Types of Facebooking

Posted under NOTEBOOK

There are all kinds of ways a person can Facebook. Knowing about them is not only really unimportant, it may be completely useless. But if it has a chance of being at all entertaining, I’m going to write about it.

For those of you that are wondering what this has to do with parenting… wait… hngh! Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Sorry I couldn’t keep that one in! Hey, it’s your own fault I laughed. If you can’t see what Facebook has to do with kids then you don’t have any or yours are already well into adulthood, or you’re Amish and cheating by even reading this. Shame on you, sneaky Amish reader. Shhh, don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. Read on.

Let’s take a look at some of the types of Facebooking I’ve noticed in my journeys through the social media wild. I’ll comment along the way. Feel free to read them in a British or Australian accent if you want.


Vaguebooking

That’s it. Just that. It’s a kind of lure, one can only guess. You can almost imagine the poster practically breaking off their refresh button as they try to reel in the comments asking what DID just happen.


Slutbooking

No. Male or female, this post makes you look like a douchebag or douchebagette. The cleavage or wife-beater profile pic only adds to the effect. Throwing in a “just kidding” minimizes nothing.


LOLbooking

Best joke ever. Homemade, right? Could’ve fooled us. We knew it was funny because of the tell-tale LOL. Rejoice, people who are Friends with this person, a good time shall be had by all.


Emobooking

By “look around” is meant scrolling through Facebook and tallying the Likes and comments on other peoples updates, and avidly waiting for reassuring compliments to come rolling in.


Lovebooking

People with someone special in their life already will smile and awwwww at this; people without someone might make… different sounds perhaps. Tubs of ice cream may be involved.


Ragebooking

We get it. You’re so pissed you’re gonna drop an f-bomb right in the middle of your first world problem. Kudos.


Oldbooking

Old People Facebooking

The numbers in the email address of course being her social security number. Have to give these dear ol’ champs credit for giving it the old college effort.


 

You’ll undoubtedly recognize some, if not all, of these if you’ve spent any time on the Book. Sure, there are a ton of other types that I didn’t include; so join the party and add them into the comments. Just try to avoid the preface “Oh but you forgot…” You see, writers love comments and contribution a lot more than corrections to the comprehensiveness of their writing.

The bottom line is pretty much every kind of Facebooking a person can do out there will seem silly or annoy the shit out of some percentage of their friends. But before you start getting judgmental and writing Facebook again about the inclusion of a Dislike button, remember: what you post is just as silly or annoying to a certain percentage of your friends.

“β€œ

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79 Comments

  • Aaron says:

    Imagine all the spam that last one will get should anyone ever get a hold of that post.

  • WeirdFish says:

    I can’t come up with a “-booking” prefix but many of my friends are guilty of the “passive aggressive posting of lyrics that seem to match whatever mood they’re in, in the hopes that someone takes the bait and enables the whining/self-loathing/attention-seeking/all-of-the-above behavior.”

    Sort of like vaguebooking, but musical…which thus absolves them of any responsibility of coming up with original material.

    I suppose the “political accusation” posts are fairly common as well. These are the ones that start off with Observation of a Crappy Socio-Political Situation and end with Sarcastic “Thanks” to Currently Sitting President (regardless of whether it was actually the responsibility of the executive branch of the federal government or not).

    STFUParentsBlog covers all the moron-parent-related ones so no need to go there.

    I have a different version of LOLbooking, which also mixes with vaguebooking in a horrific hybrid grandstanding abuse. The kind where vague statements are punctuated reflexively with LOL or similar useless phrases. Such as: “giggle what kind of mischief can I get into today giggle lol” or “lol that was not a good idea lol”

    • Jenna says:

      Gotta love the passive-aggressive vaguebooking as well… the comment-obviously-meant-for-someone-in-particular but of course they’re not going to tell us who it’s for or what horrific offense they’ve perpetrated.

