Over the past decade, social media has drastically transformed the way people interact. So much of our lives are now spent behind a screen, may that be our desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. While the rise of social media has its advantages—like allowing us to stay in touch with family and friends—it isn't without its faults.
Being able to constantly share and consume other people's thoughts all day long can be tiresome, especially when the information being shared is a little, well, over the top. It's great that social media gives people an outlet to express themselves. However, it can get cringe-worthy at times. Some posts edge along a line that simply shouldn't be crossed. Just take it from these people, who recently shared the worst cases of over-sharing they've come across on social media.
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#1 Social Media Soap Opera
A guy (whom I was Facebook friends with) and his girlfriend (whom I wasn't) would start an argument in real life, unfriend each other on Facebook, then continue arguing via public status updates. It was annoying... until it got interesting. I got sucked in like an episode of General Hospital. Then, all I could do was keep up with the fight, switching back and forth between profiles and getting angry when one of them would stop responding for a few hours.
#2 Flatlining On The Timeline
A family friend of mine posted a video of her mom flatlining in the hospital after a battle of cancer. She then followed up with pictures of them hugging and kissing her, still in her hospital bed, after she had already passed away.
#3 Credit To All
Someone from my high school posted her credit card information, from the full number and expiration to the CVV on the back. This was back when Twitter was just becoming a thing.
#4 Not A Sweet Hashtag
My uncle had a daughter that was born severely handicapped. When she eventually passed away, he posted a photo to Facebook of a shopping cart filled with candy, saying in the caption: "Can you tell I'm grieving? #deaddaughter."
I will never forget that hashtag.
#5 Recycled Captions
Someone I used to work with posts a picture of her and her boyfriend every day on Instagram with some lovey-dovey caption at the bottom, plus a count of how many days they’ve been together. Every month, they celebrate their “anniversary.”
When they broke up, she deleted every photo with him in it, leaving about only three photos left on her account. She got a new boyfriend about a month later, and now she does the same thing with this new guy. I swear she also reuses some of the old captions she made with her previous boyfriend.
#6 Beyond The Bedroom
I had a cousin who gave the entire world updates on the bedroom life she and her husband had in over-the-top detail. She was friends with her whole family on Facebook, from our grandmother to her children. She got super angry with me and lashed out when I suggested in a comment that she keep it to herself. I'm embarrassed to be related to her. Thankfully, she lives hundreds of miles from me, and I never see her.
#7 A New Moth...er
My cousin's ex-girlfriend made a post about how she gave birth to a flying moth. In the post, she explained that she went to go #1 and a moth flew out from between her legs. I was like, what the heck?
#8 A Deadly Announcement
I was scrolling through Facebook and read my aunt's post about how my grandpa (who I was going home to stay with for a couple of months) passed away that morning. I called my mom, who had asked all family members to wait 24 hours before posting anything on social media so that I could be told in person.y whole family was livid at this aunt for a while.
Three years later, my uncle passed away unexpectedly in the middle of the night. His adult daughter happened to be traveling to their house that day from her out-of-town home, so her mom asked all family to refrain from posting anything on social media until the daughter arrived so that she could tell her in person. The aunt mentioned above decided to ignore this request again, and my poor cousin read about her dad's death in a Facebook post when she stopped for breakfast.
#9 Seizure And Second-Hand Selling
I messaged someone on a secondhand clothes app about some items they were selling. The seller replied almost instantly. He apologized for the "slow reply," explaining that he was in the middle of a seizure.
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#10 A Chain About Cheating
My cousin made a post about her boyfriend cheating on her. His mother denied it was ever happening, even though he didn't deny it whatsoever. About 15 minutes later, my cousin and all of her family were having a full-blown argument with him in a comment chain that I swear went into the quadruple digits and lasted about eight hours. It was a fun night.
#11 Sudden Proposal
My mom and I went shopping for a wedding ring for my wife. She took a picture of the one I bought and posted on Facebook instantly, so I was forced to make an impromptu proposal.
#12 Wax And Soda
A girl I went to high school with posted a picture of herself at the bikini waxing place with just a large fountain drink cup covering her hoo-ha. She is a mother of three whose oldest son was a teenager and was also on Facebook.
#13 Thank You For Your Service
A girl I went to high school with posted a picture of her dog tags from when she was in the army. I had to remind her that her social security number on them.
