The Humblebrag: Where Facebook and Fitness Collide [How do you mix social media and healthy living?]

“Uggggh just ate about fifteen pieces of chocolate, gotta learn to control myself when flying first class or they’ll cancel my modeling contract LOL :p ”

“So frustrated! My iPod died before I could finish my 40-mile run this morning! It’s hard to keep my pace in front of the pack without my tunes! Why can’t anyone make a decent battery?!”

“Little Betty just read me the entire contents of my tampon insert in the store! Agh it’s so embarrassing when your two-year-old reads at a college level and enunciates perfectly!

“ZOMG my hair is so sweaty and disgusting after a workout! I look like the bride of Frankenstein haha! What’s up with all the guys hitting on me every 5 seconds – can’t they see I’m gross?” on a picture of a totally hot girl, with ripped abs posing with her protein shake.

Meet the “humblebrag“: your new most hate-to-read post, tweet or picture. Defined by Urban Dictionary as “subtly letting others now about how fantastic your life is while undercutting it with a bit of self-effacing humor or “woe is me” gloss.” this social media phenomenon appears everywhere people do but one group in particular seem to love it: Fitness Fanatics. After all, how else are we supposed to let the world know about our amazing weekend warrior exploits without looking like crazy narcissists?

From oversharing to underwhelming, sexting to sexy face, death threats to suicide threats – much has been made of the power of social media lately. I mean, you saw the kerfuffle when KitchenAid’s Twitter went rogue during the Presidential debate, right? No one cared that someone somewhere made a stupid joke at the expense of President Obama’s dead grandmother but more that that someone was tweeting under the KitchenAid handle. Bad tweets, posts and pictures are the real zombies of the Internet; you can kill them but they will never die and they’ll just keep coming back for you until you brain them with a frying pan… which you will then post on Instagram.

But what exactly constitutes a “bad” tweet, post or pic? Dead grandmas, obv. Bathroom functions. Probably anything about a moon landing conspiracy. And…? The list for what makes social media annoying is as long as Lindsay Lohan’s latest hair extensions and about as tangled. Parenting updates from potty training to real-time deliveries have been common targets of derision, a la STFU*, Parents, a site devoted to posting parent’s lamest status updates, pics and tweets for the rest of the Internet to pick apart. Us parents, so cuckoo for cutie puffs! But lately the attention – and ire – has been shifting towards the healthy living crowd. STFU, Fitness Freaks?

In case you are unfamiliar with the breed, they (we?) are the folks always posting about how sore they are, what workout classes they’ve done, what healthy dinner they’ve made, what race they’re training for, what race they’re running (in real time – there’s an app for that!), what race they’ve just completed and any picture involving sweaty cleavage/rock hard abs/muddy running shoes/inspirational sayings emblazoned over any of the above. And of course, the ubiquitous #humblebrag.

Some people find all that sweaty sharing to be inspirational (Sweet! If Ally can lose 80 pounds with diet and exercise then so can I!). Some find it kinda depressing (Sure it’s easy for you to workout every day, you don’t have to deal with 80 hour weeks, a soul-sucking commute and 6-course business dinners). Some think it’s boring and repetitive (Yay you ran another 2.3 miles in 17 minutes and felt “good”… and this is news why?). Yet others just want to chain them to the nearest CrossFit facility with the lock from their $5,000 tri bike and cover their smug face with their 100% organic cotton Whole Foods bag just so they never have to read another post tagged #proof.

But it’s not all bad news and braggarts. Social media has a lot to offer when it comes to living healthy: for every person who hides the “Map My Run” app on their wall, there’s another who loves feeling like they’re part of a great running community. Fitness newbies can be evangelical in their enthusiasm but that excitement can be just what a friend needs to encourage them to make healthy changes. Other people find that posting their fitness highs and lows provides them with much needed support, kudos and accountability. And where better to get ideas for fun workouts or healthy recipes than from your healthy living friends?

