I have been known to be a woman of extremes. For example, I don't believe in buying the small size of Twizzlers-- not only because the pull-n-peel effect is just not as satisfying but also because I don't believe in half-assing it when it comes to playing with my candy food. I've been known to maybe drink a little too much, sleep a little too much, work a little too long. I am a terrible runner, for example, because my entire life has bee spent playing sports where I sprint the entire time, so I usually sprint the first half mile of my "run" and then collapse in a heap on the side of the sidewalk as old people and children go along their merry way. (I've also been known to make old people and children really uncomfortable.)
I feel like our society today drives us to live in extremes-- you don't dislike things, you hate things, you're not angry, you're infuriated. The closest thing that gets to middle of the road is Facebook who lets you like things-- but when you're buried under a torrent of likes, that speaks to itself. And although I am an extreme person in some respects, I can become very neutral in terms of my relationships. Sure, there's people that I absolutely ecstatically love unconditionally so much that I could just follow them around forever, and there's also people I wish that I never had to see again. However, most people fall in the middle and a select few sit in the exact middle-- I exactly nothing them. They don't even have a modicum of being more positive than negative-- they just sit in the middle, riding the fence of my emotions for eternity. If you are one of these people, I don't wish that you stub your toe every morning but I also don't hope that you win the lottery one day. I don't think about you really....ever. And if I do come across interesting facts about your life, I'll utter a non-commital (but polite) acknowledgement noise, "Oh? That's so nice." and then I'll promptly forget that I ever learned that piece of information. Immediately.
One of my friends was remarking on this the other day when we were talking about a mutual friend who just got married. She could tell I didn't really care, but that I was participating solely for the purpose of talking about something I knew she was interested in, and she said it was impossible that I could really "nothing" someone. But I disagree!! "Nothing-ing" a lot of people is actually really useful! Sure, people could move from "Like" to "Nothing", but they can also move from "Nothing" to "Dislike" or "Like"-- I'm not saying I'm an unfeeling monster. I just think that there's hardly enough time for me to pay attention to people I care about, so I really don't want to spend time with people I don't care about. That's where "Nothing-ing" someone comes in. Think of it as the equivalent of a one-way, emotional vacuum. The purest form of emotional efficiency...!
This is not something we should be scared of people. I know we've been conditioned through social media to care about every like, poke, pin, upvote, etc. out there, but sometimes it's good to have nothing. Maybe it even gives us better perspective, I don't know. But I must go. Time to check the likes on my status update.
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