#14 Highly Educated
This was a mistake, but a few months ago I saw a guy on LinkedIn who shared his entire employment and education history. He was attaching letters of recommendation and emails praising his work from supervisors. He added a couple of documents for his education and one of them was his school transcript. This transcript had his full name and social security number at the top.
#15 The Never-Ending Wedding
A girl I knew posted pictures related to her wedding regularly. Now you may be wondering, “What’s the big deal? People post a lot after they get married. It’s a big moment.”
Her wedding was two years ago.
Two to three times a week, she will post a photo of her wedding, her rings, or some obscure picture with a lengthy caption about her “journey” with her husband. If any of her friends got married, she would post photos of them at her wedding with a caption to express her excitement for theirs. Anytime she posted pictures to recognize something in someone else’s life; it would be a picture of them at her wedding. I unfollowed her.
#16 Billy's Food Diary
My one friend from high school would post a picture of her toddler anytime he would eat lunch.
"Billy loves mommy's peanut butter toast."
"Billy loves his spaghetti."
"Billy loves mommy's pancakes."
I can understand if he was way younger, but nope— he was a full two and a half years old already, and she still kept giving play-by-plays of what Billy ate for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack. It was the same high chair, every freaking day.
#17 Not-So-Secret Stash
My friend posted about where she kept her stash of money on Facebook. The next week, she got the whole bag stolen after leaving her door unlocked. When tax time came, she got audited as well.
#18 TMI
My cousin asked her Facebook followers what she was supposed to tell the health department after she was diagnosed with an STD. She had received calls asking for the contact information of all the partners she’s recently been with since she contracted it. In the comments, she went on to explain that she didn’t even know the names of some of the men, let alone their phone numbers.
My first thought was, "Dang, girl, get your life together." My second thought was, "Dang, girl, ever heard of Google?!"
#19 Always Fresh
She posted her vast collection of Summers Eve and other “intimate wash” products.
#20 What To Expect
When my mother found out that my wife and I were expecting a boy, she publicly posted a video to my Facebook page showing the baby coming out via C-section. It was shot from the perspective of someone on the receiving end (not up by the shoulders). I cringed, and then nearly vomited.
#21 The Tortured Artist
My sister has always been self-obsessed, maladjusted, moody, and straight up crazy. She's super dramatic and no amount of attention anyone gives her will ever be enough for her.
She just recently went through a terrible breakup (he cheated on her) and she made a new Instagram account to post the most painful, cringy poetry as a way to express her feelings towards men. It was like a middle schooler's diary. She's 30, though.
One of the worst posts went something like this: "Don't promise to not hurt me. Every guy has promised they wouldn't hurt me. So don't promise you won't. And eventually, when you do, I won't have to call you out for breaking your promise. This is how girls are ruined."
She always uses the hashtag #poetrybyme. Like, girl, I wouldn't be claiming that poem if I were you. My other sister and I get great laughs out of the terrible writing and my dad can't even talk about how absurd she is on social media.
#22 Intoxicating Stream
An old coworker who I barely knew went live on Facebook. I never watch Facebook live videos, but for some reason, I clicked on this one.
He was driving under the influence and ranting for a whole hour about his wife cheating on him. He announced that he was filing for divorce. Tons of people were frantically commenting, trying to get him to stop his car. Luckily, he made it home without anyone getting hurt.
#23 Stealing The Spotlight
I didn't witness this myself, but a friend of mine threw a birthday party for her seven-year-old daughter. She uploaded some pictures from the birthday party, but also apparently uploaded a couple of nudes she'd sent to her husband as well. She took them down pretty quickly, but I know several people had already seen them. My one friend, who saw the photos, can't tell the story without falling over laughing.
#24 I Will Remember You
A guy I knew posted a picture of a framed photo of him and his girlfriend with candles lit next to it. The caption went on and on about how he was grateful for the time they had together. It wasn't until near the end of that block of text that I realized she had NOT passed away; they had just broken up.
#25 Chasing Mom
I knew this mom who got into a fight with her daughter. As a way of acting out, her daughter told everyone, on the mom's Facebook page, all the horrible things the mom did while she was tipsy. The mom saw the posts, then took off driving. Her daughter and son-in-law chased her while updating the mom's location. A few of us called the local police to get her off the road.