Finding the balance between annoying and amazing can be tricky. For myself, I don’t mind at all when people post about their food or workouts – as long as it’s just part of who they are. If every single Facebook update is a race report, I’m going to hide them before they can ask me to track their every mile in the next one. But if they share about their kids, pets, jobs, jokes and of course embarrassing moments then fitness is just one of their many facets of a beautiful life and I love it. Honesty is also a big plus for me. I like to see the wins and the losses – not so I can mock you but because it helps me realize that if you can have a bad workout and be okay then I can too. Then there’s also the fact that you can’t please everyone and trying to frame all of your tweets in the framework of not offending anyone, ever, will just make you nuts. And when it comes to what I post, I try to follow the same guidelines. (Although I know I don’t always succeed – I’m sure I’ve driven more than one of you batty with some of what I post! I’ve even been known to humblebrag. Oops.)

What about you? Is social media integral to your healthy living strategy? How? Or does it drive you nuts? Anyone have a good humblebrag to share?!

*STFU = shut the f*** up, in Internet parlance. You’re welcome.

24 Comments

  1. Haha this made me laugh so hard! It is definitely a fine balance. Im sure I fail, often! Being a mum of potty training age twins I have to constantly remind myself not to post my excitement on social media, because no one cares. I woukd have been disturbed by it pre kids, but in my life potty training is so exciting. I’m dying to tweet every time I find a poop in the potty. What have I become!!! Haha

    • You can tweet your potty training success to me anytime! I’ll air-five you and try to contain my jealousy (seriously, Jelly Bean will be 3 in 1 month and she’s nowhere near potty trained). AGH.

  2. Loved this!

    The only thing saving me from being a totally FB and Twitter idiot is the fact that I’m too lazy to post often. But that said, I think humblebragging is an art, and it’s got to be subtle to not make one look like an narcissistic ass. The addition of obviously faux-humble to what is clearly bragging is almost worse, somehow, than out right chest-pounding.

    I will keep all this in mind the next time I’m actually ambitious enough to post something fitness related on FB or twitter!

  3. I agree that it’s a fine balance. But since health and fitness are a big part of my life, anyone who follows me on social media should already know that they’re going to hear about it 🙂 I did create a FB page for my blog, though, so most of my braggart-type posts go there, while my personal page is kept for more broad-spectrum (boring!) updates.

    • Yes, I figure most people know what they’re going to get with me too. It’s all about the balance!

  4. I really don’t mind when people post their accomplishments online, it’s the run-of-the-mill, posting the same thing every single day fitness stuff that drives me insane. If you run for 5 miles and then do some body class, and you post this every morning, that drives me insane. If you run 5 miles and then do some body class for the first time and are super proud of yourself, good for you! The posts that drive me the most insane are the simple “Going to the gym” ones. That’s awesome. It’s as pointless as me posting “Watching the news” or “Putting my shoes away”. Make it interesting, or “STFU”. 🙂

    In general, I feel that there’s an over-saturation of people posting unnecessary details about their lives online, especially on Twitter and Facebook. If you’ve got an important announcement, or if something genuinely interesting happened to you, or heck, if you’ve got something pretty damn funny to say, post away. If not, then frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.

    • Love this whole comment! Especially the Gone With the Wind shout-out:)) And a huge yes to this: ” it’s the run-of-the-mill, posting the same thing every single day fitness stuff that drives me insane.” Esp when it’s an app that’s posting it for them! Online fitness journals are cool but that’s not what Facebook is

  5. I have facebook and I confess that I measure everything I put out there with the idea that it has to be useful or inspiring. As a result I hardly ever post. The every day things I share directly with my friends face to face.
    Maybe I should lighten up a bit?

  6. I have to admit that social media has become somewhat of a bore to me lately. It’s not like you just met with a really annoying person and had a short conversation with them. Social media is everything all the time and you can’t stop it. I think that is what makes it overwhelming sometimes. It’s interesting how quickly it changes. Luckily dealing with it can be as easy as closing my laptop 🙂

    • Yes. THIS: “Social media is everything all the time and you can’t stop it. I think that is what makes it overwhelming sometimes.” It’s like trying to drink from a firehose. I do what I can but then just kinda give up (and then feel bad when I miss the really important stuff like a baby announcement).

