This is an essay by a furious Chimamanda. An essay published on the 15th of June about how social media is used to publicly insult others, to settle scores without taking full face-to-face responsibility. She takes the example of two authors that she accepted in her workshops, coached into becoming authors, even considered as friends, that publicly criticised her when at the same time being delighted to use her name to promote themselves. It’s an interesting essay, she has some points, but it seems to me that the two authors she talks about also have theirs. As often, there is no real wrong and right, but maybe a middle way where people could try to meet with resilience and understanding.
“In certain young people today like these two from my writing workshop, I notice what I find increasingly troubling: a cold-blooded grasping, a hunger to take and take and take, but never give; a massive sense of entitlement; an inability to show gratitude; an ease with dishonesty and pretension and selfishness that is couched in the language of self-care; an expectation always to be helped and rewarded no matter whether deserving or not; language that is slick and sleek but with little emotional intelligence; an astonishing level of self-absorption; an unrealistic expectation of puritanism from others; an over-inflated sense of ability, or of talent where there is any at all; an inability to apologize, truly and fully, without justifications; a passionate performance of virtue that is well executed in the public space of Twitter but not in the intimate space of friendship.”