The mom was eventually pulled over and arrested. The next morning, she left comments on the post listing every embarrassing thing her daughter had ever done. Her daughter didn't know how to stop her mom. She eventually lost her job.
She's now in AA, but I don't know if the mother and daughter ever repaired their relationship. They shared everything, publicly, on Facebook.
#26 Hung Up On Horoscopes
I have Facebook friends that share every Zodiac post that references their sign. It's always stuff like, "The Most Ride Or Die Girlfriend Sign Is," or "The Most Crazy Sign Is..." They need to stop. Those things are made up.
#27 Scandalous Behavior
This lady I knew shared a picture of a pair of sandals on sale. She lamented that she could probably manage to buy them because her controlling, anti-makeup, anti-vaxxer husband had a foot fetish that she was very grateful for.
#28 Insta-Annoying
My first cousin is constantly oversharing on Instagram. It's like her diary. She posts screenshots of the vicious arguments she has, whatever drama is currently going on with the father of her child, old pictures of her ex-boyfriend with long sappy captions of how much she misses him, and, every once in a while, she throws in a picture of a new dude, talking about how much she loves him and how happy she is (oddly, the relationships never seem to make it to a second post).
Recently, she posted a picture of herself pushing her stomach out and saying she was pregnant again, but her sister commented calling her out on it.
#29 Snapping While Snoozing
We were really poor. My mom, my little brother, and I had to share a room. My mom decided to post a picture on Facebook of us sleeping, with a caption that said “she had to be strong” for her children. I was 17 at the time, so it was not like I was a little kid. My little brother was eight at the time. She did this without my permission.
I felt like my privacy was really violated because she was friends with my friends and a lot of them saw it. I asked her to take it down (I don’t know if she did or not) and she got defensive saying, “It’s nothing bad.”
I’m still mad about it.
#30 Showing Off At School
Med students.
My god, my classmates were so obnoxious. Every step of their schooling needed to have a post with their white coats on. Like, chill man, everyone knows you're in med school and smart. You don’t need to tell the world everything you’re doing. I think I posted three pictures related to med school: once for my white coat ceremony, once for when I got my residency locked in, and one when I graduated.
#31 Selfie-Happy
The one that gets me is people posting non-stop selfies on Facebook. Just get Instagram or Snapchat; I don't need the small part of my news feed that's not cluttered with ads and old posts being plastered with your face.
"Getting DQ, So good!" Close-up of them eating a blizzard.
"Mall time!" Taken the minute they wandered into the mall the DQ was in.
"OMG SHOOS!" Selfies with shoes.
#32 Postcards From Prison
A girl from my high school with went to prison a few times. When she got out, she would post stories about how much fun she had. Her prison friends would comment on the posts with things like: “Remember that night Becky wouldn’t shut up so we told the corrections office she had a cell phone and she got searched?” Or, “We had such good times making lipstick from newspapers. Love you, girl!”
She also liked to share photos of herself in very unflattering lingerie using her dirty bedroom mirror.
Her oversharing was actually her demise in the end. She shared on Facebook videos of herself singing in the car one night after work. Shortly after, she lost control on a ramp and passed away. I’m not sure they ever actually attributed it to the videos she took, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
#33 The Guessing Game
I knew a girl who was my age and got pregnant soon after we graduated high school. She posted a picture of the ultrasound and the caption was something like, “I can’t wait to find out who daddy is!” She also tagged the possible fathers in the post. It was unreal.
#34 Greedy About Grief
When my best friend passed away this year, all of her former close friends came out of the woodwork and essentially started competing over who knew her better. As far as her husband and I knew, none of them had tried to contact her in over two years. One of the things she complained about often when she was sick was feeling like everyone except her husband and I had abandoned her.
On the last night of her life, I made plans to sleep in the hospital with her. Her husband and parents were exhausted from keeping up with her at all hours and I wanted to spend some time reading and talking to her. The doctors had estimated that her heart would give out in approximately two weeks. Word got around that I intended to spend the night and, lo and behold, other people started showing up. There were seven of us, and she passed away peacefully with us gathered around her, talking and laughing.
The next day, her former male BFF blew up Facebook with posts about her, stating that he was holding her hand when she passed away and had accompanied her to the gates of heaven. He asked people to pay in advance for a song he was writing about her. He re-released some of his older songs on an EP dedicated to her, claiming they had been her favorite songs.
