Here's Why You Shouldn't Tweet Threats As A Joke To American Airlines

Every once in a while a story comes along that reminds us that Twitter can be used to connect people worldwide, spread important messages or say very, very dumb things to an audience of millions.

Today is one of those days, thanks to @QueenDemetriax, who said a very, very dumb thing to @AmericanAirlines:

@QueenDemetriax claims she’s just a 14-year-old girl who really likes Demi Lovato, which checks out based on her past tweets. American Airlines probably figured that out, but are they supposed to assume that an ill-advised 'joke' is just the stupidity of a self-identified "14-year-old white girl" and carry on?

Of course not, which is why you don't tweet things like this to American Airlines. Like the kid who wrote this Facebook post the day of a bomb threat at his high school: "Plot twist: They don't find the bomb and it goes off tomorrow," and subsequently got suspended for almost a month.

Or Anthony Wolfe Jr., who announced a local high school was about to "get shot up" and was later sentenced to four years in prison.

As dumb as @QueenDematriax’s tweet is, we shouldn’t crucify her for being an immature kid who said something dumb, because everyone has something they’ve said or done as a kid that they regret. There is an important lesson here though:

As silly as it sounds, Twitter is real. The people are real and like any other place on the Internet, no one knows who you really are. What you say and post online is real and if it’s bad enough it will last forever in countless screenshots no matter how hard you try to erase it, and there will be real consequences.

So while this girl will spend her Sunday trying her best to make sure her parents don't find out about this, we can all sit back, have a laugh and remind ourselves to think a little harder about what we'll tweet in the future. In a week's time, @QueenDematriax will be fade in our memories, the lesson will be forgotten and someone else will say something very, very dumb on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

We may not ultimately take any lasting lesson away from this, but maybe there's some solace knowing that at perhaps someone at the FBI working the Sunday shift will get a good laugh when he receives this tip.