It’s hard enough navigating the ins and outs of all this rapidly-changing social media technology: Friendster was popular just a few years ago but it seems like decades past now; MySpace has become the leisure suit of social networking sites seemingly overnight; Facebook has reinvented itself a few times already and even shiny new Twitter seems to be losing some of its new car smell (montages like this one make me want to Just Say No.) But in addition to the sometimes-bewildering array of ever-expanding social networking options out there, there’s the subtler expansion of the unwritten rules of jargon and decorum one has to become expert in to successfully participate.
For instance, you can reconnect with old friends via Facebook, but there’s a certain way to go about it; “friending” your best friend from high school who you lost touch with and haven’t talked to in ten years — and then not sending them a proper “here’s what I’ve been doing for the last ten years” message — could be considered a brush-off. (This is why Facebook can become exhausting.) And now there’s a new faux-pas in town: tweeting too hard. I’m not sure what Facebook status updates or Tweets are for except to make the updater/tweeter look cool (because really, no one wants to hear about what you had for lunch), but there’s a fine line between gentle bragging and tweeting too hard. I’ve probably crossed the line a few times myself, dropping starry-eyed updates from distant internet cafes while traveling in Vanuatu like “I could get used to this bathing in waterfalls thing” or “Ransom Riggs found a typewriter at 100 feet on a shipwreck this morning.” (I can see how those would get annoying. But go ahead and follow me on Twitter if you don’t agree.) Hopefully I can keep myself out of trouble, and off of tweetingtoohard, a place where boastful Tweets are collected and displayed, like the criminals of old, punished by kneeling in the stocks in medieval public squares, to remind the populace of social codes and what happens when you break them. But it’s more than a warning — it’s also pretty hilarious. Here are a few favorites:
A similar thing happens on some people’s Facebook status. “Just finished polishing my husband’s Oscar.”
People are so full of themselves. Too funny!
posted by Hyacinth on 5-21-2009 at 11:22 am
awww, i can’t see any of them.
posted by the creature on 5-21-2009 at 11:28 am
I get error messages too instead of pics
posted by Guido Thys on 5-21-2009 at 12:03 pm
Looks like tweetpaste.thingamaweb.com has been tweeting too hard!
posted by Gregg on 5-21-2009 at 12:46 pm
I can’t see any of them is there something wrong with my browser or is it the links? Any suggestions?
posted by austin on 5-21-2009 at 1:06 pm
How long before this turns into a game? I can see people intentionally trying to get themselves listed on this site.
posted by Jeff on 5-21-2009 at 1:14 pm
The page in in Sgt Schultz mode – I see nothing!
posted by PartiallyDeflected on 5-21-2009 at 4:40 pm
While most of those are probably legitimately ego-filled, I doubt Peter Sagal is in earnest :). Maybe I’m just getting his character all wrong when I listen to “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me,” but when he was interviewed on this site he seemed pretty normal :D
posted by Fruppi on 5-21-2009 at 7:04 pm
It’s all electronic graffiti, even this little post, and behind all the clever and not so clever wordage is the message: “I am here. Please notice me.”
posted by Pam on 5-21-2009 at 7:23 pm
If she was “polishing (her) husband’s oscar” then she certainly wasn’t just full of herself.
posted by dave on 5-22-2009 at 1:38 am
Aren’t ALL Tweets self-important to a completely unnecessary degree?
posted by Justin on 5-22-2009 at 8:32 am
re: jeff, of course it’s a game! and i won! :P
posted by christy on 7-23-2009 at 6:16 pm