Introduction
The internet and social media are (like most technology) a double edged sword.
One of the greatest advantages is that they allow anyone to share their thoughts and words with anyone else, anywhere in the world.
One of the greatest disadvantages is that they allow anyone to share their thoughts and words with anyone else, anywhere in the world.
Whether you are writing blog posts, sharing things on social media or just trying to have an interesting discussion it is impossible to avoid the spectrum of idiocy as it applies to online discourse.
I should not need to say this, but this is not an academic post. It is based on my personal observations of behaviour.
Further as with most things, people are complex and messy. Few people will rigidly fit into any one category.
Instead it is likely that most people will display a mixture of these personality types and this will sometimes vary based on the situation.
I think we all have certain personas that we take on in different situations and that applies to the internet just as much as anything els.
The Overly Needy Types:
Like most of these personality and behaviour types there is a lot of overlap between these two and there are likely a lot more variants, these are just the ones I have encountered most myself:
The Reassurance Junkie
This type of person will ask for clarification or help with every decision they have to make in their life - no matter how small or inconsequential.
If you make the mistake of getting involved you will likely end up having to make more and more decisions for them.
It is the proverbial "slippery slope" and you will end up regretting it.
Overfamiliar/Over Demanding "Oliver"
This person will act like they are your best friend after knowing you for an inconsequentially small amount of time.
They are also likely to message you excessively and make increasing demands on your time.
They will take offence very easily if they think you are not "being a good friend" and don't engage or respond to them enough.
Again the more you do, the more you will have to do and it is a slippery slope.
The Angry Types:
These seem to be the types of behaviour that you run into particularly if you make any kind of written blog posts or other original content.
Armchair Contrarian
The armchair contrarian is someone who lurks in the background waiting to pounce with his or her passive-aggressive assertions and cask-aged snark.
These individuals are generally frustrated with life and skeptical by nature.
Unlike true skeptics they are too lazy to actually do any work.
They will appear whenever there is rationality or logic and use their signature move - disagreeing with something without actually reading it or indeed making any reasoned arguments.
They think they are rebels but the truth is that they are immature and insecure in their own intellect.
The Aggrieved Arguer
This type of person either has an extremely negative core belief about something or they have had a bad experience with it - perhaps both.
As a result they are unable to tolerate anyone or anything that may present positive information about it.
The only way they can get any kind of satisfaction is by going around the web looking for articles and posts about the issue they have a problem with and firing off angry comments.
For example, I wrote an article about some research on Lasik eye surgery and got some angry responses on Twitter and elsewhere from people who run websites which are dedicated to proving that "it is the greatest evil of modern times".
These people are defined entirely by being against something and cannot normally be reasoned with - the only means of escape is to block them which is what I had to do.
The Keyboard Warrior
This is someone who has seemingly lofty ideals and makes a lot of noise about a particular issue.
Superficially it would seem they really care about it but if they are ever pushed to take any definitive action, or contribute any real life time or money, they will disappear very quickly.
In some ways this is very similar to the armchair contrarian - they want to give the appearance of standing for something but can't be bothered to put the time in.
The Perpetually Persecuted
This person is always complaining about how they are being harassed or persecuted in some way.
No matter where they go or what they do it "appears" that everyone or everything is against them. They are blind to the fact that their own actions may actually be instigating the very behaviours which they are complaining about.
It is rarely possible to reason with them and any kind of criticism is likely to get you labeled as one of their oppressors.
They will often also have some kind of back story that they frequently rattle off about how they have been persecuted in real life.
They will present themselves as some kind of heroic person or martyr who tried to do something great in actual or real life but got shot down by TPTB (the powers that be).
Whether there is any actual truth to this or not it is likely that the vast majority of it has little or no actual external reality or it has been embellished to the point where it bears no relation to it.
The Art Hater
This is something I have noticed when it comes to sharing any kind of artistic work.
These kind of people seem to have no understanding about the subjectivity of artistic appreciation.
They seem to be driven by a core belief that all art is basically frivolous and unnecessary. They just don't get it and have great frustration that other people seem to derive pleasure from something they don't understand.
They realise that the vast majority of the population don't agree with this stance/perspective so use the classic human behaviour of using passive-aggression to express their dissatisfaction.
This often takes the form of asking pointless rhetorical questions or nit-picking technical issues.
