For some reason this week, my social media feeds have been full of ‘I bet I won’t get even one like/share…’ posts. I have no idea what provokes people to share images/comments like that. Or make them think everyone else will share them. Obviously some people do, but I don’t.

In fact, maybe it’s just me, but anything that says something in that vein immediately means that there’s no way I’ll share it. Those posts rub me up the wrong way for some reason.

They’re almost as bad as the private messages that people send randomly to all of their friends, saying things like ‘keep the birdy moving, and good luck will come your way.’

The ones that really annoy me say things like ‘Don’t befriend Queenie Bee, because she’s a hacker and will steal all your passwords.’ I mean, why would you befriend someone who you don’t know? About once every couple of months, I get a friend request from someone I’ve never heard of. And what do I do with it? It gets deleted. And usually blocked.

Generally I take the time to take a look at their profile. Most of the time it’s an image of a man in uniform, on a timeline with almost nothing on it. Occasionally there’s a private message attached.

The one that made me laugh most, was the one that came about a week after I’d changed my profile picture to my Mum’s – to celebrate her birthday. I can’t remember exactly which birthday, but at the time she was in her eighties. Apparently my profile pic had told this man that we would be ‘soul mates.’ My husband and I had a good giggle about it.

I mean, why would I want to randomly ‘friend’ someone I don’t know? Obviously people do, because scammers are everywhere and you frequently hear of people being burned online, but I would have thought that would make people more cautious.

Those personal messages are the equivalent of chain letters. Some of them even promise wealth and health and happiness. They come to my message box to die a death of deletion.

I enjoy posts that make me think – articles and commentaries and new (genuine) scientific advances. I enjoy clever memes (the Bronwyn Bishop helicopter ones still make me giggle), and of course I enjoy cat pictures.

I have a couple of friends who often post insightful commentaries, or link to their blogs, which I enjoy reading. And I keep track of a variety of things through a variety of groups.

But I wonder what makes people post the ‘I bet I won’t’ images. It’s like they’re trying to emotionally blackmail people. Most of the time the images are banal, occasionally they’re photoshopped tropes, and frequently they’re emotional pleas that most likely won’t help the people or pets they portray.

Anyway, perhaps I’m just grumpy tonight. Apparently I’m having a whinge on my blog. I think I’ll stop now, and go and have another look at the lovely fat green frogs who are wandering around our patio, while the cats look longingly at them through the screen door.