How To: Not Annoy Everyone on Social Media

Guys, I enjoy frequenting Instagram and Facebook. I’m not ashamed to admit it. There’s all sorts of fun things happening in other people’s lives and I like seeing those things. I’m not anti-social media in any regard. However. Certain things continue to happen on my newsfeeds that annoy the ever loving mess out of me.

I realize I could unfollow / defriend the people who do these things – but, let’s be honest, then I’d have nothing to complain about. I also sincerely hope I am not guilty of any of these things. If you can find evidence of my guilt, then please accept my apology in advance for being super annoying. Because if you do these things, you are super annoying. Seriously.

Maybe, by now, you’re worried that you might be that annoying person that everyone considers unfriending at least 3 times a day.

Let me help you. Here’s 4 Ways NOT to Annoy Everyone on Social Media.

1. Don’t use #blessed. Ever.

Maybe it’s just me, but #blessed has got to go. It literally makes me cringe when someone puts up a status about their life and follows it with #blessed. I think perhaps this annoyance stems from the overuse of #blessed. If you really feel #blessed, then I think you could sum up why you’re #blessed in one post and then let that be that. Every single post should not, under any circumstance, contain #blessed.

Perhaps you’re super optimistic and cheerful and you really do feel #blessed about everything, and your life is perfect. In that case, quit being rude and overusing #blessed and throwing your #blessed life in everyone’s face. If you constantly have to remind yourself and everyone else that you’re #blessed you need to #rexamineyourlife.

2. No “Unspoken prayer request.” posts. No “Praying!” Responses.

If you’re religious, then that’s great, and I don’t have a problem with that at all. But every “unspoken prayer request” status is followed immediately with the comment “what’s wrong?! call me! message me! etc.” and really, be honest, isn’t that what you wanted? Someone to ask you what’s wrong?

If you’ve got a problem, and you feel like you need to take it to social media, maybe you could explain what is it? I don’t get on Facebook for vague references to your life. I’m going to need you to divulge. Also, if you comment “Praying.” after an “Unspoken prayer request!” post then you are equally as annoying. You only commented that because you’re hoping you’ll be notified when the original poster responds on the comment thread about what’s going on.

You could also just…. pray for them, if that’s your deal. You don’t have to announce that you’re praying. Just saying.

3. Don’t post this: My boyfriend is SOOOO cute / smart / the love of my life / amazing etc.

So this ties in a little bit with the #blessed advice. But I just really want to say this. And it’s going to sound a little hateful and I’m sorry. But, if you post 35,000 statuses announcing how wonderful your boyfriend is then honestly it makes me wonder how wonderful he actually is.

Are you hanging out with him, like, ever? How do you have time to post all these statuses? Are these statuses trying to make another guy jealous? Does he appreciate you constantly tagging him on Facebook?

Furthermore, who are you trying to convince? The Facebook world? The Instagram world? Or yourself?

I’m not against the super sweet significant other posts. If you’ve found the one, then sometimes you just want to announce it. But if every other (or every) status on Facebook is about how amazing your boyfriend (or fiancee or husband, or girlfriend or wife — not really an exclusive concept) is then I’m not buying it.

4. Don’t share videos of abused animals and children.

STOP posting these, I mean really stop it. It bothers me. It makes me sad. It sincerely hurts my heart. If I wanted to see a video of a dog that was nearly dead, I would Google it. (Spoiler — I DON’T.)

If your purpose is to raise awareness, why don’t you post a link to a reputable charity and let people research the issue themselves. The video of the half-dead puppy or the nanny beating a small child does NOT raise awareness. It’s disturbing and I don’t want to see it.

I don’t need you, Facebook and/or Instagram friend, to remind me of all the bad things happening in the world. I will change the channel, immediately, when this type of thing comes on TV. Because it always makes me cry. Stop trying to make me cry, social media friends. Just stop it.

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Okay, just so everyone doesn’t think I’m a horrendous and hateful person, I’ll share some things that you might think would be annoying but that I actually enjoy on social media:

• pictures of your kids
• workout posts
• panoramas of your vacation spots
• what song you’re listening to

Some social media fans may find the aforementioned posts super annoying, but I enjoy them! So, see, I’m not awful. Right? Anyway, I’ve got to go hang out with my awesome boyfriend and our dog we adopted from the pound #blessed.

MKB