Vagueblogging and Subtweeting Are Awful

Before anything, I am going to say the rich irony of this post is that it's not directed at anybody in particular. I'm someone fortunate enough to not get vagueblogged or subtweeted about (or maybe I'm just totally oblivious to it), but I've seen it happen enough to friends and people online that I felt compelled to write a post about it. Vagueblogging and subtweeting, I think, are the most toxic possible modes of online communication. They enable societal norms of cynical, pessimistic paranoia and hypervigilance. People are required to be in the cultural know, not for enrichment or bonding, but to ensure they are "safe" and not targeted, or avoiding public-facing friendships with people who are. It normalizes snark, bullying, and passive aggressive behaviour. But let's take a step back and actually define what these words mean. Terminology and Origins: Vaguebooking This phenomenon actually began on Facebook as "vaguebooking," as Dictionary.com's slang entry on it is defined as an…