We all know there’s no limits to what you can find online. Whether you want hard hitting news, adorable pictures of cats, shocking videos on TikTok or photos of your friends’ vacations, you can find it all! But one interesting niche of content is “suspiciously specific” posts. This genre contains all of the questionable tweets, Facebook posts and more that describe bizarre, sometimes “hypothetical,” scenarios that might have you wondering who in the world is actually experiencing these things.
And while this kind of content can be found in all of the different corners of the internet, one place that compiles plenty of this content is the Suspiciously Specific subreddit. This group was created in 2018 but has already amassed an impressive 1.3 million members. The community has more recently transitioned to focusing on Among Us fanart and memes, but lucky for us, members had already shared a variety of hilarious, oddly specific posts.
I think we’ve all been in a scenario where we asked a question “for a friend,” that was a bit too specific to ask if we didn’t actually have experience with the topic… “My friend is having relationship troubles,” or, “My cousin has a medical question that she’s too embarrassed to ask.” Well, many of these posts are the virtual equivalents of those, often used for comedic effect of course. And according to Candace Osmond at Grammarist, this is an easy way for us to save face when we’re worried about being judged.
While there’s no way of pinpointing exactly where the classic “asking for a friend” phrase came from, it doesn’t seem to be anything new. Anonymous advice columns have been popular in newspapers and websites for decades, so it’s no surprise that we’ve implemented a similar style of posting on social media as well. Even if something is shared “hypothetically,” if it’s too specific, it’s going to raise some eyebrows.
Although many of the posts on this list were shared online for comedic purposes, regardless of whether they’re referring to real situations or not, this content got me wondering about whether we’re oversharing online. As much fun as posting on social media can be, we have to remember to have boundaries too. According to Van-Hau Trieu, Senior Lecturer in Information Systems at Deakin University, and Vanessa Cooper, Professor of Information Systems at RMIT University, there are personal and professional risks associated with oversharing. Research has shown that over half of us have anxiety surrounding our family, friends and coworkers sharing photos or videos that we don’t want public.
Oversharing often has innocent intentions, though, as it’s linked to how we’re feeling. “When we feel strong emotions, we often use social media to communicate with and get support from friends, family and colleagues,” Trieu and Cooper write. “We might share good news when we feel happy or excited, or anger and frustration might drive us to vent about our employers. When emotional, it is easy for us to cross the boundary between work and social life, underestimating the consequences of social media posts that can quickly go viral.”
To ensure that we aren’t oversharing too much online, Trieu and Cooper recommend that we all set defined boundaries between our personal and professional lives. Inform your friends, family and colleagues about these boundaries, and rethink your relationships with anyone who doesn’t respect them. It can also be wise to create separate social media accounts for personal and professional use, or to keep your pages private to ensure you know exactly who’s able to view your content.
It’s also important to make sure that you respect the boundaries of others. If you plan on posting photos or videos of friends, it’s courteous to ask for their permission before sharing them publicly. And if anyone asks not to be featured on your account, make sure that you don’t overstep. Trieu and Cooper also add to share consciously online, to avoid making mistakes. They recommend staying offline when you’re feeling emotional, especially when you’re upset, and to always consider who will see your content before publishing it. If there’s anything you don’t want family or colleagues to see, perhaps it shouldn’t be out there.
