What does it mean to brag?
A Spanish proverb says: Tell me what you brag about, and I’ll tell you what you lack.
Have you ever noticed how some people are full of themselves and always tell you about the great things they’ve accomplished? That is called bragging. This is a verbal kind of showing off. We all boast from time to time, and it’s annoying when other people do it. Athletes often brag before important matches. But only the champions can boast after because they backed up their words. Bragging is childish behavior that should stop at some moment during the teenage years. Unfortunately, some people never outgrow it and brag about different things throughout their whole lives.
Social media has made bragging extremely easy.
Thanks to social media bragging’s become popular to the point where people even boast about the food they eat. They post pictures so that their friends or followers could see what their lunch is and where they are eating it.
The worst part is that people mistake bragging with confidence. Unfortunately, bragging and being confident in yourself are two different things. Confidence is believing in yourself, and bragging is a try to look important in the eyes of others.
Things people brag about.
We usually boast about banal things like having money, our partners, a good job, influence, sports, children, and so forth. If your friend, relative, colleague or partner has these things or at least some of them, they’re successful. And if they don’t, they’re boring or poor or something negative.
But, it turns out that bragging is pointless because it doesn’t impress others. On the contrary, it makes them doubt the success of the person/people who brag.
Here are 8 of the most annoying and pointless things people would brag about:
1. Parenting
Having children is something that humans have been doing since Time Immemorial, and just recently we have started seeking recognition for it. Parenting is difficult, and one of the toughest things about it is that we are meant to do it without expecting a reward. In fact, parenting is about doing what you have to without expecting anything in return. The recognition should come from our children and their success in life.
2. Family members’ achievements
People usually brag about the achievements of their family members. But most often they would brag about their children’s success. Although it’s human nature to be proud of our kids, always boasting about their success can be incredibly irritating. Of course, the same goes if someone is always bragging about their father, mother, or other relatives. Being proud of your family is normal. However, sometimes if we talk about it too often, people might get annoyed. And we shouldn’t forget that it’s our success we have to be proud of.
3. Ex partner’s failures
We all more or less get satisfaction because of the faults of our exes. When we see they’ve gained weight or got divorced, we can’t help but find pleasure in this. In reality, they’re the ones scoring a victory. We are trying to show that we are dealing better than our ex, but in fact, we are revealing our real weaknesses this way. Successful people have their achievements to show to the world, and they don’t feel happy about the problems of others.
4. Workaholism
Many people think that working all day every day is the key to success. “Grind while they sleep,” “Let them party while you work,” and other internet memes will assure you that success is related to long hours of work. However, studies show working more than 50 hours a week could be dangerous for our health. Workaholics have a lowered quality of life. Scientists have associated workaholism with a variety of mental disorders, such as anxiety, and depression. Working long days also influences seriously our physical health and our ability to manage stress.
5. Intimate Partners
There are such men /and women too/ out there who are gentle and delicate and are attractive to the others. They start relationships easily and with many different kinds of partners. However, these relationships are usually shallow. They are based on nothing but physical attraction and desire. You’ll notice that such people brag about their intimate partners all the time. They think this would make them feel appreciated by others. However, this is not true. Although nowadays we live in the so-called hookup culture, people who change their partners often and would even brag about it don’t deserve any applause.
6. Sports Clubs
Some people like to brag about their favorite sports team. It’s normal to celebrate the spectacular come-from-behind win of your favorite sports club. And even to tell the whole world about it if that happened in a world championship match. Other than that, it’s not nice for your friends to listen to annoying stories about your college basketball team’s performance on the local championship all the time.
7. Good Deeds
The truth is that when we brag too much about our achievements, we make our success less significant. The same goes if we do something solely to make people feel grateful for it. The most glaring example of this is when we lend money to a friend. And then we start reminding to this friend how we’d helped them when they were in need. If you derive genuine joy from doing good for others, do good. Just don’t try to brag about it.
8. Personal information posted on social media
As mentioned in the beginning, social media has now made it possible for people to share what they are doing at the moment. Everyone can post a status, pictures, and videos and receive comments from their friends or followers.
As a result, social media today is flooded with images and videos of people eating, partying, talking, sleeping, kissing and whatever else someone might be doing in their private life. On the one hand, it is irritating to make your friends witness your intimate moments. On the other hand, this is usually done not to share happiness, but to arouse envy, resentment, or other negative emotions and doesn’t have any helpful, informative meaning for the public.
Have you ever met a bragger?
Please, share your experience in the comments.
