84 Painfully Cringey Comments That Went About As Well As You’d Expect

Netiquette is basically the unwritten rulebook every internet stranger is expected to memorize the second they create an account, and somehow half the internet still failed the pop quiz. The term itself is a mashup of network and etiquette, and according to Emily Post's (great name) own etiquette guide, the golden rule hasn't changed since forums were black and green text on a black screen: treat people online the way you'd treat them face to face. Simple in theory. Wildly, spectacularly ignored in practice.

Part of the problem is that comment sections strip away everything that normally keeps human conversation civil. No tone of voice, no facial expression, no body language, just naked text that can be read a dozen different ways depending on the reader's mood.

That's why a genuinely well meaning "just curious why you'd do that" can detonate into a forty reply argument about someone's life choices. Online safety resources point out that this lack of nonverbal cues is exactly why written communication online causes so many more misunderstandings than a conversation would in person.

Then there's the classic all caps meltdown. Typing in full capital letters online has been interpreted as shouting for so long that it's basically internet law at this point, and plenty of people still don't get the memo, showing up to a group chat sounding like they're personally furious at punctuation itself. Combine that with someone who refuses to use a single paragraph break and you've got a comment nobody actually reads all the way through, yet everyone still argues anyway.

Anonymity is another huge culprit. Hiding behind a username with a cartoon avatar seems to unlock a version of people who would never dream of saying half these things to someone's actual face. Throw in the fact that screenshots exist forever, and that deleting a post doesn't actually delete it from someone's camera roll, and you get an entire genre of viral content built from people who forgot the internet has a memory like an elephant with a grudge.

Oversharing ranks right up there too. Somewhere along the way, a chunk of the internet decided that any thought, no matter how private, personal, or frankly none of anyone's business, deserved a public audience. Add unsolicited advice, a stranger explaining someone's own life back to them, or a full blown diagnosis based on three sentences of context, and you've basically built the entire internet argument starter kit.

Sarcasm deserves its own mention, mostly because it dies almost instantly in text form. What sounds hilarious out loud can read as genuinely mean when there's no wink, no smirk, no vocal inflection to soften it. A joke that would get a laugh at a dinner table can start a full blown pile on online, complete with people who missed the joke entirely and are now personally offended on behalf of a total stranger.