I enjoy social media quite a bit…this is no secret. I enjoy watching Twitter, Facebook, local blogs etc. and they never fail to provide a level of entertainment I cannot get on television.

Social media, Facebook in particular, makes me feel a little like an anthropologist hiding in a blind somewhere watching a group of people working out their day to day lives online.

There are all kinds of people in the online world…

The Info Nuts a.k.a The Opinionated – those who feel their opinions are so valuable they simply must share them with the world (I fit into this category).

The Relationship Mongers – who like post about every nasty detail of their current relationship and then when it ends continue but along a decidedly more negative tangent – these tend to be high school kids but adults have been know to tread these waters too.

The Online Gamers – who only seem to exist for the sake of Scrabble and Farmville, etc.

The Stalkers – who have Facebook profiles (often more than one) and friends but never post a thing because they are primarily focused on keeping an eye on everybody else.

The Accomplishistas – those whose sole raison d’etre is to inform you of every successful thing they’ve done every second of the day a.k.a. “just got up and successfully walked to the bathroom, whew!” or “have taken 6,454 breaths since yesterday…striving for 10,000 wish me luck”

The Gossips – they generally write a lot about everybody but themselves. Their posts are usually in the form of sly observances like “Heeey!! Saw you out jogging. Were those the new $350 Nikes on your feet? Man I wish I had those…good for you ;-), or “I was out walking through backyards the other day and noticed some baby clothes on your clothesline – anything you want to share (wink, wink, teehee)”.

The Evangelists – Not necessarily religious but often they are, the evangelist has whole-heartedly bought into some sort of life philosophy (or diet) and absolutely needs/requires you to do the same. The evangelist loves to post quotes from their primary inspiration.

The Optimists – kitten hugging, life loving, rainbow farting optimists who can’t stop loving life and everything about it (I actually don’t mind these folks…they make me smile).

The Grumps – these are the same people you often find in coffee shops who have migrated online. They are human versions of Eeyore and Marvin the Paranoid Android all rolled up into a single ball. They exist for a sole purpose – to let you and I know just how absolutely horrible life is (especially to them). It’s too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter, too average in the fall too wet in the spring. Every politician is evil, every party is corrupt (their favorite words are every, always, and never). They are the ones who cannot post a single positive statement without the word “But” in it somewhere…”thankful for central air conditioning BUT wish the power bill wasn’t so high” or “Thankful for the trip to Europe BUT wish I didn’t have to fly economy” etc.

Let us park on the grumps (sometimes I wish we could literally park on the grumps until I realize how ironic that statement is). The grumps are the ones I find most fascinating…they seem to hate everything; which given the sheer magnitude of everything is a real accomplishment when you think about it. Not only do they love to hate everything they also have a remedy for everything they hate as well. They don’t seem to realize that they are the one’s The Stones were writing about…they are the ones who “can’t get no satisfaction…”.

I read an article the other day that talked about bitterness and negativity and it specifically noted that such attitudes can actually ruin your health and shorten your lifespan. The link to the article is here: http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/08/17/bitter.resentful.ep/

It hardly seems worth all the effort when you think about it and of course they are likely to respond with “if you don’t like it stop reading my posts” to which we may cheerfully respond “hey great idea!” and promptly ‘Hide’ them from our feeds. This becomes annoying to the grump on many levels because despite the fact that they claim to hate everyone they cannot exist without everyone because there’s no point to grumping if no one is listening. 🙂

At the end of the day no one is purely any one of these categories – we tend to be a blend depending upon what life is doing for and to us at any given moment. Still – we will often have a dominant category. Which are you?