DEAR MISS MANNERS: I am a divorced woman. An acquaintance who is a married man “waved” to me on social media.
How do I interpret this? Might it be an innocent hello, or is he inviting me to an online flirting relationship? Is it rude not to respond? I have no interest in flirting with a married man.
GENTLE READER: Then don’t ...?
While Miss Manners may not be well-versed on the secret codes of social media flirtation, she is certain that if it is not acceptable to do in real life (or IRL, as the young people call it), then it should not be replicated with icons.
A wave, therefore, seems perfectly innocuous. But of course, if its reciprocation is met with images of more suggestive body parts or items of produce, it can and should be shut down by the enemy of all things internet: silence.