The Social Media Cycle of Smug

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How people’s personal lives impact on their professional dealings

 

There is a certain breed of Facebook user that many of you will identify from your own social circles. We’ve spoken before about the whiney posters and the over-sharers, but there is another subsection Facebook user who has the ability to send flashes of white-hot rage coursing through their social circles with but a sentence.

We’re talking about the smug Facebooker – or Smugbooker, for short.

You know the type, and exactly what they’re smug about usually corresponds directly with the things you wish you had.

If you’re a woman experiencing a difficult pregnancy, chances are there’s someone among your friends’ list who bangs on daily about how she wonders what morning sickness feels like and can’t believe she still fits into her pre-pregnancy clothes at 8.5 months.

If you’re a single looking for love then you can bet your bottom dollar that someone will be clogging up your newsfeed with flowery sentiments about how incredible their little buttercup blossom makes being alive.

If you’re stuck in an office staring out the window, you’ve got a friend who’s hiking the Himalayas and still managing to snap iPhone pics and post about their once-in-a-lifetime experiences with shaman healers clad in yak fur.

So how to deal with the smugbooker in your life? Surely the best thing to do is brag about your own accomplishments to counteract the sting of theirs?

NO!

The smugbooker is not the problem. They are a symptom of a bigger picture, and your participation in this only contributes to the Cycle of Smug.

 

 

You see, the need for validation on social media is a by-product of people everywhere reacting to news that has made them feel inferior in some way. Of course, a person’s area of insecurity could be anything, which means that the result is an entire tribe of people coming together in one place to try to out-do each other with passive-aggressive social skiting.

The only real solution is to take yourself out of the cycle. Get off the treadmill. When your reaction fails to become a cog in the wheel of the Cycle of Smug, you’re contributing to its weakening. If enough people resist the urge to engage, those smugbookers will become fewer and fewer.

Resist, people. The only way to reduce smug pollution is to do your bit to contribute to the solution.

 

A Tick Yes digital and social media blog