Can I say it?
When you have ever scrolled on social media and felt such as you joined a dialog midway by way of, with no context in any respect, you aren’t alone. Over the previous few weeks, a kind of posting has resurfaced on-line with the only real objective of ragebaiting everybody.
It’s referred to as vagueposting, and it entails being deliberately cryptic as a type of engagement bait. Widespread vagueposts embody “can I say it?” with out ever saying something, or insisting “you gained’t like the reply” with out ever revealing the reply. Or “oh that’s not…” What? WHAT?
The observe will not be new. The time period was originally called vaguebooking, which referred to posting emo Fb statuses that pandered for consideration. One instance could be writing “worst day ever” with out providing any particulars, or posting a black sq. paired with a pointed platitude.
The primary meme of the yr was one instance of vagueposting in motion. It began with a TikTok posted in December about rebranding for 2026. Within the feedback, others shared their very own methods and self-improvement ideas for the upcoming yr. A person named Tamara shared her personal methodology involving 365 buttons.
When pressed to elucidate what the 365 buttons have been for, she merely responded: “Hey, so it really solely has to make sense to me for me to do it and I don’t really feel like explaining it to anybody else.”
Vagueposting has additionally resurfaced on platforms like X in December and early January. On X, one user noted, “Why has this complete web site turned to fucking vagueposting previously month, like each viral tweet means nothing anymore as a result of there’s no context.”
One other added: “Many dreadful issues are taking place on-line, however I’m actually impressed by how totally maddening the ‘vagueposting for likes’ pattern is.”
The truth that vagueposting is proliferating on X proper now will not be a coincidence. Elon Musk’s new monetization insurance policies have warped the platform. Those that stay are in a race to the underside, competing towards AI slop in pursuit of clicks and engagement.
“Vagueposting is a pattern as a result of the algorithm senses that you’re clicking on these tweets (engagement) to see the replies for context,” one X user explained. “So it promotes obscure tweets over ones that designate sufficient you can learn and scroll previous them.”
Because the web continues to eat itself, what stays throughout beleaguered social media platforms are half-formed ideas, clips stripped of crucial context, and engagement baits designed to hook our shrinking consideration spans and additional set off our dysregulated nervous methods.
…you’re in all probability not gonna like the reply.
