This was part of my reason for ramping down on Social Media for the summer. Because, obviously.
I’m up on my soapbox to bitch about the annoying shit I see all over the Facebook and the Twitter and the Pinterest and the Instagram and…what’s next? As soon as a new app comes out that seems awesome and fun to use and useful, even, the world catches on and people start to spoil it. I mean, just look at what happened to email. Who even checks their email anymore? I loved my email but my inbox is cluttered with junk mail and pitches so now people find it easier to DM me on Twitter or PM me on Facebook and how formal can you be in 140 characters? Sometimes I find it all so annoying that I have to step away from the technology and unplug from the social cloud because of the way people ruin my favorite online playgrounds.
1. Hashtag abuse. Since the advent of the hashtag, which I maintain still isn’t really necessary because all of these apps have search functions that allow you to search for a word and find the results whether or not they are hashtagged, too many people have gone way too crazy with the little number sign. Once upon a time it was fun to see people’s ironic hashtags in a tweet. But now you see 100 hashtags on Instagram photos, Facebook posts, and FLTOG, now Pinterest. Kill me now. it would be one thing if you, Hashtag Abuser, put one or two hashtags into a post that is meant to be informative and help people find your content if it is relevant. Tags like “instalove” and “killmenow” and “ilovepizza,” if they are preceded or followed by 80 other hashtags that make even less sense. You might as well tag it #Ihaveanawesomelife. Which brings me to my next peeve.
From iownthepackers on reddit:
“I#can’t#stand#when#people#feel#the#need#to#hashtag#every#single#word#in#their#post.”
2. Humble brags. This is such an obnoxious problem that there is a Twitter feed just to call people out on them. (It hasn’t been active in a year but it’s worth reading the archives. https://twitter.com/humblebrag Hilare.) A humblebrag is when someone complains about their far too fabulous life, and says something like “Aww, my limo is stuck in traffic. Now I’m going to be late for the Grammy’s!” Boo hoo.
3. Vaguebooking. Oh you know exactly what I’m talking about because you’ve done it yourself. “Squee! Life is great and God is good! Can’t tell you why yet!” Or slightly less annoying but equally as frustrating, the complainy vaguebook: “I hate it when people are mean.” I mean, come on. Details, people! You are my Facebook friend! If someone is mean to you I am going to help you feel better by getting your back, but first I need to know who to be mad at.
The VAGUE status drives me batty. Especially when it is painfully obvious that it was intended for only a chosen few. That is what TEXTS are for.
And its cousin – fishbooking. When someone posts a deliberately incomplete announcement, like “I’m so excited about my upcoming trip!” This is a person who is fishing for you to say “WHAT TRIP?” At least give us some details, people. // “I am going on a FABULOUS trip next week.” Or, “I have 12 AMAZING trips/events planned.” OK…to where? What? When? Drives me batty. These are really cool things – tell us details!
4. The super-sweet couple. You’re in love. Your husband or wife or girlfriend or boyfriend the most wonderful person on Earth and you are so lucky to have him/her. I am very happy for you, really I am. And so are all the people who follow your social media accounts. But just as PDA is not appropriate in certain circumstances, your frequent posts about how you are the luckiest person alive because he/she loves you and is your hero? Annoying.
Related: when you and your adorable lover post sappy updates on each other’s Facebook wall all day and everyone can tell you’re sitting right next to each other. There’s a time and place for that, and it’s called Not All Day Long on the Internet. That’s just over the top adorable and you need to be careful with that much adorableness. It’s dangerous.
5. Unauthorized tagging. This has so many ways of going wrong. If you are trying to keep your actual real life activity on the downlow and someone posts a photo and tags you in it without your approval, you’re busted. So you took a sick day and now the whole world knowings you went skiing with your friends. Excellent. Thanks for outing me, pal! Or when someone tags you in a status update on Facebook and then your notifications BLOW UP as all the other people comment and like it and you have navigate over to the post to “stop notifications.” (Yes, it’s a small problem, but again, we’re just talking pet peeves.)
Corollaries of this are people who tag you in photos without asking in general, and people who post photos of that fabulous party that all your friends attended. The one you weren’t invited to, and didn’t even know about until you saw the pictures. Look, if you’re going to have a party and NOT invite one specific person, it’s extra mean to splash it all over the internet to show them what a good time they didn’t have.
