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1.04.2017

Hate is such a negative word, but...

When I was in junior high, my best friend and I would walk to the bus stop playing "I hate ______" and we'd take turns filling in the blank.  On a rainy day, it might be stuff like, "I hate when it rains and all the worms come out," or "I hate when it rains and it stinks," or "I hate when it rains and my umbrella blows up and I can't get it back down."  You get the idea.  We'd do this on the way to school and on the way home.  I know "hate" is so negative, but this game amused us to no end.

Nowadays, I still play this game from time to time (in my head) and I realize a lot of what I hate now has to do with new technology, the internet, and social media.  For example, I hate when someone shares a video on Facebook and it takes you to one of those sites that gives a long description of the video while at the same time raising your expectations of how great the video will be.  Then you watch it, and it's not all that.  This happened to me today when someone shared a video from Shareably.com, a huge offender.  The title was:

Groom steps out onto the dance floor, performs an incredible Michael Jackson-inspired dance

A wedding day is incredibly special, but for [so-and-so], he wanted it to be something truly magical and unforgettable. To make this happen, he hatched a plan for something that was totally unique and would blow all his wedding guests away.
Oh! The anticipation of seeing this video!

Then I watched the video.


At first I thought it was cool.  Good for him.  But, I certainly wasn't blown away.  After a minute and thirty seconds, I thought it was way too long.  I also realized I was more interested in the groomsman who starts out on the left and seems to be a better dancer.  When the bride finally came out at 2:45, I realized this was really a performance for the groom to show off--it wasn't about them as a couple at all.  Then I turned it off because I was bored.

This happens All. The. Time.  These sites build it up only for me to be let down.  Yet, I still click on them.  Just not that often.  Also, on the off chance that it IS a good video that I do indeed love and want to share, I always find the original video on YouTube and post it rather than linking to the site.  It's all just click bait and, well:

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Agree! And this wedding video is lame. All about the groom! So many things I hate on social media as well: people posting every minute of their lives "Brian (poster's son) is getting his braces today!" Really? You're excited about this? You think we're excited about this?

And agree about the fake teasers, "You've never seen anything like this..." I've finally stopped falling for those. Or "Celebrities you didn't know were gay" and the photo they use is of Brad Pitt and if you click on it he is not part of the line-up.

One of my biggest pet peeves are links that draw me in but when you go to them instead of easily listing all of the information you have to hit "next" to get to each piece of info AND there are ads that also have navigation arrows to trick you into clicking their buttons instead of the buttons that go to the article's next piece of info. THOSE. ARE. THE. WORST.

Okay, my vent for the day. I could go on and on and on and on...

Valerie said...

YES to all of that! Another one is the use of the words slay, blast, slam, destroy...Trump 'slays' the GOP, So-and-So 'blasts' such-and-such. Nothing is ever so dramatic.

Kerri said...

agreed. argh. i KNOW this, and still occasionally get sucked into their wicked and annoying ways too! it's okay to hate some stuff! ;)

Valerie said...

Ok, I feel better about it. :)