Sadfishing or Genuine Cry for Support?
Social media platforms have penetrated every facet of our lives. With new trends every so often, one of this trends that is currently on the rise is sadfishing and in the context of social media let me call it sadposting. Sadfishing has been defined as the tendency of social media users to post exaggerated claims of their emotional problems or unfortunate experiences to generate sympathy. I must emphasis the word exaggerated here to separate sadfishing from posts that are real and without any attempt to amplify.
The post will probably be about:
- a recent sad experience
- financial struggle
- Intentions of self harm
- some kind of an emotinal personal story
- posts about anxiety and depression
- someone seeking approval for their actions or inaction
Reasons for Sadfishing
You might ask; what is the motivation for posting something personal for the whole world to see? What is the reason for posting?
The reasons why one may result to sadfishing are varied it could be because someone is actually in a crisis and is not getting attention from their circles. Another reason could be that the person is not comfortable sharing feelings with their close relations. These feelings may not necessarily be posing a serious emotional crisis, take for example an employee who had that rare spat with their boss and goes ahead to post something like: "friends am in a toxic workplace feel like quitting ASAP". Sadposting may also be used as a way of engagement farming for likes and comments. When one posts an emotive message, it elicits feelings in viewers and their sympathy is expressed in the engagement it draws.
It is difficult to tell between sadfishing and real cry for support since a single statement or a short video clip post lacks context. This is even further compounded if the person does not give channels to reach out to them. Research has shown however that there is always some underlying real cry for help especially when sadfishing comes from the young who are still navigating the early formative stages of teenage and adulthood.
Is there a danger?
This behaviour has its dangers especially to the young exposing them to cyberbullying, manipulation and attracting online abusers. When one shares their personal and emotional story to the public you are exposing your weaknesses and becomes a soft target from online criminals who pose as a helping hand.
While sadfishing does not seem to fade away any time soon, it is important to take serious every alarming post and try to reach out for support from mental health professionals. Indeed the social media spaces have become engrained in our lives and it is to some the only way to let out.
Photo by Andre Moura on Pexels