Internet Show-Offs: People Who Use #ThrowBackThursday Incorrectly

May 31, 2013— -- intro:When did the internet became a place for people to show off your kid's birth? Or a place to post the 700+ photos from your engagement photo shoot that didn't make it into the official album? Or a place to upload your elaborate, over-priced high school "promposal" video? It feels like every day the internet just becomes a platform for people to show off.

...Ok, maybe we're just jealous nobody asked us to prom and our spouse deleted all the engagement photos we didn't use and our baby-daddy filmed over our kid's birth with the season premiere of Mad Men. But stop rubbing it in our faces.

This week's Internet Show-Off: People Who Use #ThrowbackThursday Incorrectly

A hashtag that once made Thursdays a little easier to get through have made the pre-weekend day a nightmare. For every great throwback you find on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr, there are 7,594 throwbacks to last year's prom, or a random, half-naked photo, or the 40th photo of a mom from a folder labeled "MOM PICS FOR TBT".

Join us on the fight to save #throwbackthursday.

quicklist:1title:#tbt does not mean last yeartext:...especially when not much has happened since last year. Throwback Thursday is reserved for nostalgic flashbacks like childhood photos, music and movies you grew up loving, etc. Throwback Thursday does not exist for pictures of you from last year. Yet, for some reason, the internet has made everyone want to share their best photos from last spring break, tag it as #tbt and call it a day.

I know this because I almost fell into the trap myself. Last Thursday I was one filter-click away from Instagramming a photo of me when I had very long hair and was living in New York. Then I thought, "Why would anyone on the planet want to see this photo of me standing in Washington Square Park doing absolutely nothing?" I hit cancel and changed my life.

Blake Lively posted this photo from the premiere of Savages, which came out last year. Career-wise, nothing has happened since then. So Blake, this is not a proper throwback. It's more of a #RememberTheLastTimeYouSawMe, and unfortunately that hashtag doesn't exist.

Yet.

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quicklist:2title:Throwing back to a "big event" nobody rememberstext:Throwing back to that time you won an Oscar is OK. Throwing back to your 5th grade graduation is even ok. Even though nobody you know now was there, it's cute enough to pass. But throwing back to a music video you made following another video everybody loved to hate is kind of weird and not the proper way to promote the video.media:19296428

quicklist:3title:Throwing back to your super hot parents and grandparentstext:So you got your beauty from your mama, who was a stone cold fox. Orr maybe you didn't get her beauty and for that I am sorry. The point is, your mom was smoking hot. We get it. Now stop posting photos of her in her heyday. Jessica Alba shared an amazing photograph of her grandma this week, and it would've been a nice #tbt if everybody on the internet hadn't already posted a million photos of their parents every week.

#ThrowbackThursday has created this necessity to post pictures of your parents being really hip, or not... or good looking, or not... and everybody likes them anyway! It really doesn't matter what your ancestors looked like, or did, or wore... people will like the crap out of your post anyway. Why?? WHY????media:19296408

quicklist:4title:Do not post a #tbt of your own heydaytext:Be proud of your accomplishments, whatever they may be. Don't re-post them as a throwback just because you need a reminder that you're worth it, Heidi Montag. A better idea would be to print out the photo you would post and hang it on your bathroom mirror. That way you can throwback to it every morning and spare the world.media:19296357

quicklist:5title:#tbt with celebrities are surprisingly boringtext:When you get a great picture with a celebrity you admire you want to post it everywhere (Guilty!), but once you've tweeted it every which way you can, get over it.

A good example of a #tbt celebrity photo is Ralph Macchio's throwback to working with Robert De Niro on a Broadway play in 1986. Had he posted this photo a few months after the fact, it would've been too much. But now, 27 years later, it's a great flashback. Bravo Ralph Macchio for an excellent Throwback Thursday post.media:19296377

quicklist:6title:Hashtag abusers are the worsttext:Like model Sophie Reade posting this picture of herself and calling it a "contribution to to #throwbackthursday". Just post the sexy picture without the hashtag, OK? You'll get a million retweets by the creepers looking through your social media accounts anyway, but at least you won't show up on the throwback hashtag feed... because really, what is this a throwback to? Last month?media:19296418

quicklist:7title:The appropriate #tbttext:Throwing back to an event almost everybody can relate to (like graduation) in an era from long enough ago (like 1968). Bonus if you're super famous.

Way to go, Bill Clinton.media:19296398