Kaitlyn Thornton Abbott

1. Instagram-ing Portraits of One’s Food

Maybe my mind has not caught up with the ever changing pace of the teenage culture of today, but to me, it seems a bit outrageous to take portraits of one’s food and post it on the Internet.  The only reasonable explanation I can think of photographing food would be to put it on a cooking/recipe Web site.  There may be a fair few who actually do that, but as a generalization, these photos are “instagramed” and linked to someone’s Facebook account, usually with the title, “Eating healthy!” or, “Mmmmm chocolate #gonnagetfat #sorrynotsorry.”

2. Hashtagging

What are hashtags, anyways?  Most of us hear the word all the time and see the pound (#) symbol with words without spacing and don’t really understand the significance of it.  The Twitter help center defines hashtag: The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet.  It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages.  People use hashtags before a relevant keyword or phrase (no spaces) in their Tweet to categorize those Tweets and help them show more easily in Twitter Search.  Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows you all other Tweets marked with that keyword.  Hashtags in and of themselves aren’t bad; don’t misconstrue what I’m saying.  For the use of Twitter, they are extremely helpful and relevant.  What is annoying about them is when people translate them over to Facebook.  Instead of using them to sort messages, hashtags have now become the fad on Facebook to describe an emotion, usually after a very emotional status that implies the emotion through the tone.

3. Political Fights/Tangents

If you are connected to any form of a social networking site, you have observed some form of a political rant, tangent, fight, etc.  People feel the need to discuss their political ideology on a social forum so scores of people can see how they know how to run the government much better than the current administration.  People create “memes” to make light of the situation, but it honestly is just a form of disrespect to whoever the meme is of.  Facebook has become the breeding ground for drama and discussions.  Instead of sitting down face to face and discussing the presidential debates, they instead resort to posting their immediate thoughts and emotional responses to Facebook.  For example, and these are just a few I noticed over the past election, “Forget Obama AND Romney; Gary Johnson all the way!”  “Ew, Obama.  You disgust me.”  “Biden, try being respectful during debates.”  “Mitt Romney is the savior of our country!”  And so on and so forth.

4. Everyday Life Status

None of us care that you’re “off to the gym with Susie!” or “dinner time!” or, my favorite, “Breathing in that air!”  I’m sure there are some people dying to know what you’re doing every second of the day, but as a majority, the Facebook community is fairly irritated by these status updates, which means we have to go in and hide you in our newsfeed or delete you.  The latter doesn’t seem too harsh, I’ll admit, but with the amount of Facebook changes that take place, it’s far too difficult to spend the time trying to figure it out every time the privacy settings change.  Now, deleting you seems like a fairly simple conclusion, yes?  The problem that arises here is if someone notices you have deleted them, it becomes a personal attack, feelings become hurt, and their pride is bruised.

5. Facebook Relatives

Many of us have THAT relative, whether it be a grandmother attempting to work technology and be cool, or an over-protective aunt, or even one’s own parent(s).  There is a lot of jesting on the Internet.  Our generation is one rich in sarcasm and quite fluent in it — it’s been adapted into our language; it’s second nature at this point.  Most adults don’t realize this, a lot of the time.  Instead, they take every joke as an insult or the actual attitude the teenager has.  For example, there’s a meme that shows a person with a fist in the air with a speech bubble, 1^st quarter: “GET ALL A’s!” and then, the same picture with the words, Rest of the year: “JUST DON’T FAIL!”  I, myself, posted this picture to Facebook merely as a joke — I found it amusing, but my family members did not.  This picture ended up with comments from my mother and father saying they work too hard and pay too much for my education to goof off and not care about my studies.  They went on to say I needed to get off of Facebook and to begin my homework.  Later that evening, an older cousin of mine messaged me, giving me a lecture that went along the lines of, “You’re only a senior.  You have so much more schooling ahead of you.  If you continue to have this attitude you will not get into college, which means you will not get a job, which means you will end up sad, alone, and with twelve cats.”  Point being, adults don’t understand sarcastic humor.

6. Self Portraits

My father asked me the other day why people take pictures in the bathroom mirror.  I honestly could not explain it.  Why people decide to take pictures of their (usually) filthy bathroom mirror astounds me.

Another aspect of self-portraits, or “selfies,” is the now ever-so-famous duck face.  How this is attractive … I don’t know.  What is the duck face, you ask?  Well, the duck face is the face girls make when they’re attempting to look attractive by pursing their lips into a “seductive” kissy face.  It’s really amusing to see this face.

When taking selfies, a lot of people don’t know how to do it appropriately, and, as a result, end up revealing a lot more of themselves than needed.  My advice?  Put on more modest clothing, and we wouldn’t have this issue.

Selfies with you kissing your significant other.  This is annoying; some things need to be private — that is one of them.  Nobody wants to see this; it looks dumb, and when, not if, when, you break up with “the best boyfriend everrrrr,” you’ll realize how dumb these pictures look.

7. Antagonists on Social Media

Although this fits in rather well to the point about political tangents, it is a tad different.  These are the people who specifically post things to start arguments.  Instead of posting uplifting statuses about life, or inspirational quotes, they, instead, decide to post something they know will get people riled up, merely for the sake of their own enjoyment.  Examples of this are, “Cheerleading is not a sport.”  Cheerleaders are some of the most intense people when it comes to defending what they do, of course it’s going to get a rise out of them.  Also, “Women don’t have the right to choose what to do to their body.”  The abortion argument is such a heated topic nowadays, if one even mentions the words “pro-life” or “pro-choice,” an argument will ensue.

The flip side to the antagonists on Facebook are those who post passive-aggressive statuses to the antagonists.  These are the people who see themselves as better than everyone commenting on the status, so they decide it’d be better to make a pointed, yet vague status at the person starting the argument.  It usually includes something along the lines of, “People are so immature when they feel the need to post statuses about _________.”  They completely use circular logic, and it’s quite annoying to have to deal with.

8. PeOpLE WhO TypE LYkE Dis

I sincerely hope that hurt your eyes to read, because it hurt my mind to type.  People who type like that, one, need to learn proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation; and two, need to realize how incredibly obnoxious this is.  Nobody wants to read something that resembles hieroglyphics they have to decipher.  You completely lose the respect of the people you’re trying to converse with, and you project this uneducated image of yourself.  I beg of you, never do this.

9. Game Requests

I am so tired of game requests.  If you want to play games with a few of your friends, by all means, go right ahead.  But for the majority of us, we are tired of game requests.  Farmville, Tetris, Castleville, etc. are clogging up both my newsfeed and my invites page.  I do not want to receive your pumpkin, nor do I want my sheep to eat your carrots, nor do I want to play Tetris.  Stop.  Sending.  These.  I cannot emphasize enough how obnoxious it is having to constantly go in and block not only people, but multiple people who keep sending the same invitation over and over and over.

10. People who have Started Confusing Facebook with Real Life

Facebook is only a projection of what we want people to see.  If you post Bible verses all the time, people will begin to get the impression you are a Godly person.  If you post pictures of you going out and partying, people will get the impression that you’re a partier.  People don’t post about their financial troubles, their gross health issues, or anything too personal.  They only post what they want you to see, and people need to realize Facebook doesn’t give you the whole picture.

This brings me to the last point: Facebook envy.  Stop getting so emotional because you see pictures of your friends hanging out or someone you kind of know posting about how busy they always are.  Don’t get envious of their apparent social life.  Again, you don’t know what else is going on in their life.