That’s Not Gratitude…That’s Bragging

If you spend any time at all on social media you have undoubtedly seen many posts expressing “gratitude.” Over the past few months, I have seen a lot of this, and while some of these posts were inspiring, many of these posts were, well, irritating. So I got curious about it. What was different? Why were some inspiring and others irritating? Finally, I figured it out.

If you closely examine many expressions of gratitude, you’ll see most them are not gratitude at all—they are bragging. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with tooting your own horn a little; after all, if you don’t, who will? The problem arises when bragging is mislabeled as gratitude. If you want to brag, go for it! Brag, we will still love you. If you want to tell us what you are grateful for, we will be witness to that, too. But please, please, please, check it before you express it. Because all that gratitude you’re posting about? It’s mostly bragging.