amie Washbourne, a 27 year old female who lives in Washington state but is originally from Ukraine.

That's another lie.

Some of what I just wrote (in the first example) is true. Some of it isn't.  I don't say my age or gender on here, although I am somewhere between the age that you can write and 120, and I'm either male or female. I have said that I live in the U.S. but I haven't been specific where.

I don't specify because of anonymity. I'd rather you not know who I am. I prefer to be private.  Noa Calleigh may or may not be my real name.

Get my point? If I were to walk up to you on the street and tell you what I said in the first example, you would know if I was lying or not. Same with the second.

But online, you have to take peoples word for it. You have to put some sort of trust in these people that they aren't serial killers or anything.

There are two people on here that I know personally, and they know me. So, they know if I'm lying or not.

(No, you two. That does not mean to comment what I am or am not lying about.)

Now, I'm not going to bite your head off or anything. The thing I worry about most is if you are going to bite the head off me.

To me, private messaging is the exact same thing as texting, whether we be on a website doing it or not. Wattpad technically sees what we say in private messages, and they can't see our texts, but that's not what I'm getting at.

Only you and the other person can see what you write in private messages. No one else.

And that's where it can get hairy.

Now, while I'm writing this, I am private messaging someone.

Yeah, I know. Hypocritical, right?

But I'm not saying who I am or my age or where I live it anything like that. I'm basically talking about some meaningless things, and then some non-meaningless things.

Sometimes, I have to private message someone. Which, I do, but I try to keep it short. I try to be as public as possible when I talk to somebody on a social media site.

Yeah, yeah. I know. Call me paranoid.

But that's just me.

I'm too trusting a lot of the time. I need to have some paranoia thrust in there somewhere.

And no, I'm not saying that everybody is a sicko. It's just that, some people are--and sometimes you don't know until it's too late.

I still PM people. I probably won't stop. But, I do prefer to keep it open and public. Not private.

So, that's your daily dose of paranoia for the day. Thanks for reading.

Karilyn.

Oops! I meant Noa.

Definitely not Karilyn. Just ignore that.

Bye now!

Noa.