"30 Days of Thankfulness"~how Do You Feel About It?

I find them annoying and usually skip them. A lot less people are doing them this year than in previous years--thankfully! Two of my FB friends who do it are the most miserable/unhappy people on earth. One of them is thankful for, in my opinion, some of the dumbest stuff. She'll put, "I am thankful for straws. I hate putting my mouth on cups". Seriously?

I think it's cheesy too, and I'm very "into" being thankful privately.

I'm always tempted to say something outrageous like "I'm thankful that I'm so much better than most people" and see what happens. :P

FB can be such a narcissistic exercise. Ugh.

People could be posting worse things on fb.

The world needs more moments of over the top positivity and self acknowledgement, even if they only come in the month of November.

Like so much that has to do with FB, I cringe just a little. Frankly, they ALL seem rather "showy" to me.
Reminds me of the little meme that says something about "I wish you had the life you pretend to have on FB." or however it goes...

I could go on a rant... here, let me start:

(picture) "I have the BEST Daddy in the whole world!"
(small print) If you have a wonderful father, repost. If you don't, ignore.

Umm... Well.. last I took English, "best" is a superlative, and we can't all have the best, because by definition, there is only one of those. So when you post that your's is the best, you just said mine sucks. Thanks for that!

You could use the same thing and just insert different people. The best Husband. The best Son. The best daughter. The best mother. The best sister. The best brother. The best ______. And every time you say that, you are tearing down everyone else's just a hair. Don't you enjoy doing that?
And what, my ___ (spouse, son, daughter, etc) is chopped liver because I don't copy/paste a little picture about it on FB?

Well, in my view, the 30 days of thankfulness are in that same line. Nobody says, "I'm thankful that I have too much time on my hands that I can sit here on FB and post random thoughts." It's not a diary. It's not a journal. It's public! But they will sit and spend time trying to come up with some extra sappy thing/person/feeling to be thankful for so that they can look good.

Sorry... but it isn't my cup of tea. I mean.. we're pretty much all thankful for the same stuff, aren't we? Our family, our homes, our jobs, our health... So do we really need to post it as a status every day. It's just more one-up-manship.

I like the ones who post a random fact instead. For example, did you know that every certain number of miles in the interstate highway system there is required to be ONE mile that is completely straight? This was designed so that they could be used as airstrips in an emergency or time of war.

Now doesn't that actually do something for you? At least as much as reading someone else's "I'm so thankful for my husband. He's the BEST husband in the world!"

I actually do it every year and I love what people post. Mine aren't braggy, they would be as simple as my latte this morning, on the days where i am in a crappy mood it puts me in a better place. Yes I do see some where I am like are you kidding me but you know if that makes them happy for one day then so be it.

I will tell you a funny story about todays post....I am in recovery (clean and sober for over 18 years) so I post...

Day 22...my recovery..... and write about how grateful i am to be clean.

my friend calls me and says OMG you relapsed, you only have 22 days clean. I say no (thru my laughing) it is day 22. She goes I FRICKEN hate the 30 days of november.. I am still laughing.

All in good fun.
Have a blessed day

Eh, I find it a bit cheesy, but to each their own. Some days, mine would be along the lines of "The dishes are done, the kids' homework is finally done, and the kids are no longer arguing because they are asleep".

First I am thankful that I have never heard of the 30 days of thankfulness. Fairly sure if I actually viewed my news feed every day I might and I could probably tell you exactly who does it. But alas I am free of that burden. :)

It kind of reminds me of Thanksgiving at my ex's family. Bar none the most dysfunctional family on earth. Every thanksgiving my ex's mom would insist we all go around the table saying one thing we were thankful for. After a couple years you knew who all the players were, who was real, who was fake. You could always count on his father going last and being thankful that this exercise was over.

I say good for them. Most times they seem to be thankful for the people in their lives. Thankful for their health.. So I think that is great.

I do not participate, because I do not feel like I need to publicly state these things, instead I tell the actual person I am thankful for them, I appreciate them, I am lucky to have them in my life.. And I do this all through the year, not just a certain month. I try not to take anything or anyone for granted.

I am hoping the Thankful Month will lead these people to learn to say these things to the people in their lives and to look at what blessings they have everyday.

If they enjoy posting it, good for them..

I don't participate in it, but I don't think all the people participating are bragging only because their posts are positive. I read the blog post also and I didn't like the implication that you can't post something positive unless it comes from a broken place. I mean, really? Sometimes people just want to say something good and maybe they only do it in November but that is better than nothing.

I don't participate because I can never remember to do it ! I don't mind others doing it of course and some of times they are interesting to read. The one trend I really like it "TBT" (Throw Back Thursday) and seeing old pictures people put on there. It's really fun to remember how we all looked in high school or years back.

Well, I'm not on Facebook and hadn't read the post... I think it is helpful for many families to focus on gratitude at this time. I don't know how helpful it is to blast out every single thought onto social media, period, thankfulness or otherwise.

I guess I just don't care about the trend. Frankly, I'm more concerned with helping my son just be happy for what he's got. We do thank each other a lot in our home (we model it, we receive it), so it's not just saved for one month. It's nice to focus on all we have to be grateful for-- any time of year. As to keeping my son focused on what he's got-- and not what he 'wants', we keep things contained in that respect. We don't have commercial tv on during the day, so he's not subjected to seeing all the holiday ads aimed at children. We don't keep catalogs around for him to peruse, so he's not going "I want that" so much. He does want a few things--- what kid doesn't-- and with Christmas around the corner, that only makes 'getting presents' more in our faces.

