Like 99% of people, I really thought that 2024 was going to be my year. Unfortunately, January has felt like it’s lasted a minimum of 4 months and the vibes have just felt off, so the year has not been off to a great start. I really wish I was a more positive person, but I just simply am not and this is one of the things I want to work on in the new year. So on the last day of this cursed month, I will be taking this opportunity to vent about everything that has been making me irrationally angry to get it off my chest and hopefully start February off on the right note so I can successfully debut my new attitude.

Social media influencers

This one was inspired by the recent news that Emily Mariko is selling her plain tote bag for a whole $120. It does look like a nice tote bag and it seems very spacious, but it also looks like you could buy the same bag for under $20 at a grocery store. I’m just tired of seeing how much money influencers make and the PR gifts they receive for doing the bare minimum. I know putting yourself on a public platform is not easy, but there is just nothing that makes me more depressed than seeing an influencer's to-do list for the day and it just being full of small tasks most people would have to do on top of a full work day. I do think a lot of my anger about influencers comes from jealousy that I don’t make thousands of dollars for making silly little TikToks all day, but I would love it if we could all work together this year to abolish influencer culture.

Grocery store self-checkouts

My relationship with self-checkouts is absolutely a love-hate one because ever since they started becoming a thing, I have never once willingly decided to go for the regular cashier checkout. Even if I have 20 different produce items where I have to type in the code for each one, I will choose self-checkout every single time. However, I feel like they’re getting worse lately because every time I go to use one I get the most annoying “unrecognized item in bagging area” or “please place item in the bag” for no reason, and then you have to wait in shame for a worker to come and fix it. I just don’t understand how technology is supposedly getting more advanced but our grocery store self-checkouts are not getting smarter. We need to do better.

People with no spatial awareness

This one is definitely a top contender for my top annoyance and it’s just how no one in public ever seems to have any spatial awareness at all. It’s not even slow walkers in general that get to me, but it’s when people stop directly in the middle of the sidewalk. Or if they’re walking slowly only because they’re looking down at their phone. Or if there’s a whole group of slow walkers but they leave no room for anyone to walk by. There are also way too many people who give you absolutely no personal space at all. If I’m waiting in line, there is no reason for any stranger to be standing just two inches away from me. I swear every time I go in public my blood pressure rises significantly solely because so many people don’t pay attention to the other people around them.

Lack of common sense in TikTok comments

Normally I love TikTok comments and a lot of the time they’re even funnier than the video itself, but I’ve noticed a concerning lack of common sense lately. Sometimes this comes from people not realizing that they can just Google whatever question they have because I’ll see someone asking the most simple question that would have been the first search result if they had looked it up themselves. Or way too often I will see a comment on like a bread recipe and someone will comment “what if I’m allergic to gluten?” It’s as if people don’t know that not every single thing online will be relevant to them. Another comment trend I hate is anything starting with “am I the only one who…” NO. You are never the only one who thinks that way. This just gets on my nerves so much because it’s always a very generic opinion too. If we need any proof of how TikTok is rotting our brains, all we need to do is look at the comment section for any random video.