This morning I got an email from my friend Ezra, who had this to say about a mutual friend’s fb post, “This has to be the most pretentious series of run-on sentences I’ve ever seen. He’s like a college freshman from the ‘burbs, frantically thumbing through a thesaurus, desperate to seem worldly and enlightened in his first creative writing assignment.”
“Post that.” I suggested.
“Pfft.” He retorted. “I wish.”
No one will say it. Interesting how none of this mutual friend’s 1,000+ fb “friends” will call him out on this indulgent, epic parade of obscure references and passive-brags. Instead we whisper among ourselves, What was the point of posting all that? Ah yes, and cowardly write about it on our blogs.
Comments aren’t helping! Beneath his post, comments gush about his pioneering spirit and exclaim that’s he’s “the only person I know truly living life!” Really? So every other person you know, is not “living life”? Ouch. Then there are my favorites, the commenters who offer a brief compliment, then turn the focus on themselves, “This is great! I remember when I was in Sri Lanka…”
Why does it bug you so much, Susan? Because #1, it’s BS. All this particular person does is gush. (And you know how I feel about gushers. I believe this guy is a combo of the first two types.) And #2, it’s fairly obvious that his purpose here is to convey various things about himself (exciting, interesting, all-round awesome) rather than to..oh I dunno, inform.
I can’t stand travel-brags! But I love this article, Travel Egos & Bragging Rights, especially the comments.
Questions:
• Are Ezra and I being too hard on our “friend” here?
• What types of annoying posts do you see over and over on facebook?
• Are braggy posts and their sycophantic comments a modern-day version of The Emperor’s New Clothes?
Can you get through the whole thing? Instead of picking it apart, I put it into a (hopefully) legible layout so you can have a shot at it. (Paragraph breaks are as he had them.) Click text to enlarge.
O hi, Asia! 
People’s problems that aren’t meant to be posted on Facebook is somehow always on my news feed! 🙂 Which is probably what annoys me more than travel bragging.
Recently I posted about how I’m glad I’m not in debt anymore and a “friend” went off in the comments about how SOME people fall victim to divorce and lose their 6-figure job and have mouths to feed. Anyway, it was awk-ward!! And amazing. (But more awkward.)
1) I’m not allowed on Facebook and have never been on it and from what I hear its pointless. 2) Your friend was on a meditation trip – I already dislike the article (personal opinion) 3) He is searching for something and that is what is driving his article (see number 2) and what drives his article (intention) is subjective and therefore, prone to gushing. My 2p.
YOUR article however, I like very much. You’re a great writer, Susan.
After looking into a number of the blog articles on your web
page, I really like your way of blogging. I bookmarked it to my bookmark webpage list and will be checking
back in the near future. Take a look at my web site too and tell me how you feel.
You’re joking, right? How I “feel” is that your website is nothing more than a hybrid informercial / get-rich-quick scheme. After all, if your product helped you score so big in the stock market, wouldn’t you want to keep it to yourself?