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No one likes a braggart, but humblebraggers provoke extra scorn, because of their attempts to hide pompous, flaunting behavior behind self-effacing false humility. In other words, humble-bragging is the worst.
Still confused about humblebragging? Let's turn to the tweets of Taylor Swift, pop princess, high-waisted shorts aficionado, and queen of the humblebrag, for a few prime examples:
Let's start here. This is a straight-up brag:
I LOVE YOU GUYS WE GOT AN ALBUM OF THE YEAR NOMINATION AND I AM TOO EXCITED TO USE PUNCTUATION
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) December 7, 2013
Remember the days before Taylor Swift was worth $64 million dollars and part of a normal family? I don't. This is a humblebrag:
Flashback to 2002 when this was the most attention my family had ever gotten. http://t.co/KzNp5EHrn8
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) August 1, 2014
Decisions, decisions:
Somehow this adds extra pressure to the already-stressful task of choosing what shoes to wear to meet and greet. pic.twitter.com/s6EVQauA9A
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) September 13, 2013
And there's this:
It is a daily struggle for me to not buy more cats.
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) January 19, 2014
Here, she demonstrates how she's just like you — eating Chinese food and watching Law & Order … with her People's Choice award:
Sitting here with my new People's Choice award and Chinese food take out, watching Law and Order. Thank you for a beautiful night:)
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) January 10, 2013
Here, she acts as if she is surprised that she—the richest and most popular artist of 2014—could have a birthday party that people would attend:
So this is being 25..... #WHAT #bestbirthdayEVER http://t.co/UyaEa7hk1I
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) December 13, 2014
This, though, is the ultimate humblebrag:
That moment when your cat casually walks up,then abruptly ATTACKS your custom satin Oscar de la Renta gown during your fitting for Met Ball.
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) May 5, 2014
Swift is not just like all of us. She is worth an obscene amount of money, famous world-wide, and talented enough to sustain one of the biggest fan-bases in the world. Her Twitter account, with all of its selfies and personal anecdotes, is a humblebrag all its own.
