Going Live on TikTok: The Modern Day Greek Tragedy of Love and LOLs
Oh, dear reader, gather ’round. Let me regale you with a tale dripping with the poignancy of 21st-century romance, social media melodrama, and just a dash of eyebrow envy. This scintillating story has unspooled from the annals of a real Reddit post penned by a real human being. Grab your popcorn, because Roger is about to dish out the tea, piping hot.
The Setup
Meet our protagonists: a 20-year-old woman (henceforth known as TikTok Queen) and her boyfriend (the Boyfriend of Emotional Turmoil, or BET for short). With a relationship nearing its one-year anniversary, these two lovebirds found themselves embroiled in an issue as old as time but updated for the digital age.
The TikTok Queen boasts a substantial 200k following. She’s kind of a big deal on the Tok, but she doesn’t flaunt her clout—she’s grounded, you see. Despite rarely posting, she decides to go live to discuss something as riveting as the upcoming elections in her country. What a civic-minded queen!
The Drama Unfolds
As all gripping dramas begin, the TikTok Queen informs BET of her noble intent. BET, apparently not the world’s biggest TikToker, rolls his eyes but concedes. All seems well in digital paradise—that is until the live begins.
Oh, the horror! The chats fill up with men dropping flirtatious comments faster than you can say ‘block button.’ Our queen and her trusty moderators are quick on the draw, doing a stellar job of de-weirding the chat. But BET? Not so easily assuaged. Oh no, he’s firing off frantic messages faster than a teenager texting under the table during math class.
The Compliment Catastrophe
The straw that broke the camel’s back? A simple compliment on her eyebrows. Eyebrows, people! The TikTok Queen, ever the gracious monarch, responds with a quick ‘thank you’ and pivots back to the matter of elections. BET loses his marbles, convinced this rando with no profile pic and a username like ‘HotGuy1234’ is some nefarious gentleman caller. He demands to know if she knows this dude. *Spoiler alert*—she doesn’t.
And did someone say ‘meltdown’? Because BET has one in the middle of her live, forcing our queen to pull the plug on her important civic discourse. Oh, the humanity.
The Day After Drama
Determined to press on with her voting advocacy, TikTok Queen plans another live for the following day. She’s on FaceTime with BET, who’s already got a hair-trigger from the previous eyebrow compliment fiasco. He grumbles, mumbles something about not caring, and gives her the classic passive-aggressive ‘do whatever you want.’
Confident, albeit exasperated, our TikTok Queen goes live despite BET’s apparent discontent. Barely five minutes in, her phone lights up—it’s BET, professing that he can’t stand it anymore. The cherry on top? He calls it ‘indirect cheating’! Yes, you read that right, CHEATING because another man dared to compliment her eyebrows in the chat.
The Saga Concludes
If TikTok lives are a crime, our queen is hereby sentenced to an eternity of scrolling through BET’s passive-aggressive texts. She defends herself, explaining her rare use of her platform to do some good in this world and apologizes for not stopping mid-live to address BET’s insecurities. She thought, perhaps naively, that discussing politics and encouraging voting might—oh, I don’t know—matter more than immediately fielding his messages.
So here we are, left to ponder: Was she selfish? Is she the you-know-what?
Roger’s Sassy Verdict
First off, props to TikTok Queen for using her platform for something more substantive than lip-syncing and dance trends. Let’s be real: getting 200k eyeballs on anything remotely political is a Herculean task in this age of fleeting attention spans.
BET, darling, sweetie, honey—I’ve got news for you. If ‘indirect cheating’ is a thing, then I’m an astronaut. Your insecurity is your problem, not hers. The girl’s trying to save democracy for crying out loud! And calling TikTok lives ‘low-life’? Boy, who made you the keeper of cultural standards? Last I checked, this is 2023, not 1923. Platforms evolve, and so should your perspective.
So there it is. TikTok Queen, keep slaying. BET, maybe spend some time reflecting on why you’re so threatened by a compliment on your girlfriend’s eyebrows. Spoiler: It’s not as deep as you think.
Till next time! Roger out.
Original story
I know it sounds really dumb, but I genuinely can’t tell if I’m in the wrong or not anymore. For context, my boyfriend and I (20M and 20F) have been together for almost a year.
I have a decent following on social media (200k on TikTok) even though I don’t post much anymore.
Recently, I decided to go live on TikTok to talk about the upcoming elections in my country. I never go live, but I figured this was an important topic and wanted to use my most popular platform to discuss it.
I told my boyfriend beforehand since it felt kind of embarrassing and i wanted to update him on why i was about to do it. He seemed weirdly annoyed but ultimately agreed.
During the live, he kept messaging me in private to stop because “weird men were flirting with me in the chat”. It’s true, there were some men complimenting or trolling, but I didn’t engage, and my mods and I were constantly blocking them.
I also kept making comments like “if you comment weird stuff you will get blocked” to indirectly reassure him.
At one point, I got a compliment on my eyebrows and replied with a quick “thank you”, then went back to elections. My bf saw that and started to argue with the chatter, asking me in private if I knew him.
I didn’t, but my bf went on his profile and saw it was a guy. He had no profile pic and a random username so i didn’t know.
He got really mad, and the chat got crazy, so I stopped the live. I didn’t answer my bf’s text right away since I didn’t want to address it while live but reassured him in private afterwards.
The next day, I decided to go live again since it was the day before the elections. I was on FT with my bf when I told him, and he got more annoyed, saying he hates it when I go live but that “he doesn’t care anymore” and “I can do whatever.
” I knew he was upset, but I felt he was being unreasonable, so I went live despite his disagreement. Five minutes in, he called me, saying he can’t take it anymore, initially claiming it’s “indirect cheating” because of the men in the chat, but then admitting he’s embarrassed because “going live on TikTok is low-life” and he can’t have his gf doing that.
He also said I was negligent toward his feelings for not pausing or stopping the live to respond to his messages the other day. He felt disrespected because not going live was a small favor he asked, yet I chose to be selfish.
I explained that I know TikTok lives are often associated with “cringe,” but I wanted to use my most popular platform to speak on elections and encourage voting. I apologized for not responding right away the other day, thinking it was best to wait until I ended the live, given that I was at peak viewers and mid-answering questions about candidates and it’s rare that I use my platforms like that anymore.
However, he still thinks I’m in the wrong, and I don’t want to make him feel disrespected.
Was I being selfish for still going live? AITA?