About

Vaguebooking is an internet slang term referring to the practice of posting cryptic, vague status updates on Facebook in order to receive validating attention from friends and relatives.

Origin

On February 19th, 2009, Urban Dictionary^[1] user elbandidomaximo submitted an entry for "vaguebooking," defining it as "intentionally vague Facebook status update" prompting friends to inquire what's wrong as a possible "cry for help" (shown below).

Spread

On September 22nd, 2011, YouTuber Sky Williams uploaded a comedy sketch about vaguebooking, which depicted vaguebookers as those who are comforted by "drama and attention" (shown below).

On February 15th, 2012, the tech news site MUO^[2] published an article titled "What Is the Imbecilic Art of Vaguebooking?" which likened the practice to using Facebook as a dairy, calling it "very, very annoying." The article included a parody Facebook post mocking the practice (shown below).

On October 7th, the Vaguebook Tumblr^[3] blog was launched, which highlights screenshots of vague Facebook posts. On April 28th, 2015, the /r/VagueBooking^[7] subreddit was created for examples of the social media practice. On June 3rd, BuzzFeed News^[6] published an article titled "In Defense of 'Vaguebooking'." On June 15th, The Newport Blast published an article featuring an example of a vaguebooking post (shown below).

On October 9th, 2017, YouTuber Heather Land posted a warped video of a woman complaining about vaguebooking (shown below).

Search Interest

External References