    • Emma says:

      Nice ones! I believe the first one you mentioned it called “emo-booking” πŸ˜‰

  • Jenna says:

    Particularly relevant right now… POLITICAL FACEBOOKING. Oh man. This is where you really get to know your friends. I especially like the carefully selected candidate photos with sarcastic quotes on them. Apparently it’s ok to post what would otherwise be considered a total a-hole comment if it comes in the form of a photo quote that someone else created! The douchebaggery revealed on Facebook during an election season is simply astonishing.

    • Jenna says:

      I guess I should’ve called it “politibooking” πŸ˜‰

    • Andy says:

      If I do a follow up I’ll be including Politibooking. I really should have done more, and that one was low hanging fruit. πŸ˜‰

  • Abfabulies says:

    Lurebooking: seeing everything while pretending never to be on facebook

  • Susie says:

    You should read The Bearded Iris’ post about Facebitches at In The Powder Room: http://www.inthepowderroom.com/read/home-time/2012-09-when-facebookers-attack.html Same basic concept, but on the commenting end. Did y’all coordinate my blog reading habits without me knowing it? sneaky…

  • Kyle says:

    What about babybooking? I’m guilty of posting copious amounts of baby pics because let’s just face it, I think my guy is the cutest!

  • My brother is a Stalkerbooker. He never posts anything, but can remember every post that EVERYONE has ever written.

  • Parentbooking:
    Crystal Wiltshire
    August 26
    Lilly just sat on the potty all by herself & went pee! That’s the 5th one today & 1st with no help!!! Woot woot!

    True story…shared by me, to all 600 of my friends, who were dying to know all about my toddler’s bathroom habits. I just KNOW they were…

    Boys of HowToBeADad, I am shocked you missed this one…since we are all equally guilty of it πŸ˜‰

    • Andy says:

      I WAS GOING TOO! But I was trying to be even handed and generous. I feel regret and shame that I didn’t now, though, if that make you feel any better. πŸ˜‰

    • NerdyLutheranChick says:

      I think that is actually an example of Pottybooking – I’ve gotten posts about the size, shape, and color of toddler and dog poop more times than I can count.

      Parentbooking is more:
      “Mommy was definitely appreciating how nicely the kids were playing while I was making dinner, until I walked into the playroom and EVERY shelf is empty!”

      “Or here’s a videoclip of my kid laughing/singing and age-inappropriate song/dancing along to his favorite tv show theme”

    • Anthony says:

      I include photos

  • kevin says:

    Vaguebooking is a pet peeve of mine. I usually respond to Vaguebooking statuses by simply commenting “You’re vaguebooking”

    Some people will google Vaguebooking and find the unflattering definition on Urban Dictionary, and then they seem to curb the behaviour in the future. Some will ask “What’s vaguebooking?” to which I don’t usually respond at all. It’s like a demonstration.

  • Corinne says:

    Fish booking… similar to vague booking, but when someone is obviously looking for attention ….

  • beta dad says:

    Godbooking–status updates consist exclusively of cryptic, context-free verses from the Bible.

    • kevin says:

      Well the great thing about godbooking is that there are so many horrific bible verses that make religious people very uncomfortable that you can put in the comments.
      Although for most of the “Look at me I’m religious” types, you can hit ’em with the ol’ Matthew 6:5-6 for some good LOLs

    • Andy says:

      Amen. πŸ˜‰

    • Christina says:

      Should just leave it with just bible verses =p A lot of my friends just post verses from their morning bible studies =p

  • NiIki A says:

    Spam-booking- “lets see if you care about puppies and kittens! Post this in the next 5 seconds or they’ll all die in a horrendous fire” or some iteration. It’s replacing chain letters and email forwards. Particularly annoying when there’s a God/Spambooking hybrid of destruction.

    Also, can we be over the “ecards.” I get it, they’re funny sayings with pictures that are sort of ironic. Can we be done now?

    • Jenna says:

      OMG YES – I HATE Spam-booking. SO. MUCH. If you don’t re-post then you’re ashamed of Jesus, or you don’t support the troops, or you don’t care about cancer victims, or whatever. These make my blood boil!

