It's one of the most severe passive-aggressive disses of the social media age. It's a belittling gesture of another human being's insignificance. It can lead to introspection, self-doubt and vindictive muttering.
We're speaking, of course, about the Twitter unfollow.
And, it turns out, even sports stars are susceptible to the antisocial action's power to peeve.
ESPN The Magazine's latest issue features a profile of 20-year-old tennis phenom Sloane Stephens, who surged to prominence in January after beating Serena Williams to win the Australian Open. The piece, which hit the web Monday, goes into some detail about a falling-out between Stephens and Williams since the upset victory, and here's part of what Stephens has to say:
"She's not said one word to me, not spoken to me, not said hi, not looked my way, not been in the same room with me since I played her in Australia," Stephens says emphatically. "And that should tell everyone something, how she went from saying all these nice things about me to unfollowing me on Twitter."
Her mom tries to slow her down, but Sloane is insistent. "Like, seriously! People should know. They think she's so friendly and she's so this and she's so that -- no, that's not reality! You don't unfollow someone on Twitter, delete them off of BlackBerry Messenger. I mean, what for? Why?"
But that's not all the Twitter drama. Stephens also responded to this alleged subtweet Williams posted two days after the open:
I made you.— Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) January 26, 2013
"I was like, 'You really don't think I know that that's about me?'" Stephens tells the magazine.
Interestingly enough, back when she won the Open, Stephens was already thinking social media.
"I hope to have a lot more Twitter followers," she said in a televised interview immediately following the match.
She ended up getting that wish, and then some. Stephens' followers more than doubled in the hours following her win and she received congratulatory tweets from Shaquille O'Neal, Dirk Nowitzki, John Legend and other celebrities.
Between the high hopes and unspoken snubs, it seems, Stephens is truly a sports star for the digital era.