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Guy’s Tweet Goes Viral With Nearly 200K Likes After He Shares How A Guy Refused To Swap His Middle Seat On The Plane
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Guy’s Tweet Goes Viral With Nearly 200K Likes After He Shares How A Guy Refused To Swap His Middle Seat On The Plane

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Louis C.K. famously once said “Did you fly through the air incredibly, like a bird? Did you partake in the miracle of human flight, you non-contributing zero?! You’re flying! It’s amazing!”

Despite this comedic, yet positively spot-on reality check, flight is, more often than not, a pain in the back. Maybe it’s the change in pressure, or perhaps people just naturally despise everything about it, and it clouds their minds.

Heck, it’s so intense that you can have second-hand hate coming from people who are not even involved in flying, but hear of a story about it, don’t read the comedic tone and get triggered anyway, spawning a conversation.

Or maybe it’s just Twitter. Maybe.

More Info: Twitter

There’s something about commercial flight that ticks people off so much that even joking about it can cause an online discussion

Image credits: I G (not the actual photo)

Writer and director Zack Bornstein recently went to Twitter to share his odd experience on a flight.

Said odd experience pertains to him and his girlfriend taking a 5.5-hour flight in which the two were sitting one seat apart. One having the window seat, the other—an aisle seat. Why weren’t they sitting together? Well, there was a dude between them.

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“Losing my mind, just offered the aisle seat to the guy sitting between me and my gf on a flight, and he said he’d rather stay in the middle seat between us,” tweeted Zack.

Writer Zack Bornstein recently took a jab at folks who prefer middle seats, and it sparked a fierce conversation among Tweeters

Image credits: ZackBornstein

Image credits: ZackBornstein

What was supposed to be a harmless tweet quickly drew some people to the conclusion that Zack is entitled

Image credits: chalommm

Image credits: PatchySims

There’s a number of reasons why the middle seat is usually seen as the worst seat on the plane. Folks on Quora listed things like not having the convenience of easily reaching the toilet, not having the luxury of looking out the window, the seat doesn’t cost any less than most other seats on the plane, among others.

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Sure, there are upsides—you can chat up 2 people, granted they want to chat with you, and some people find comfort and safety sitting in the middle, as opposed to on the side, so there’s that. But the general consensus is still that choosing the middle seat is a move so weird, it might elicit at least one what’s wrong with you?

And if not entitled, up to no good by “manipulating” plane seating in hopes of winning extra leg room

Image credits: thatGiacomoGuy

Image credits: weloveistcats

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Considering this perspective, Zack took a subtle, lighthearted jab at the whole situation and its interesting blend of awkwardness. Who would ever want the middle seat? Cue the “cc: FBI” follow-up tweet as emphasis.

Well, at some point, folks started missing the lightheartedness of the tweet and a huge conversation kicked off. There was one side of the barricade who started throwing out the e-word… entitled. They called him entitled. How dare he not book seats so he and his girlfriend could be together!

Some pointed out how it’s not cool to supposedly deliberately book the seats on the side for couples, expecting nobody else to book the middle one, leaving an extra empty seat for the couple.

Other argued that there is nothing weird about middle-seat takers—just pure preference

Image credits: SuperJet International (not the actual photo)

Others defended the middle-seat guy, saying that some folk might simply prefer it. They elaborated that the person might have been on the spectrum, or simply felt more comfortable in that seat as flight can be stressful as it is in and of itself.

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And before you ask, yes, he did offer both the aisle and the window seats, so it’s not like the couple tried to swindle him out of a seat or anything.

Image credits: silviabythesea

Image credits: JoINrbs

But then there was the other side of the barricade that took it as a light-hearted tweet about that one rare occasion when someone does actually prefer the middle seat.

Then there was also the obligatory why does Twitter always assume you’re on the spectrum? tweet, poking fun at the stereotype of how the typical Twitter audience likes to assign autism to almost anything and then demand people delete tweets.

Image credits: oliverburkeman

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Image credits: Los Muertos Crew (not the actual photo)

One Tweeter explained that the couple might have been split up because some airlines charge more for preferred seats. And if you don’t pay more, you might end up with whatever seats you get. Or you don’t get to choose at all.

And while everyone was seemingly throwing axes at each other in this debate, there were those who just wanted to share their own seat-swapping experiences. Or just wanted to give a simple explanation to the whole situation: “end the relationship and begin one with the guy in the middle seat instead.”

Zack drew the conclusion that many of these hate replies are “psychotic”

Image credits: ZackBornstein

But there was also the other side of the coin where folks either tried to rebuke the hate, or just shared stories

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Image credits: SunitiAleksson

All in all, you gotta love pure chaos when it comes to discussions. Zack’s response was that most of people’s replies were “psychotic,” seemingly referring to how triggered a lot of people were. But it was a discussion, nonetheless, and points were made on nearly all fronts. You can check it all out in context here.

Image credits: ceruleanspiral

Image credits: RachelBurk8

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Image credits: BallingerMom

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Whatever the case, the tweet managed to rack up nearly 200,000 likes and thousands of retweets as of this article. And the discussion continued onto other platforms, like news media sites that picked up the story.

So, given all of this, what are your thoughts? Do you think picking the middle seat is odd? How would you have approached this entire situation if it was you on either side of this debate? Discuss and share your opinions in the comment section below!

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Robertas Lisickis

Robertas Lisickis

Writer, BoredPanda staff

Read more »

Some time ago, Robertas used to spend his days watching how deep the imprint in his chair will become as he wrote for Bored Panda. Wrote about pretty much everything under and beyond the sun. Not anymore, though. He's now probably playing Gwent or hosting Dungeons and Dragons adventures for those with an inclination for chaos.

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Robertas Lisickis

Robertas Lisickis

Writer, BoredPanda staff

Some time ago, Robertas used to spend his days watching how deep the imprint in his chair will become as he wrote for Bored Panda. Wrote about pretty much everything under and beyond the sun. Not anymore, though. He's now probably playing Gwent or hosting Dungeons and Dragons adventures for those with an inclination for chaos.

Saulė Tolstych

Saulė Tolstych

Author, Community member

Read more »

Saulė is a photo editor at Bored Panda with bachelor's degree in Multimedia and Computer Design. The thing that relaxes her the best is going into YouTube rabbit hole. In her free time she loves painting, embroidering and taking walks in nature.

Read less »

Saulė Tolstych

Saulė Tolstych

Author, Community member

Saulė is a photo editor at Bored Panda with bachelor's degree in Multimedia and Computer Design. The thing that relaxes her the best is going into YouTube rabbit hole. In her free time she loves painting, embroidering and taking walks in nature.

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sturmwesen
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It seems I miss a lot of entitled people by not flying. (Based on the weekly flight stories)

Trillian
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I have no problem with the person staying in their seat, but who tf WANTS to sit in the middle seat?

Lily Siuta
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Im pretty sure this tweet was mostly a joke about how the middle seat guy was clearly a psychopath because he didn’t want to switch. Like, that’s a really common Twitter thing, people are seizing on the wrong thing, esp. when we all know airlines are shite when it comes to seat booking

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sturmwesen
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It seems I miss a lot of entitled people by not flying. (Based on the weekly flight stories)

Trillian
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I have no problem with the person staying in their seat, but who tf WANTS to sit in the middle seat?

Lily Siuta
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Im pretty sure this tweet was mostly a joke about how the middle seat guy was clearly a psychopath because he didn’t want to switch. Like, that’s a really common Twitter thing, people are seizing on the wrong thing, esp. when we all know airlines are shite when it comes to seat booking

Load More Comments
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