    • WeirdFish says:

      “Cancer/war/poverty/kittens suck and are evil and should be killed by fire. Repost if you have the courage to agree. 97% won’t will you be the 5% who do? And don’t know math?”

    • Andy says:

      Ha ha ha ha! How do you spell the sound of me projectile vomiting on my computer screen? It’s different from a puke sound because of all the immediate splashing.

    • YES!!! Spambooking is the absolutely worst. I will scroll right past pretty much any status that starts “Like/Share if you…” which is overused by more than just spammers – annoying. Don’t tell me to like your shit. Make it good enough for me to like in the first place.

      Oh, and thanks for reminding me how much I f’ing HATED chain letters. I had nearly forgotten about those! Haha.

  • lawgirl says:

    Spoilerbooking: “OMG! I can’t believe Travis got voted off!!!!”

    (FBers who don’t have kids, and can watch shows like Survivor, American Idol, or whatever when they are on live, and IMMEDIATELY post what happened, ruining it for any of us who have to wait until 9 p.m. to watch the good stuff.)

  • Emma says:

    How about “TMI-booking”? When people feel the need to give the gory details of usually thier sex-lives, but also many other “private” affairs…
    For example: “Had sex 5 times today already and now I’m in pain, the good kind.” Or “My cervix just got pounded like an anvil”…. eww! I did NOT need to know that! (True story! A “friend” of mine actually posts stuff like this all the time!)

    Oh, also the “stream-of-conciousness facebookers” who post every thing that goes through thier brain, every song they enjoy, every picture they take, every activity they do, every place the go to every few minutes. Ugh.

    • Andy says:

      Amaaaaaaaaaaaazing.

    • Christina says:

      Some parent-booking should fall into this. So had to hold myself back from facebook when my baby squirted me in the face with my own nipple.

      Seriously, TMI.

  • Stefanie says:

    HILARIOUS!! Vaguebooking? The single most annoying thing. EVER. Gives me shivers.

    • Andy says:

      It’s awful. Especially when you get repeat offender Vaguebooking. The person posts a cryptic tease and then gets hammered for it by friends that are “friends who don’t let friends vaguebook” and then later, THEY KEEP DOING IT.

  • Laurie says:

    This is amazing!! Please don’t forget about the people who update every last thing they do every minute, and the people who tell everybody they just went to the freaking gym..but my biggest issue with FB is when people put SONG LYRICS AS THEIR STATUS UPDATE!!! I HATE that! I really wish some people would remember that FB is NOT their personal journal and really NOBODY cares that you just had a peanut butter sandwich..I honestly feel like I could go on and ooooooon

    • Andy says:

      Urg! You used the “Don’t forget line” πŸ™ Ha ha! Those two are pretty bad, the Everythingbooking and Lyricbooking. πŸ˜‰

  • Mother Duck says:

    Ugh! I think over the years I’ve been guilty of each of these and most of the ones mentioned in the comments. It makes me almost want to shut up, but who are we kidding?!

  • I have 2 facebook friends (ironically they are brothers) that are guilty of begbooking – it’s like emobooking but lacks subtlety. “Hey guys, I just posted a new album. Go in there and comment.” Not kidding. Begging for comments. What are the pictures you ask? It’s them, in sunglasses. I’ve also gotten a post on my wall “Hey, I tagged you in a post and you haven’t commented on it.” Seriously? I’d defriend, but I’m scared what might happen.

    Definitely need the politibooking. Though I define it as the friend that literally says “I hate politics” but posts THE MOST political pictures, links, statements (and lies) than any other person in my newsfeed.

    • Andy says:

      Ummmm… yeah. Awwwwwwkward. Ha ha! Politibooking was on my list too, I really shouldn’t have cut it in light of the elections.

  • kurt says:

    What about guiltbooking. “Like this photo so this 9 year old boy does not die of cancer next week” or “if you are courageous enough you will share this actual photo of Jesus”

    • Andy says:

      I was going to call that Causebooking before I cut it from the way-to-long of a list. I like Guiltbooking. Nice!

