This morning I opened up Twitter and fell into a deep, dark hole reading about author Rebecca Renner and her decision to publicly live-tweet flying across the country to tell the “love of my life” that she loves him, only to be rejected. Yeah, that one. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, strap in.
The story goes that over the weekend Rebecca Renner, who has over 100,000 followers on Twitter, tweeted that a personal tragedy reminded her that life is uncertain and too short.
“So I booked a plane ticket, and I’m about to fly across the country to tell the love of my life how I feel,” she tweeted, with a selfie of herself at an airport.
“Wish me luck! And don’t wait another day to tell those you love that you love them.”
Renner’s tweet immediately went viral, copping hundreds of responses from people around the world who demanded to know what happened next. But despite Renner tweeting that she felt like she was living in a romance novel, her story didn’t have a happy ending.
The man she had flown across the country for had turned her down.
“Well, this is me in my shitty motel room after getting rejected,” Renner tweeted.
“I don’t know whether to be sad or angry, but I’ll live to love another day. Hopefully that love will be for someone who values it.
“Sorry to disappoint you, Twitter.”
Renner has since set her account to private, but more on that later.
After the dust settled a little on Renner’s cross-country quest for love, people started to really think about it. They read up on Renner’s relationship with the man, who she had openly tweeted about earlier this month, and how she wanted to write about it and submit the story to the New York Times’ hugely popular Modern Love column, or turn it into a film.
On her way to declare her love, Renner wasn’t at all shy about wanting to turn this into something profitable. She even shared the name of her film and TV agent. And I can totally understand this if it had already happened, but Renner was tweeting this live, without the – I assume – consent of the man.
I, for one, would hate it if I was on the other side of this situation. It’d feel invasive, no? And embarrassing, and not quite as romantic as first thought.
I think it’s pretty clear that Renner built up this Modern Love plot in her head, without really considering the feelings of the other person involved.
And it probably didn’t help that so many people were egging her on as well, in the same vein as “Plane Bae” from 2018. Remember that?
After Renner’s story went viral, the New York Post interviewed the author about it, which is when things started to take a turn. Because not only did Renner share an (odd) update, she also named the man in the article.
“[We are] both being forgiving of each other … we both think it’s worth it to make an effort to be kind,” she told the New York Post.
What happened next? Well.
https://twitter.com/_ElizabethMay/status/1396404885390757888
I’m always uncomfortable when someone tailors a real-life experience into a cutesy tweet thread intended to go viral, with zero apparent awareness that maybe the person on the other end does not want a private, personal moment to be watched breathlessly by the internet.
— Elizabeth May (@_ElizabethMay) May 23, 2021
All the replies to that thread going “HE DOESN’T DESERVE YOU! HIS LOSS!” and I am just like: maybe we should not judge this guy who is unknowingly the subject of a viral tweet thread written by a woman clearly angling to make money. All I see are red flags, frankly.
— Elizabeth May (@_ElizabethMay) May 23, 2021
It’s the most blatant attempt at going viral and getting a book deal that I’ve ever seen on this hellsite, not to mention creepy as heck. She so clearly views this guy as like, a character in the great romance narrative of her life, and not as a PERSON
— Anwen Kya ????️???????????????????????????????????????? (@Kyatic) May 23, 2021
On top of the 100 red flags, I just cannot fathom inviting the whole world to watch me potentially get rejected.
When I was job hunting I wouldn’t even tell people I had an interview in case i didn’t get an offer lmao.
— Katie Elizabeth ???? (@katsyxo) May 23, 2021
The Rebecca Renner thing is the absolute peak of meetings that could have been an email.
— Lindsay King-Miller (@AskAQueerChick) May 23, 2021
woke up to that Rebecca Renner thing and… christ
— kmhez (@yourtitakate) May 24, 2021
As I mentioned earlier, Renner has set her Twitter to private while the discourse continues online. Who knows if she’ll end up writing about this for Modern Love, but I think there’s probably a lesson in here about maybe, just maybe, letting some tweets sit in drafts.
