Bragging

[Anonymous]

How do you feel when someone openly boasts?

When I share positive news with someone, I am typically careful to be humble about it and express gratitude for the role of outside forces. This is because I find unadulterated bragging really unpleasant.

But lately I am starting to think I might be alone. It seems that aggressive bragging is sometimes even celebrated.

What is your take?

[Anonymous]

Bragging people get on my nerves. I look bored and/or just start walking away, totally uninterested. Don't even care if I come across as rude either.

[Anonymous]

You are not alone. I find it gross, and it makes me not want to be around the person.

It's fine to be happy about something positive or grateful for what you have, but boasting/bragging isn't the same as sharing positive news.

I don't boast/brag because I don't want other people to feel envy, to feel unlucky or inadequate. I don't want my positive thing to make another person feel negative.

But some people simply don't care about other people's feelings or, worse, they relish making other people envy them. I usually find those people boring and unpleasant.

I have a friend whose husband boasts/brags. I think to compensate, she cries poor, which actually makes it worse because it makes her seem really out of touch, sort of like here on dcum where people are like, "I only make 300k a year! It's so hard." It's reached the point where I'm not sure i want to be friends with her anymore because I'm tired of hearing about their money. They seem very fixated on it, and it's boring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bragging people get on my nerves. I look bored and/or just start walking away, totally uninterested. Don't even care if I come across as rude either.

I'm the PP below you. When I was younger, I'd be polite. But I've stopped doing that, and I'm not afraid to be rude.

[Anonymous]

PP, definitely drop that friend. Or only hang out with her alone, minus the braggy lame husband. Ugh.

[Anonymous]

Boasting is not OK among colleagues or acquaintances unless it is to announce that a group effort paid off and will benefit the community.

Boasting is perfectly acceptable within your close circle of family and friends if done RARELY, for things that are really special and are deserving of praise. If your child got a merit scholarship to a wonderful college, or your special needs student surmounted challenges to get to a point where he doesn't need services any more, or you worked for years to write a book and it gets published to critical acclaim, or someone was obese and managed to lose weight and maintain the weight loss... come on, these things are brag-worthy.

[Anonymous]

Bragging people usually are socially awkward and have some other something to compensate for.