  • ddywgn says:

    Stupid Cat Picture Posters. Felin-o-booking? Not only are you a crazy cat person IRL, but on FB too.

    • Andy says:

      Ugh! So true. I had Petbooking on my list, but it does really seem like the cat people of the world are more vocal on Facebook.

  • Andy – this is internet gold. And every example is spot on. Thanks for the laughs!

    • Andy says:

      YEEESSSSS!!! You bet! I have a list of over 20 more. I may just give this one a sequel. πŸ˜‰

  • Kez says:

    I love this post πŸ™‚
    I especially hate vague-booking or any kind of status fishing for people to ask what’s wrong. It’s funny how whenever someone DOES take the bait, the person shuts up.
    I unfriended a lady who thought that the whole of her facebook friend collection knew exactly what she was talking about, whenever she wrote really specific “inside” type comments about her life. It drove me bonkers – save those statuses for private emails to the right people, please!! The rest of us have NO idea what you’re on about!

    I guess I could add to the list, “Just Broke Up-Booking”. It’s just crazy fun watching two immature break up and play the whole thing out on Facebook.

    • Andy says:

      YES! Most annoying thing ever! You want to all-caps “WHY DID YOU POST THIS TO BEGIN WITH???” Love Breakupbooking. πŸ˜‰

      I call the other style Exclusivebooking.

  • kevin says:

    It’s not a status type, but it’s worth noting the rule “The older the Facebook post, the creepier the Like”

    I’m sure everyone has had this one. Someone “likes” a photo you posted 8 months ago, and instead of the normal “Yay I got a like!” rush, you just think, “What the heck was THAT person doing rummaging around way back there?”

    I give my grandma a pass on this one though. She likes to look at family pictures a lot, and many of those pictures are on Facebook. Sometimes she finds an old one she likes.
    This is more about the person you kinda-knew in high school who you’re not sure why you’re facebook friends with but it seems rude to unfriend them.

    • Andy says:

      Totally true on the older-to-creepy ratio! I once went onto a friend’s Wall and started Like bombing them. Way back, and not photos.

      Activity on old photos can be creepy, but activity on a STATUS UPDATE a year ago??? Lock your f##king doors and carry mace at all times. πŸ˜‰

  • Jill says:

    I would be guilty of parent-booking, of a particularly narcissistic kind. “<- Just a status update so you all can see my beautiful baby!"
    The weird thing is, I got several likes.

    • Andy says:

      Ha ha! Love it. Not everyone loves it, but you know what, it’s your Facebook. All they gotta do is keep scrolling. πŸ˜‰

  • Julia says:

    I used to try so hard to be witty and funny and one of a kind in Facebook (and failing) that I deleted my account. I never tried Twitter. But I snoop my husband’s account, so I guess I’m a booklurker too.

    • Andy says:

      I used to do that too. So much so that there were people who began referring to me as Mr. Facebook, in real life. Sooooo, yeah.

      Interesting fact about Facebook: only 20% of users generate 100% of the content (updates, pics, links, etc.), which means there are literally hundreds of millions of Lurkbookers. πŸ˜‰

  • NiIki A says:

    Bait-booking posting some inflammatory remark to lure people into arguing with you over stupid things. It’s often a subset of politibooking, but could be over anything. I also think of it as jerk-booking.

  • Jill says:

    There is also grief-booking, but at the risk of looking like a complete jerk, I’ll stop here. You all know what I mean.

  • Jay says:

    HumbleBragBooking – The person who complains about how great their life is.

    “It’s so hard to get through the grocery store when everyone stops to tell me how cute my kids are.”

    “I can’t believe [politician] wants to raise taxes on people making $250k, I work hard for that money.”

    You get the idea

  • makeupbyjanine says:

    These are so true. Perhaps a subset of baby-booking, but how about when you post something parent related but not advice seeking, and get slammed with tons of insolicited advice. Example “waiting for Baby to wake up from her nap so we can go to Target for some new toys” “wow you really buy her a lot of stuff… be careful not to spoil her!” “You are brave to take her out with that horrible cold going around :/” “wow shes napping this time of day? Hmmm.” “If you need to go to Target just wake her up & she can sleep in the car if she needs to” etc. etc. etc. Ughhhhhhh.

