TWITTERING ON | 50 PLUS MAGAZINE
TWITTERING ON
By Angela Kelly
Staying patient is apparently viewed as a more positive trait by others. Research suggests that people who can stay calm in the face of these constant, petty frustrations are more likely to be empathetic, have a more even temperament and suffer less from depression. So if you think you’re going to blow a gasket, just breathe, keep your temper and wait patiently.
Patience is definitely a virtue HAVE you noticed how short-tempered we’ve become as a nation? That famous British cool – the stiff upper lip and stoic approach – seem largely to have faded away in favour of impatience, temper and an unwillingness to understand the other person’s point of view. Take to the road and you’ll see how quickly other drivers push to get past you, even if you’re keeping to the speed limit and sensible about driving conditions. Road rage is now pretty common on a daily basis. According to police figures, there has been a steep rise since 2012 and in one recent year alone there were 18,605 road rage incidents recorded around Britain.
Pets with millions of online followers
Queue anywhere and you’ll quickly winkle out the impatient people. Grumbling turns to raised voices in no time – and this from a nation so used to queuing post-war that our stoicism was the envy of the world.
But just when that all seemed logical, along come ANIMALS with millions of followers on Instagram and TikTok.
In fact, it was hearing about a shocking incident in a Lidl store which reminded me how short tempers have actually become. A woman waiting in the checkout queue felt another customer was taking too long and ended up screaming and shouting at him. Worse, when another woman spoke up for him, asking her to calm down, the woman turned her ire on her …. chucking broccoli at her, bizarrely after scanning it first! Patience is the ability to stay calm while you’re waiting for an outcome that you need or want. According to psychology experts, it comes in three main varieties: interpersonal patience, life hardship patience and daily hassles patience. I suspect the latter causes the most problems for people and the advice is to focus to achieve what you want and to keep your emotions under control. Self-discipline is the key here so we probably need to practise this skill more than others. Yes, life can be irritating and make us impatient but we do need to keep a sense of proportion.
LIKE many people of my generation, it has taken a while to get my head around online influencers and their many followers.
Yes, there are cats and dogs out there in cyberspace who are followed regularly by excited people all over the planet. Nor is it just followers they gain but often lucrative contracts for everything from petfood lines to their own feline fashions and doggy accessories. They sometimes come in twos and threes. Darren and Phillip, alias the blueboys, are two bubbly Staffordshire bull terriers with more than 300,000 followers on TikTok and close to 10 million likes. They wear cute dog outfits and followers are fascinated by their daily lives. For bird enthusiasts, Wolfie and Sharky, two blue parrots regularly showcase their skills doing all sorts of tricks like skateboarding and playing basketball. Now, a black and white cat called Gacek has captured the hearts of tourists visiting Polish city Szczecin. They’ve swapped visiting historical landmarks for a tour with Gacek. He has his own Instagram page and a section on Google maps. Unfortunately, tourists constantly feeding him have made him a little, ahem, portly but he’s still adorable. 9