When the whole internet turns on you, you’ll find out your real friend count fast. It’ll be small. It’ll be enough.

Mass attention online has no memory and no sense of proportion, and when it swings at you it feels like everyone. It is not everyone. What it does is sort the people around you very fast into the ones who go quiet, the ones who join in, and the two or three who message you directly. That sorting is brutal and it is accurate.

If it ever happens, put the phone face down and go be physically near one of those two or three. Say nothing publicly for a day. When you watch it happen to somebody else, send the message even if you have no idea what to say.