  7. I don’t mind the occasional humble brag from friends, especially when – with a lot of the people I know, it is actually coming from a humble place. I have several friends who are runners or who are newly into running/various fitness activities and I don’t mind reading their updates about their workouts either. Most of them post about various things besides fitness and the ones who post about their daily workouts or running experiences are people who, in general, are coming from a place so many of us are familiar with. They are working hard to get back in shape, or to lose weight, or both, or are sturggling with motivation & proud or discouraged about their progress.

    I don’t mind reading about my friends who have kids & their accomplishments either. I’ve come to realize that for a lot of us FB is the only outlet we have to voice things freely. And for the people posting about weightloss, fitness, & things of that nature to me, I view it as an inspiration. If that friend who works full time and has kids, husband, a house to care for, etc can make time to work out, eat well, etc – what’s my pathetic excuse not to be able to do those same things? If that friend who is working on losing weight and started out very out of shape can manage to do a 5k (or whatever) what’s my excuse for being out of breath walking my puppy 3/4mi and not even wanting to do that when my pup needs the exercise? It’s kind of a wake up call to how easily I’ve gotten comfortable with being lazy & making excuses – even when I have been at my most fit I disklike working out, but I like the way I look & being healthy when I do work out. And it;s not that I haven’t found “the right” work out, I’m just that gal who’d rather be reading a book 😉

    • I love reading too! And I also love that you see all your friends as inspiration! I think real people are so much more motivating than some celebrity:)

  8. Hahaha – love this. Good reminder to us all not only to not annoy others…but also that there is a real world and real life besides fitness and that we should have some other things in our lives worth posting about from time to time!

  9. THIS is the reason I’m cancelling my Facebook account.
    OK, not really. There are many reasons, including the fact that I have zero willpower and spend waaaaaaay too much time on it.
    Plus, I run into too many trolls there. Seeing the dark side of humanity that many times a day is seriously depressing.
    Finally, I think FB and Twitter (along with our reality TV culture) are creating a generation of people who believe that every thought they have is fascinating and important. Sometimes it’s important to talk less and listen more.

    • Don’t cancel your FB! I love seeing your stuff:) But I totally 100% agree with this: “Sometimes it’s important to talk less and listen more.” especially me!

  10. I can’t stand the vague post meant to draw attention: “so bummed :'(“, “wow, really wish THAT wouldn’t have happened today”, “Why did he have to say that?” Ugh!!!! Just post what happened or don’t. I’m not going to go digging around your page or sending a comment to find out when I can TELL the post was written to draw attention.

    I’m way too annoyed by that…

    • Hahah “vaguebooking”! Yes that’s really annoying too. Although maybe it’s better than a bathroom overshare?

      • Or the “ughhh, headache again. Gonna go lay down.” post. Why? Whyyy?!?!? I’d rather a bathroom overshare then The Constant Migraine updater, lol.

  11. Several friends and family members tell me that seeing my exercise posts on Facebook helps keep them motivated, so that makes it worth posting them. Those who dislike it can just ignore those posts or hide me completely because if what I’m doing helps even one person live a healthier life, it’s worth it!

    All of that being said, I do try to keep my posts to a minimum on any one subject and I only post when I think I have something entertaining/interesting/knowledgeable to say.

    • “Those who dislike it can just ignore those posts or hide me completely because if what I’m doing helps even one person live a healthier life, it’s worth it!” Good point! People are always free to hide you/me!

  12. Such an interesting post!!!! I never thought that posting my pics may seem as bragging – well, I thought about it but I am almost 55 & I cut off my head so it is not like I think I am some great beauty or something! 😉

    I really don’t use it for the staple of healthy living although I get a lot if interesting info. Fort me, it is a necessary evil cause depending on what we want to do in life OR TRY to do, ya have to do social media. I almost wish it was like when I was a kid & there was nothing like this! 😉

  13. I like to tweet when I have a good workout or when I set a PR. I know some people don’t like bragging, but in my opinion, we have too much false humility in our fitness culture.

    If you’ve accomplished something tell the world! You’ve earned the right to do so. Plus you feel much better about your own accomplishments when you applaud the accomplishments of others.