Vaguebooking: What You Need to Know About Unclear Social Media Posts
For modern people who are already familiar with social media, you may be quite familiar with the concept of “Vaguebooking” even if you are unfamiliar with the term, vaguebooking is posting vague or cryptic but also alarming status updates that trigger outreach from friends and family on social media, this mainly happens on Facebook. That’s where Facebook’s combined name of “vague” and “book” comes from.
Urban Dictionary in 2009 defined it as “a Facebook status update that is intentionally vague, prompting friends to ask what’s going on or perhaps a cry for help.”
On social media that can be accessed by anyone especially teenagers, teenagers can overshare information, share false data, and share cryptic messages that can only be understood by the intended audience. This also happens when teenagers bully someone cryptically, only the intended person understands, which is dangerous because it cannot be reported because the bully message is cryptic and does not reveal the victim’s clear name.
Vaguebookers make posts with long-winded sentences, seek attention by expressing emotions without providing context, convey the fact that something bad might happen to them and attract others to ask questions, put gifs in the comment section without explanatory text, and so on.
Vaguebookers come from all walks of life, and we can be part of this when we allow vaguebooking to spread in a way that is almost equivalent to fake news.
Vaguebooking is certainly annoying, but for some people who are feeling anxious, depressed, lonely, or experiencing emotional turmoil, they may genuinely need attention and are not trying to annoy others. If you recognize it as a request for help and not an attention-seeker, it’s a good idea to message them directly or provide them with a link to professional help.
To avoid vaguebooking, the first thing to do is not to post vague messages, express yourself clearly so that others can understand your intentions, and then counter any vaguebooking you encounter by not responding to it.
If you feel you have mental anxiety, it is better to contact a close friend or family to discuss it, or contact an expert for further treatment.
However, it is undeniable that in this sophisticated era, with a high percentage of our personal lives being known just from social media tweets, we should also limit sharing information to protect our privacy, there are also many cryptic messages that become beautiful works that inspire and inspire. So, what do you think of these cryptic messages?