    • Andy says:

      Oh my god I HATE that! Unwantedadvicebooking always makes me want to start STFUbooking. πŸ˜‰

  • Christina says:

    Troll-booking! Never post anything on their facebook wall, but they are always commenting or liking others posts =p

    I am a parent-booker, occassional politibooker, and probably post too much about anything but I’m secretly an emobooker. I never post anything like it, but I lurk waiting for my likes and comments =p

    My brother is a lovebooker. He and his girlfriend are TOO hilarious and I’ve been enjoying teasing him over it.

    I do have an oldbooker on my friends list and I find it a wee bit annoying, but she’s family =p

  • tom says:

    Drink-booking: I don’t care to see a photo of the drink that you may or may not be enjoying, by the way looking at your last 200 drink posts, I’m pretty sure That you are an alcoholic. Just saying.

  • NJJ says:

    Share-booking: Your posts consist primarily of shared articles and funny pictures, mostly those posted by George Takei, to whom 95% of your friends already subscribe.

    Like-booking: You post nothing, but just scroll down your news feed and “like” everything that your friends post.

  • Amanda says:

    I don’t know what you could call it but I think it goes with oldbooking, people who get on facebook and type in a greeting or comment meant for a specific person in their status section

  • Jason says:

    Don’t forget “facedbooking”. This person had a few extra drinks and decided to leave some vague or highly aggressive comments on facebook before passing out in front of Hulu. Random, broken sentences often referring to other postings no one else has seen.

  • Lane says:

    GAMEBOOKING! I don’t play FB games, I don’t have time for them! And I don’t want to be a part of your Network! Sorry!

    There are actually people on FB who seem as if they only spend time building farms, and defending their castles or whatever.

    But, of course I have time to read up on HTBAD. It’s educational, right?

  • Louise says:

    Gymbooking. I have friends on facebook who only post when they go to the gym or have taken a picture of a salad.

    Don’t-understand-alcoholbooking. Friday: I’m gunna get so pissed tonight!!! Saturday: Oh, I’m so hungover… No Kidding.

    Chameleonbooking. People who change their profile picture every five minutes. Do people realise that no-one pays attention to profile pics. If it wasnt for the 196 notifications you’re clogging my wall with, I wouldn’t have noticed!

    I am guilty of parentbooking. I try to restrain myself but i’m a stay-at-home mum, and nothing else happens in my day.

  • Catrina says:

    Job-booking: updating your status every day about how shitty your job is.

    “OMG! I can’t believe that I have to work a double at [chain restaurant] again!!! FML!!”

    Cram-booking: status updates about how hard it is to study for an exam, while procrastinating the actual studying.

    “Studying for psychology final, can’t wait for this to be over, ugh!”

  • Emmylou says:

    Sportsbooking- Non-sport specific. Usually pro, but can range from little league, high school, college, etc. The refs/umpires almost always suck & if their team loses, you can bet the farm the post immediately after the game will read, “I’m just going to bed…” I’m soooooo guilty of this. Actually, come to think of it, I’m guilty of all of these, to some degree. Oooof. πŸ˜€

  • AUHSOJ says:

    Sexbooking is favorite of mine…you gotta keep it interesting with the wife, and let everyone know about it!

  • Charlotte Corday says:

    Well what kind of booking DO you boogers approve of? Maybe that would be a shorter list.

    (It isn’t you. Isn’t me, either. It’s that ignoramus’ article I read on the 23 dumbested-assedest things your friends do on Facebook. It covered everything you can possibly do on Facebook and showed that the author is just trying to say, “I hate you all, I hate your stupid stuff, but I know you all like mine, naturally you all do, so I’ll write an article ‘vaguebooking’ all of you instead of saying so to each of your faces on Facebook.”

    Now quit whining.

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