6. Making fun of people. Several times a day I see instagram photos of unsuspecting victims in bad outfits, with pretty snarky descriptions calling them out. They are indeed funny, but come on. That’s just mean. Also in this category are parents who call their children assholes in blog posts that go viral, or constantly post images of unhappy kids. Especially when they are supposed to be having “the best time ever.”
Side note: I have nothing against posting adorable images of your babies and kids. Everyone loves cute babies, cute kids, and puppies. Who doesn’t love puppies? People who get sick of your cute kid images should just hide your from their newsfeed or unfollow you altogether. I mean, you’re a mom or a dad. You love your kids. This is different from the sappy romantic stuff people post about their lovers. Don’t ask me how. It just is.
7. Those passive aggressive “who likes me and who ignores my posts?” posts. “This is a test to see if you really read my updates or you just scroll on by…” that kind of thing. First of all, not everyone sees all of your Facebook updates in their stream because Facebook went crazy like that. Same thing on Instagram or Pinterest or Twitter or Google+, especially if your friends are really active, because they follow a LOT of people. If someone doesn’t respond to your deliberate call for headpats, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t like you. It just means he’s got actual stuff to do and his time-wasting hour is over.
8. Annoying memes. My least favorite are the pointless “retweet or share to support breast cancer” type posts. Um, we don’t want to support cancer, for one thing. And my retweeting your tweet isn’t actually going to help anyone. Unless there is a specific campaign by a person or company with actual money who has pledged to send $1 per share to a research project or something, which you don’t really know if that’s true until you click through a jillion links to find the supporting information, then this is bogus and you are not a bad person if you don’t forward the message. In fact, you’re doing us all a favor but not adding to the clutter of the Internets by staying away from that “share” button.
9. Feed flooders. Sometimes I pop into my Pinterest main page or my Instagram feed to see what the peeps are up to. And sometimes this is a very bad idea, because one of the people I follow has just had social media diarrhea all over the place. One hundred pins of turquoise knitted sweaters and Polvyore boards pinned on Pinterest. Photos from twenty different angles of the amazing view from my #hotel #room on Instagram. I’m scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, and finally I get past what THIS person just did so I can see what everyone else is posting. Guess what that gets you? An unfollow.
10. Kids on social media. There are age minimums for social media apps and they are there for a reason: nobody wants their kids to see some of the nasty stuff shared on social media. I’ve seen more and more children starting blogs, which can be fun for them, but parents have to be really careful about who can comment and how that information is presented. There are plenty of companies that foster safer social media for children (KidzVuz, a video sharing site, comes to mind) but young kids on Instagram, or Facebook? If you let your kids use these apps, you should be prepared to put the time in to monitor what they can see and make sure their behavior is not inappropriate. And if you get that weird friend request from your 10 year old nephew, by all means exercise your adult option to not accept. Call him or his mom and explain why. Even if YOU are really careful about what you say or post, you can’t control the what your friends do, and they might post a snarky or inappropriate comment that you’d hate your young relative to see.
Bonus: People who quote themselves. Especially when they make their inspiring sentence into a pretty square that they can pin on Pinterest. That’s just the pinnacle of self-importance, isn’t it?
My current pet peeve involves a few pretty close friends who think that I should know what’s going on in their lives because they posted it on Facebook.
I’m talking IMPORTANT stuff. Like illnesses, deaths, births. And they get mad at the friends who don’t email or call or text personally after they’ve broadly announced something to the WORLD.
If we are good friends and you want me to know something, TELL ME.
Don’t assume I’ll find out while scrolling through social media.
Right?
julie gardner recently posted…On Having to Write
I”m with you Julie! That is mine too! I understand the importance of having to spread information quickly sometimes and the convenience of doing it via social media. But if I didn’t happen to log onto Facebook that hour/day/days (yes, shocker, I sometimes won’t log on for a whole weekend!!!) don’t be mad at me because I didn’t know you’re mourning the loss of your pet parakeet that was eaten by your cat when he was stressed out by the loud barking of that damn dog next door!
It’s not my responsibility to read about the important things in your life, it’s your responsibility to tell me!
Phew! That felt good. (Now let me text you a photo of the craziest outfit I saw today…) 🙂