Attention Seeking Types
The internet basically runs on attention so to some degree almost all of us are seeking attention in whatever we do. There are always people who take things to extremes though.
The Attention Whore
This person will do anything they can do to get attention.
They will often post about outrageous and often personal things that the average person would rather keep private.
If they had a tagline it would be "too much personal information".
They will also say things they don't necessarily believe just to get more of the attention that they are dependent on - this will lead to them frequently contradicting themselves.
Pointing out such inconsistencies is a fruitless labour though because they won't care.
The Narcissist
This is very closely related to the attention whore personality type.
The narcissist will typically turn every kind of engagement into an opportunity to talk about themselves and tell everyone how great they are.
They will expect everyone to share their content and help support them but rarely give anything back in return.
You will find them giving the appearance of getting heavily involved in whatever appears to be "big" at the time and conspicuous by their absence as soon as the attention moves on.
They will take credit for all successes and shirk any kind of responsibility for any failures - that is if they stick around long enough for the failures to occur.
As soon as they think they have more to gain from something else, they will be gone.
The Copy/Paste Commenter
This often applies to responses to blogging although you will sometimes encounter it on social media too.
It is not always for negative reasons -sometimes it is because someone doesn't speak your language well and so only know one or two phrases (which they always use for fear of saying something wrong).
More often than not it is because they are lazy and are trying to get the most attention from the least amount of work that they can do.
They want you to read/like/follow or comment on their work and think a good way of doing this is to send out a vast multitude of identical responses to everyone they can.
It is basically the spammer's strategy.
Sometimes these people are so prolific that you will wonder if they are actually real or a bot.
Most of these people seem to learn that it is not really conducive to building relationships or getting positive attention but there seems to be a hard-core that keep doing it indefinitely.
The Link Spammer
The link spammer is really a variant of the copy/paste commenter except they will basically spam comments with links to their own posts.
There is nothing wrong with sharing links that are relevant to a particular discussion but that is not what the link spammer is about.
Sadly in this case the person spamming the links will usually post them alone and in threads that bear absolutely no relation to what they are posting about.
It has to be one of the most counter productive means of trying to get attention.
The Serial Tagger
This is one of the most annoying types of attention seeking.
This type of person will create entire posts that consist of little else except tagging others.
I think I first noticed this on Facebook where people I only knew very superficially would tag me and multitudes of other people in photos I wasn't in and had nothing to do with.
A particularly annoying and more recent version of it involves creating tweets that have no content in them other than tags - I don't even understand what I am supposed to do with that.
In fact I really fail to see how the people doing this kind of thing expect a positive response.
I think this behaviour is most often associated with the attention seeking and needy groups of behaviours/personalities.
Conclusion
I'm sure there are a lot of other personalities and behaviour types that I have missed off - so I will apologise in advance.
What annoying behaviours or personality types have you come across?
Which one(s) do you find most annoying?
Let me know in the comments.
Thank you for reading
Oh my goodness, I absolutely have to share this to Facebook! I certainly recognize myself in some of these but, I'm becoming aware of it and making an effort to change. I am coming from the Facebook world where everyone has a really short attention span and all they ever want to do is share the same content their friends are sharing, oh and the bickering...my god, it's endless! It makes the world seem like such a hateful place and will quickly ruin your day if you let it!
Now that I've discovered Steemit, I find it incredibly refreshing and am really enjoying everyone's creativity and can see so much more of what makes us so unique and interesting! There are sooo many layers to Steemit...it's like..an onion! 😂
Seriously though, I'm thrilled to be here, this post is awesome. Thank you!
Welcome! I think we all partake in these sorts of behaviours to some degree. Greater awareness is the important thing. Glad to hear you are enjoying being on Steemit.
@thecryptofiend great post!
I love the titles you gave each personality
nobody beats you when it comes to this!
To answer your 2 questions below .. I encountered almost all of them and maybe I have committed some of those crimes, too hahaha
The most annoying - the attention seeker, the duck faced attention whore, the narcissist and the copy paste commenter specially the kind who leaves empty comments .. aren't they all? lol
I love the "duck faced attention whore" - I wish I had thought of that!
haha..not all of them are duck faced though .. but that specifically I dislike .. specially when the duck faced whore is not even pretty .. damn my mean side is outraged tonight hahaha.. unplugging ..bidding you a goodnight Sir!