All that said, my advice would be to skip those posts which irk you and to be thankful for the friends you do have. None of our friends are perfect. I might have friends who are doing this (I don't know!) Thankfulness thing to help their families along, or to console themselves through our very dreary Portland November. Frankly, with all the constant complaining one can find online, this isn't a trend I am going to think too hard about. I'd much rather get rid of the many memes that are only meant to insult groups of people or a few bloggers who have nothing to contribute to the world but their ire (and their mindless followers)... if someone is finding a way to make the season more meaningful for themselves... aw, just let'em.

It's not necessary to participate in trends or other things on FB.

When something becomes trendy, it becomes false, and will go out of the window soon. Being thankful is too important for that. On the other hand, some of my friends are doing that posting, and they're real about it. I truly am thankful to read their thankfulness. And I know some who take the "Thirty Days of Thankfulness" and make it into a discipline for themselves - and find they do have that many things truly to be thankful for.

I participated in the "so-many-things-about-me-you-don't-know" trendiness - got into it by accident - but that didn't hurt. And the giraffe picture trendiness was just fun.

I also don't even click on chain-letter-type posts, or anything that has a remotely tabloid-sounding title attached to it. That's just me.

I usually participate in it & think it's a neat thing to do. I try to do random ones such as: thankful for silence, thankful I'm down a size, thankful that i can quote random movies at precisely the perfect time. Then again, i intentionally keep my fb posts on a positive note. I'm not a fan of drama & "airing dirty laundry" on a public forum. That's what drives me bonkers; people who are constantly complaining & bashing everything that turn around & get syrupy sweet with thankfulness.
Another fun thing i try to do every so often is pick a random friend & send them a pm or post on their wall a memory & something encouraging. I do understand what you're saying about it being flashy or showy. Some people are just that way.

I think it's wierd. On my facebook page I am thankful throughout the year and I say it!
I don't have too many people that are doing that as my friends now that I think about it.
I hate the ones that say, "I am so thankful for my husband! He is a work-a-holic who makes sure that we are taken care of!" when I KNOW that she is cheating on him and they don't like each other. Puh lease.
Some of them seem to be bragging and some of them seem to be genuine. I just think it's kind of sad that for some of my friends they seem to only be thankful during November.
L.
Isn'tthisfun....I DID know that! lol

I'm very active on fb but don't do the thankful thing. I don't care if others do it and don't really have any thoughts one way or the other. Our family does the "rose and thorn" during dinner, we each share the good and bad of our day. That way we know what's going on with the kids and can offer advice on how to handle the thorn. We also have a "Give Thanks" jar with blank pieces of paper we can write what we are thankful for and read them on Thanksgiving and any other time we need a pick up. =)

I think it's a dumb plea for attention. I think most of Facebook is. I had to get an account for family, but I rarely go on and find it annoying.

Hm. I think it's sad that so many people would be judgmental of someone who posts something they're thankful for. Just saying. I actually do NOT play the 30 days thing on FB, though I'm on FB everyday at least to see what's up with friends, but that's not because I think it's lame or terrible. I just....don't. Sometimes people post things that make me roll my eyes and go on with my day, sometimes people make me smile and think about something in my own life. But I think it's seriously sad that there's always going to be "those people" who think "you're thankful for something good in your life? and you're ADMITTING IT? show off! smarmy little bragger!" Really? Lay off. If you don't like what people think, say, type, or do, then unfriend them. It's very simple. I have unfriended people for things I consider offensive behavior, and if you can't stand someone, don't read their posts! But if it makes my friends happy to type their thoughts, more power to them! Sometimes I read their stuff, sometimes I don't. Depends on my mood and time.
I'm sure there's also a few that would say "let's not have Thanksgiving because we should be thankful everyday" or something boring like that. Nobody can "make" you celebrate.
I'm thankful a lot of the time. Sometimes, it's nice to purposely look for something good and actively practice having a positive outlook on life and the things we have in our life. I like the 30 days idea, I just don't really do it. Basically, because I just can't stick with anything for 30 whole days in a row. Silly, but true. But our family does talk a lot at the dinner table and discuss things we're happy about that happened each day. At night, our bedtime routine is to talk about the good in the day, what we're thinking about, and what we're looking forward to the next day before prayers....because I want the kids going to bed with something positive in mind. But it's not all "official", just a habit.

Basically I ignore the things I don't like on FB. I think it's cheesy to post things we are thankful for just because it's the month of Thanksgiving. I'll be thankful when the posts are over :).

Meh. I don't do it.
I'm more of a post my thoughts and feelings using lyrics from my favorite songs kind of girl.

Sounds like all the stupid emails that I hated when people used email.
I don't do Facebook. Here's one more reason.

Im thankful to God for all He has given me. He likes for me to be Thankful to him.
I know, I talked to Him this morning, lol.

I do the 3o days of Thankfulness on my notes section of my iPad. It's for me to reflect on when I'm feeling down. I really hate FB and only have about 10 friends on it.

I don't do FB...

We do daily highlights at dinner in this house, and then at breakfast we do things we are grateful for. I think anything that gets people thinking about what they cherish is a good thing.

It's kind of smarmy.
It's just an excuse to brag about/make public something/someone that makes you happy.

Ditto Isn'tthisfun!

Great post...... I needed that this morning :-)

Personally I like Throwback Thursdays. I'm thankful every day but choosing one per day to post on facebook is asking too much of me.