Her husband was furious but didn't ask him to take any of it down. I'm all for celebrating her life and I'm so happy that everyone came to her bedside that night, but I wish the guy had at least been present during her final years up to that point. Not only would it have made her happy, but it might also have taken some of the pressure off of us.
#35 A Corpse While Camping
A Facebook friend of mine found a dead body in a tent while on a hike and uploaded a video of himself going through their things. He also showed the body.
#36 Taking Time Off
This girl I know from grad school used to post stuff about her period on Facebook. "Great... Aunt Flo is in town." Stuff like that.
The same person posted about how she called in sick to work and then decided to just have a fun staycation day. She created an entire Instagram story complete with video and a dozen or so pictures. All the captions involved some reference to how staying home was so much better than having to work at the job that she hated, with her stupid coworkers who thought she was at home sick.
Her Instagram wasn't locked down, and a couple of her coworkers commented on her posts. "Haha... Looks like you're feeling better," sort of posts. Shortly after, they were all deleted.
#37 Surprise, Baby
This girl I went to high school with posted that she had a baby. She had NO IDEA she was pregnant. She made a post about how he was her little miracle baby because she thought she was having kidney stones or something and got him instead. I’m not sure if that counts as “dirty laundry,” but she essentially announced to all of Facebook that she was: 1) so overweight that she couldn’t even tell she was pregnant, and 2) apparently not smart enough to realize the signs of pregnancy.
#38 An Event Worth Sharing
A girl on my Snapchat took a selfie of herself in a black dress in a building. The next snap was of her playing rap while walking down a hall into a room where her grandma was lying in a coffin. She zoomed in and out of her face while playing the music. the next snap was just a photo of the grandma up close, with “RIP!!!” in glowing letters for the caption.
#39 Poor Dog
Someone I know posted pictures of her and her children crying at the vet when their dog was put to sleep. She had a selfie of her holding the dog crying, and put up pictures of the kids crying with the dog. It was such a private moment, and yet she put it into selfie form and shared it on Facebook.
#40 An Honest Reflection
I once took a picture of my shower with the caption: "About to take a cold shower in this hot weather." I posted it to my story, then took a shower and didn't think of it anymore. About one hour later, my friend texted me, "Reflection..." I took a look, and in the reflection of the shower, you could see me sitting on the toilet, naked. That stuff had got 100 views by the time it was deleted. Good times.
#41 Twinning On The Timeline
A set of twins I went to high school with got pregnant back-to-back—as in, one got pregnant around the same time that the other was giving birth. They posted pictures and updates relentlessly. Multiple times a day. About six months into the second twin's pregnancy, I commented on one of her pictures: "Dang, Ashley, you've been pregnant for like, 15 months! Have the baby or don't!" I was then promptly blocked by them both. Their older sister, who I'm actually friends with, thought it was hilarious.
#42 New Year, New Beau
I spent New Year's Eve in a different city with a friend of mine and we befriended a group of people. There were some drinks, mild flirting and some group selfies involved.
A few days later, I saw that one of the guys tagged me in a post. He wrote an entire essay about how important I was to him, The post had been live for more than six hours and most of my family and friends had seen it. My aunt commented about how lovely of a couple we were (mind you, I barely knew the dude). One of the girls he was with flipped out in the comments, accusing me of stealing her man. Needless to say, I adjusted my privacy settings so that no one can tag me in anything anymore. Screw Facebook.
PS: Literally nothing happened between him and me; not even a kiss. I have no idea where he got all this from.
#43 Not So Fast
My best friend decided to quit his job on social media, only to find out he had a six-month leave period during which he had to go to the office. His boss told him about it...
#44 Baby Girlfriend
I didn't need to see my weirdo brother feeding his girlfriend with a baby bottle, but thanks to social media, I did.
#45 All In Vein
A former coworker of mine had a vein on her leg that either exploded or got so clogged up that it needed to be cut out and replaced. She posted pictures of the gory injury and updated everyone on Facebook about it multiple times a week.
Like, I get sharing that you’re okay and getting better since people might reasonably be concerned about you, but I don’t need to see your actual skin closing over your muscle tissue. “Feeling much better today!” is totally sufficient.