Good night:)
hahaha I love it! :) - Are you interested in getting it translated? I would love to do that in German and/or Spanish.
Sure that would be great if you can - let me know when you post and I will resteem and share it for you.
Wow that is really kind of you :) Thanks! I´ll let you know.
I did think long and hard about a few other items to add to your already so exhaustive list. Mate, seems to have covered them all! And the best things is I can related to most of them! Lol. I need to ask a few people to find out which category I fit in. :)
Awesome work and professionally done post. Wonderful stuff from you as always. :)
Thanks so much mate. Lol I think I fit in different categories at different times myself. BTW please don't forget to message me your links when you post - I am so busy these days it is hard for me to keep up with my feed.
Well, from communications with you during my time on Steemit, it's not surprising that everyone has nothing but positivity when speaking about you so it's all good. But I'm sure you already know that, buddy! :)
Thanks so much for considering links to my posts, mate. What's the best way to msg you? Rocket.chat?
Yes please - Rocket chat is the one I check most often:)
No probs... And thanks again. :)
Congratulations @thecryptofiend!
Your post was mentioned in my hit parade in the following categories:
Agree that art is subjective. What I look at as art others may think what the heck. One thing interesting is after joining #artchallenge a few times, i see one same piece of art can bring out different emotions.
Yes definitely.
@thecryptofiend After reading your post the only question comes to my mind is...
Among these categories of people.
Perfect gif :)
After thinking for a moment....
Hey @thecryptofiend I cant believe people got angry at you for the laser eye article I found it most interesting and useful. I think the one that annoys me the most and goes along with your description are the narcissists arrgh.
Yes it may seem strange but I suppose if you are someone who had LASIK eye surgery and something went wrong you might be pretty angry at the world and start lashing out at others as a coping mechanism.
I would not share my idea to others ......Lol
Sharing creates a network effect bettering us all.
Has someone got out of the bed the wrong side lol. I find alot of these are me, going into hiding :)
Lol I think we have all done these things some times. I think the trick is to try not to do it too much!
Very true, lesson learned
I can't remember you doing any of these things to be honest. I tend to become an armchair contrarian myself - although I think I am improving.
You have done none of these, your one on here I look up to :)
You are too kind.
Its the truth...:)
To add to that awesome list:
The Wikipedia Warrior - the know it all who uses wikipedia to sound smart and pretend to know most about any given topic. Users were sporting that for a long time on Reddit, I remember.
Cool. I hadn't thought of that one!
Lol. I recognized them all, saw them passing by in the last two weeks (and thus my first two). You miss one character: The hormonal insecure puppy ;). That's me. If I now look back these two past weeks, mann.. why the hell did I even wrote about bitcoins? Because everybody did. The thing is, it's not my cup of tea. So I decided to write about psychology as from today, that's what I am good at.
We have all done it lol. I think the important thing is being aware of it and correcting or at least trying to correct bad behaviour. My personal one is being an armchair contrarian lol!
Nooo wayy! Now I have to continue and not become the narcissist! lol
Lol it is hard I think modern society encourages narcissism.
Hahahaha! Sooo true!! And if not; you should read 48 laws of power (..)
Afraid to respond and reveal my type LOL.
Lol :)
Really cool post! I really don't like the serial tagger, people that facebook your name on every article or event that they think you must like. But what bugs me more is that, with everybody being able to share their thoughts, it can be so difficult at times to find valuable, useful information. Anyway...have a great day!
Thanks, yes I think that is the big dilemma in these content saturated days as we are all busy.
It's a nasty situation, but I do think we're still better off than the guys in for example North Korea, with all their internet censorship, stuff being blocked, people being prosecuted....we'Re just losing some time, precious time....
Yes I think North Korea is probably the worst place to live because there is no way to escape it.
I wonder if they could have some underground steeming going on....
I think most of them don't have internet access so probably not very many if at all.
Wow. We are, really lucky!
I read everything, well actually skimmed it. Do you really have to put everybody down???!! By the way I am great and everybody should immediately check out all my posts over 9 months. Let me know if they are okay, could I do better? Help me please I need you. That's about it, be privileged that I skimmed your post instead of my usual world saving activities which usually take place from my comfy bed, before I go to bed.
