When I do my daily scroll through my Twitter timeline, I frequently notice insulting tweets that are completely unnecessary. These negative comments are usually directed at a certain someone without necessarily “tagging” the person to the comment. This form of cyberbullying is called “subtweeting.” I’m sure all of you have probably heard of this or might have even done it, but you may not know what type of impact it made on the target of your tweet.

Now, I understand that teenagers need to vent about something or someone sometimes, but pointing out someone’s insecurities online, or anywhere actually, is in no way morally acceptable. It just makes you look like a mean person, so stop it. You might feel better about yourself when you decide to post that selfish comment of yours, but what you are really doing is lowering everybody’s mood, self-confidence, and confidence around you.

Teenagers tweet subtweets all the time, claiming that “it’s my way of venting,” and “they’ll never even know.” Well, that’s where you are wrong, anonymous teenager. “They” will find out sooner or later, and when they do, you are going to regret that you had ever posted the mean comment in the first place. And just because you delete it, does not mean that the comment is gone. The friends or the person that the rude comment was directed at most likely will screenshot the post. And not only will you likely feel bad about it, but the person who the post was about will now always remember what you said about him or her.

Whoever made up the saying, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” was a complete liar. I don’t know about you but I think words hurt, a lot. Memories last longer than bruises. Try to understand that what you decide to say on the internet might not always be the best thing to post. Think before you post, tweet, or reblog, because if you were in the other person’s shoes, you probably wouldn’t want someone to secretly tweet something about you.