In the age of oversharing, we often find ourselves foregoing better judgment and posting unnecessary, and even intimate details of our lives.
Freedom of expression is being experienced greatly by people from all walks of life these days, except for those whose countries are extremely regulated and monitored, of course. This freedom that we all experience has been overused and misused by some who insistently post things that are better off kept private.
Sure, there is absolutely nothing wrong with posting photos of you, but photos of you crying, isn’t that a bit too desperate and pathetic? There is always a fine line with what is acceptable and what is too much, with what is moderate and with what is pathetic.
What do people post online that make them look desperate
Here are some examples of how you can embarrass yourself online.
#1 The world has enough problems about wars, weapons of mass destruction, presidents wanting to be conquerors, viral outbreaks, and useless deaths. The world does not have time for your woes. Sure, you have the right to post whatever you want, and to use the World Wide Web to vent out your emotions, but then, what are your friends for?
Announcing on your social media network how sad or depressed or alone you are on a daily basis may seem too much. Announcing your loneliness and all the bad things that happened to you will not cure anything.
Go talk to family. Go talk to your friends. You don’t know how many people in the world are suffering more than you are, there are more serious problems like hunger, a spreading virus, being homeless and orphaned, being in debt, having cancer, to name a few, you should be counting your blessings instead.
#2 That angle of yours with your eyes red from crying and with tears streaming down your eyes is not really a flattering angle. Perhaps if you take the photo from above, it will make you look more pleasing and easy on the eyes? To make matters worse, that shout-out you posted online came with a photo of you crying your heart out a couple of minutes later.
The online world does not want to see you at your worst. And it is also not something other people, your friends and family, or potential employers or school officials want to see. Keep these to yourself. It only makes you seem like you’re looking for people to take pity on you. [Read: How the power of words can make or break your relationships]
#3 You are single. You want to have a partner. You want to show the world how good-looking you are – in ways that are a bit too much. You put on makeup or groom yourself and even fix your hair and host your own photo shoot. Why are you doing this? It is not like you are going out for a dinner date or going partying. You just put on those glamorous clothes for the online world to see. And how many photos of your exaggeratedly glammed up face did you post online? Twenty. Twenty photos of your face.
You claim to be bored and prove it with the caption, “Because I am bored.” But to be honest, everybody knows you are trying to get people to say how beautiful you look and you are trying to impress the other single people in your social network, in the hopes that they would start dating you. Someone might take the bait, but others are more likely to think you’re just fishing for compliments.
#4 You had sausages and eggs for breakfast, Japanese food for lunch, and prime rib steaks for dinner. Oh, and you had coffee in between that Japanese lunch and steak dinner. And this was just for today, which is a Wednesday. We can also recite from our memories your breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, and midnight snack from Thursday last week until Tuesday.
Stop enumerating what you had put in your stomach from the moment you woke up until before you went to sleep. Even if you have a food blog, we are certain your followers are not interested in what you consume every single time, they are more interested in the quality of the food, the benefits of eating this particular food item, or reviewing restaurants. There is a limit for everything.
#5 One hour ago you posted a photo of you with a plant inside your house. Forty-five minutes ago you posted a photo of you with your television. Thirty minutes ago you posted a photo of you lying on your bed. Fifteen minutes ago you posted a photo of you with some statues of Buddha inside your house.
Yes, you can make a photo diary, but a photo diary should at least make sense. Are you giving your audience a list of the items found inside your house? This is a classic example of someone who just wanted to post something online for the sake of posting online. Doing this just makes you look like you have nothing better to do than pose and post. [Read: 16 attention whore signs to watch out for]
#6 Money. Lots of it. Seriously, do you want to get robbed? If you have a lot of money, you do not have to show the online world that you have it. People will know that you have money with the way you carry yourself, the places you frequently visit, where you have been in the world, what expensive things you own. Be honest, what good is it to boast about how much money you have?
#7 Your ex-partner has moved on, but you haven’t. You continue to post photos of the two of you together, remember and celebrate dates that were significant to your relationship, and even call them by their pet names when writing messages to them. This only proves to the world that you’re not over your ex. And even if it’s true that you aren’t over your ex, shouldn’t you be spending time trying to get over them than reliving the moments you once shared?
#8 We all hate liars. And nobody appreciates any kind of lie online. It might be as simple as seeing a photo of a lot of expensive alcohol and you save this photo and then post it as your own. The glory of having the internet is to have access to so many photos, with most of them lacking watermarks or any sort of proof of ownership.
You have been dying all day since you haven’t shared anything online and to make it seem like you are having a grand time, you post photos of the life you’re living… In your head, with photos from other people.
#9 Thought I was pregnant. Results came back, hallelujah I’m STD free! I’m just experiencing too much blood flow for my menstrual period. My girlfriend’s vagina was so wet last night. TMI: Too much information.
#10 Some people were just born to dis and tease and fight. You see a photo of an ugly dog and you commented on how ugly this dog is. Expressing your opinion? Sure. You watched a video of amateur artists doing a school film on drugs and you post a comment, “Go to acting school first.” A friend posts a photo of her latest gadget, and all you can say is that yours is better. Oh, look at all those opinions!
If it were constructive criticism, it would be fine. But if all you do online is put negative comments, then you’re just bringing people down. It will then make them wonder why, if you’re having a much better life than them, are you spending all this time dissing other people?
#11 Or you could be on the opposite end of that. You saw that comment that the amateur film actors need to go to acting school and you respond, out of nowhere, “Can you even act half as much as they can? You’re an idiot!”
And before you know it, it’s word sparring 101. Calm yourself, keyboard warrior! The thing with the internet is that people can post whatever they want, and everyone’s free to have an opinion on it. But the thing with getting into an online fight is that no one really wins. You’re just a pair of bored individuals, typing away angrily, and you’re not at all contributing anything positive to the conversation. [Read: 10 simple ways to deal with difficult people]
#12 There is nothing more pathetic than posting private letters, private chat messages, or chat conversations between you and other people without their consent. It’s even worse when these messages contain promises of love or promises of happiness. If someone loves you, then great! But the person who wrote these things for you won’t be too happy with seeing their private messages scattered all around the internet. Not every declaration of love needs to be exposed to the public eye!
[Read: 10 toxic friends you don’t need in your life]
The online community can work with you or against you. You just have to think twice, or thrice, about the things that you put out there for the whole world to see. Posting online may be your right, but everyone also has the right to see you as someone who’s just desperately looking for attention.