The views & opinions expressed in this DC FORUM post are only those of its blogger. Your thoughts and any criticisms you may have are welcome and appreciated on the social media avenues of your choosing, including Twitter @DC408Dxtr or in the comments. However, due to the critical nature of this editorial, please be kind.
A Word from the Editor
BY DC CUEVA
This is not one of the usual DCBLOG posts which this site invests much time and effort in to cover the social media reaction to the weekly drama of MTV Reality, or the many stories behind the story that I enjoy being able to do each week on the people you enjoy watching on your TV's. This week's episode of The Challenge and the two-part reunion of Ex On The Beach will be the focus as they always are — along with a preview of A Double Shot at Love, and they will be featured in due course in the coming days. So, no worries… that will be up then for your reading enjoyment.
However - in my six years of blogging, this special FORUM post is definitely one of the hardest, toughest and most difficult of posts that I have ever had to write on here for all of you loyal readers who visit this site regularly, and it comes under special circumstances that's still fresh in my mind having just occurred a few short hours ago. Now, I will get to go from being an objective, third-party who prides on being journalistically independent and takes pride in his excellent work, to becoming - for this post at least - a voice of a fan of the shows you love just like all of you reading this, and to offer my most honest thoughts on something unusual that happened to me this April day.
And by the time you're done reading this spur of the moment post, you'll see a side of me that rarely comes out to play in this world of the social media stans and the divisive nature of an aspect of our culture that, if you follow The Challenge and the other shows this site covers wall to wall, you know exactly what I mean. And perhaps, you'll probably never look the same way again at one of your favorite cast members by the time this post is all done and dusted.
So, if you can take these next few moments to indulge yourself in reading this editorial word from the editor, then it's most appreciated… even if this post will likely offend a section of the audience, although any opinion you may have is appreciated, welcome and respected… although do be kind if you send any hate my way, if any. So, here we go…
As I always do when scrolling through my twitter feed, something I do that is crucial to the unique DCBLOG experience is to like Twitter posts from cast members of the MTV world. It's not because of whose side I am on or what happened on Twitter that has everyone talking… but it's just for the sole sake of being able to feature them in the weekly SocialPulse diaries that cover both the cast interaction during when the episodes air, and what happens in between episodes that often draw as much attention as the once a week on-air drama itself we see on TV.
In this instance which took place just a few hours ago, I favored tweets from both sides of a twitter beef that took place today between two MTV cast members: one who's been on both seasons of Ex On The Beach USA, Angela, and one who's been on several seasons of The Challenge and who appeared on the first Real World season I got to fully engage myself in the social sphere in back in 2012, St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. It's hard not to engage yourself in the 280-words or less warfare that takes places on Twitter, not only among MTV'ers but also our entire society especially with our President in charge and no idea of what he will say next that will divide our already divided nation even more.
It was just seconds after I favored those tweets where I found that my number of twitter accounts I follow and those who follow me had gone down by one number… as did the twitter list I have of every cast member of those who are on The Challenge and Real World. It was there that I had found that the one of the castmates who I followed for a long time had blocked me on my twitter page. And when I made my one request to ask them to unblock me through my secondary DCNOW account, that too also got rejected and I was blocked on there too, also by a snap judgement that didn't take that much thought into my actions which were also right at the heat of the moment.
Out of nowhere, someone who had a nice Friday and who had looked forward to getting to work on this week's content on this very site suddenly had become heartbroken, almost as instantly as one getting a phone call about one's infidelity causing a breakup of a long, fruitful and seemingly safe relationship. I asked myself, "Why could someone who I had become great friends with over the past seven years decide to turn their back on me for one petty move? And what did I do to get this unjust punishment that I didn't deserve at all?" Understandably, I have been feeling emotional about this, although not maybe as much as super-fans do which I don't consider myself as.
This is the reason why I have just changed both the header and avatar on my Twitter account from a picture of the cast of The Challenge War of the Worlds and a selfie of me to simply all black. And the avi now displays three words: "I AM DC" with my social media handle below. And if it's familiar, then it is if you follow the NBA as much as me and my family do: it's inspired by the bold message of unity in black and white that the Los Angeles Clippers sent out after the racial controversy during the 2014 playoffs that brought down their former owner Donald Sterling, and gave Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and the team the chance to stand up for themselves in the face of adversity… just as what I am doing right now with all of you here. That color of black also happens to represent the many feelings I am feeling that are too many to identify as I write this.
