web analytics

Using Twitter for Friend Advice

January 14, 2010 by 3 Comments

I ask questions on Twitter all the time on a wide variety of topics, and I usually get really useful responses — but never as many as when I ask about interpersonal issues.

A little while ago I posed this question:

“What do you do when someone you really care about won’t respond to your emails & DMs, and won’t tell you why they’ve stopped talking to you?”

Here are a selection of the responses I received. What particularly interests me are the themes of taking the conversation offline and of letting it go. All great pieces of advice.

It makes me feel great to know that there are people out there who are always willing to help. Even in just 140 characters or less.






Related Posts:

About

Whitney Hess is a coach and writer helping product teams and senior leaders make better decisions through the principles of user experience. She believes empathy builds empires.

Follow @whitneyhess

Email Newsletter

Did you enjoy this blog post?
Get more like it delivered straight to your inbox.

  • http://twitter.com/tiagomarques Tiago Marques

    If you're friends, how come you're restricted to emails and DMs? Wouldn't you have common friends as well, routines you do as friends, his/her phone number and/or address?

    Feels like a relationship which has become sterile and too reliable on technology and less on humane affection and contact…

    … but glad someone asked this question anyway, your blog is quite interesting so do keep up…

    Cheers,

    Tiago

  • http://twitter.com/joshshear Josh

    I was on the other end of this for a while — the one not returning emails and phone calls — for about 8 months (we typically only ever spoke once or twice a year, but we were at least pretty good with phone tag).

    I was going through some stuff and you know how some friends fulfill some roles and others don't? I needed to be talking to other people before I was going to be able to hold my own in a conversation with her.

    Sure, she could have Googled me to at least found out I was still alive, but it wouldn't have told her what was actually up.

    Have some patience; caring isn't usually one-way. The other party may just need some time to go through whatever ze's going through.

  • mallydally

    Personally I think the best response comes from the Moon: “Cry.”