It will be done :)
My freeform "unformatted" posts rustled some Armchair Contrarian so it inspired me to just keep doing them anyways because you can't please everyone. Also people who are vapid as hell and just do one sentence about how they love tanning naked to sell out for a few bucks. Basically any online equivalent of any Kardashian
Lol yes!
Then there are the Lurkers, who are worried about being perceived as any of these, so they simply observe and rarely interact.
Have done that quite often myself!
That's another good thing about Steemit. It gives incentive to actually interact. You don't get anything if you don't do anything. It's like the free-market/capitalist model of social media.
Yes great point.
How about the 'Say & Walk Aways' the ones that seemingly try to spark a conversation either by OP or comment and are never heard from again when someone took the time responding to them.
Another one is the 'Drag it out of Me' type that somewhat resembles the Reassurance Junkie & Attention Whore. They will start a incomplete story raising more questions than answers and wait for good-willing people to help them clear up what is meant.
Finally the 'Off Topic/Comment Commentators' the ones that hijack discussions and (top) comment sections with the (intentional?) goal of diverting from the topic discussed. This could be dangerous spamming shills as well.
Great additions :)
My very first day on Steemit and my very first comment is all yours! Too funny! The vague ones kill me too. "Just letting everyone know that my whole world is falling apart but I just can't let you in on any of the details."
Lol never thought of that one but that is another good one!
Great post! I definitely know some of these personalities lol
I suspect most of us have encountered them. Nice to see you are back BTW!
I think I've been some of those personalities sometime haha
I think we all have!
i cannot detect who i am in this post lol :P i can say none of the above or specialized personality :P :D
Enjoyed reading this though :-))
instant UV and RS!!
Thank you!
you're most welcome, have a lovely day ahead ;-))
Thanks!
I enjoyed reading this (actually read the whole thing!). Informative and entertaining :D
Thank you:)
This is you collected the most riotous :))
Thanks!
12 annoying personality types? I am pretty sure there is just 1... anyone who is not exactly like me.
Lol yes!
Great work!!
Thank you:)
Interesting observations. I'll have to keep this in mind as I surf the wonderful and interesting world of Internet.
I had to laugh when I read about the attention whore! lol
I suppose we are all like that to some degree.
I cant deny I have a little bit of Whore in me!
Avoid narcissists like the plague, as they can wreck your psyche.
Yes I agree.
They also seem to rise to high places in organizations.
Yes although they tend to be more the sociopathic types - regular narcissists tend not to do as well if I remember right.
I would agree. A malignant narcissist is more to be watched for in a significant other.
what about the Snobbish Dumbs?who reads your messages and feels too important to want to respond.
I haven't heard that phrase before.
That's the name for fellas who read your messages and don't respond to them.
A username comes to mind for each and every one of these. :D
Lol I can imagine. Have to admit I have been all of those myself at various times too!
A nice written article. I remember taking a course years ago that compared people to animals in personality. The four types were panthers, owls, dolphins, and peacocks. Of course Panthers and owls were the management type people, while dolphins were faithful low wage workers but a bit needy emotionally. Of course peacocks were attention oriented.
Thanks - interesting analogy haven't really heard that before but it makes a good visual image!
"Sometimes these people are so prolific that you will wonder if they are actually real or a bot."
I am NOT a bot just in case anyone ask...
Frank III
:)
brilliant one😣 hope the next post is about us nice and positive people you love here on steemit
I will try to be positive but I've decided to avoid posting about Steemit on Steemit as much as possible because I want to attract new people in.
Valid point
Your post is actually true. Because I am one of those people you have just described. Thank you for sharing
I think we are all one of those people at various times!
It's a relief to find out that you aren't opposed to the "I feel good" types ;)
Lol - I love James Brown - he is the Godfather of Soul and always will be!
Someone was criticizing people who ask questions that they should be able to find the answer to themselves. Some people think that they are so smart, dumbness annoys them. But since no one is smart in every way, they should think of what they are lacking - such as compassion, empathy, and understanding. If the ones they are referring to are truly just lazy, then maybe they need to learn how to encourage rather than belittle.
Great point. It is easy to do that! I think everyone gets frustrated with people - I have done it myself quite a few times but you are right we need to be conscious of not being nasty to people. I think this is partly a problem of being online - tempers tend to become shorter and it becomes harder to empathise.
I experienced this on another blog.