Normally, as someone who's even-tempered all of the time online, I don't get the chance to voice my opinions on DCBLOG in regards to anything that relate to what's going on with anyone in the MTV community. The Pulse diaries, the ExtraTime stories, episode recaps and an occasional non-reality related post is more important to me than joining everyone else in offering their two cents which you'd readily get on Twitter and on other sites and podcasts, which I get to do myself sometimes around the usual weekly episode coverage and at the end of any given season or year.
But it's only in exceptional instances such as these do I take a step to take a stand and publicly denounce a cast member for their behavior, which for this case it's in relation to their online activity and not for what we see on TV - just as it might be the case most of the time. Today represents one of those rare times where I will take this chance to put someone on blast by calling them out publicly and putting them in their place by having to mention their name — full name & social handle included. And also, it's best to do it on here on the blog in its expanded form instead of airing it out on Twitter in flooding your timelines with useless & endless threads that can annoy some of you.
It's something that, you could say, is morally unjust and a classless thing to do to call them out in this manner, but to me it will be worth it for the sake of cautioning those who are being targeted that what they did was not a good move on their part and should take a second look at it, even if it will take sacrificing some support along the way. And I have done this before: all-time beast of The Challenge Laurel Stucky and three Are You The One alums — Ashley Hall and Garland Brown of Season 2 and Camille Satterwhite of Season 4 — have been publicly shamed on here before for blocking this fan on Twitter, and now, unfortunately, a fifth person will this thing I like to call, "The Blast List."
So therefore, I am left with no choice but to do the following. The person who I am adding to The Blast List is…
MARIE RODA
Twitter @Marie_TBD
I have been good social friends with Marie since Real World St. Thomas and The Challenge Battle of the Seasons in 2012 - the same year that I joined Twitter. And I also enjoyed watching her on Invasion, Dirty 30, Vendettas and Final Reckoning in bringing back memories of the first summer that I got to interact directly with any MTV reality cast, let alone the show I've grown up watching and the sister show that's taken over its original sibling in terms of interest among viewers.
It's an unfortunate, a sad and a much more premature move to have this good friendship between me and Marie suddenly end on such a sour note as this bogus move of hers in someone who is taking social media too seriously deciding that a liked tweet from someone who she was arguing with and who alleged that I was siding with Angela when, in actuality, I was just favoring it for the sake of getting to have it featured in this site's diaries to get to feature both sides rather than be one-sided in favor of one or the other, and for you the public to check out then.
I believe it was a poor judgement on Marie's part to block me that should be have been given second thought which unfortunately has led to this just hours after this had just happened. And all of this after she cautioned everyone that she has the right to block anyone for their social media activity whether they follow her or not. For this, I will never have the opportunity to interact with her - unless something happens otherwise, and thus I'll never feature her in my posts again despite being someone who's been on her side since June 27, 2012 - the night of her Real World season premiering.
Marie, if someone sent you this post on and are happening to be reading this, as I told you earlier, I DID NOT mean to offend you in any which way to offend you in any which way that would see me deserve to get this cruel punishment when it was only for something as simple as an action on Twitter, which I feel was an accident. For that reason, I am sorry for what I did to you.
I know that I have been a fan of yours, and do like you and love you as a fan of yours from day 1. And I am asking in this public appeal in front of all of my loyal followers to ask you to unblock me on my social media accounts at @DC408Dxtr. And once again, I sincerely and truly apologize if I would make you mad, which I never intended on doing.
Otherwise, if you haven't, then you've lost a great friend, follower and fan who's supported you from the beginning. I wish you all the best and hope I get to see you on a future challenge, and hope we get to cross paths and make up after this tremendous misunderstanding.
If you are a fan who has been through the same experience that I have experienced and are reading this, feel free to share your thoughts on having gone through this experience of your favorite cast member blocking you on social media for no apparent reason on Twitter and on here. I thought of all of you when I thought about doing this post in me taking this chance to courageously call them out in this post on your behalf, and hope you'll find comfort in having related to this unfortunate matter.
To the rest of you who have stayed loyal to me all these years, thank you all for your continued support. You are all truly the ride or die's who've continued to roll with me, and do appreciate being part of Team DC. Thanks for your time reading this tough but necessary post, and good night.
- I AM DC
#TeamDC
No comments:
Post a Comment
Got something on your mind? Let us know! But please be mindful and do not post spam or negative comments (due to that, all comments are subject to blogger approval... and we reserve the right to disable these sections if things get way out of hand).