Sadfishing: what it is and how it is reflected in social networks

Our emotions give others a lot of information about how we are doing. But in addition, they can have other uses.

One of them is the so-called sadfishing. We are going to try to get to know this new concept better and find out how it came about. Likewise, we will review the characteristics that it usually has and we will see some of the most famous examples of this curious phenomenon.

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What is sadfishing?

Sadfishing, or sad fishing for its translation in Spanish, is a behavior that consists of exposing emotions negative, such as sadness, in a disproportionate way and generally through the media, such as social media social, to get other people's attention and arouse their sympathy.

The term sadfishing is the brainchild of Rebecca Reid, writer, in the year 2019. It comes from a play on words with the English expression "catfishing", which refers to the action of creating a false profile on a social network with the aim of to benefit or harm another person, and the term "sad", which means sad and refers to the negative emotions we were talking about.

A basic scheme of the sadfishing process would be to publish content on a social network that explains how badly this person is having. You would then wait for the reactions and comments through which other individuals would be focusing their attention on the author of the post.

It is important to take into account the detail that the person who is practicing sadfishing, does not necessarily have to feel sad, or at least not to the degree of intensity that reflects the message that she spread throught social media. In that sense, what would be observed would be an enhancement of her state, and even a pretense, destined to attract the attention of others.

Causes

There are many reasons that can lead a person to carry out behaviors compatible with sadfishing. Remember that the primary objective of this action is to get the attention of others. Therefore, a narcissistic personality can encourage this type of behavior.

But content can also be published about the sadness that the person is feeling, precisely due to low self-esteem. You can even do sadfishing simply out of jealousy, in case there is another person in the environment who is monopolizing all the attention of others.

Living in a lonely stage can also promote this behavior. It stands to reason that if a person is deprived of the amount of attention he receives in a way usual, you will feel a need to get it back in some way, and a good method may be to sadfishing.

Psychopathologies such as depression or anxiety can also enhance the use of this technique if the person who suffers them detects that through it they notice an improvement in her condition, even if it is subtle. Individuals with antisocial behavior, paradoxically, can also practice sadfishing, as they will digitally seek attention that they do not get in person.

Do not forget that there is another reason to carry out this type of action, as simple as mere boredom. We are referring here to what is known on the Internet as a “troll”. These individuals would practice sadfishing not because they really felt sad, but because they were having fun. manipulating the emotions and reactions of others.

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The dangers of this practice

But sadfishing is not always a harmless practice. On the contrary, we must understand that, like many other acts carried out on social networks, it carries some risks. One of the first problems it presents is precisely the overly obvious use of sadfishing.

What does this mean? What not all people have the same ability to try to use a story about their negative emotions to get attention. Someone who is not skilled in this regard, could make a publication in which he exposed his sadness in such an exaggerated way, that it generated rejection for his obvious falsehood. Therefore, she would be achieving the opposite effect to the one intended.

This problem can also be generated, not by a tremendously exaggerated publication, but by a reiteration of them, even if they are somewhat more subtle. If the person is constantly trying to sadfish, they may be able to attract attention with their first publications, but the most likely effect is that the effect will be diluted more and more until practically disappear.

Another risk of this behavior is that there are people who take advantage of this type of publication not to show their sympathy, but quite the opposite. Therefore, a person who makes an attempt at sadfishing, may find support in certain individuals while others will take advantage to attack him, given her apparent state of emotional vulnerability.

This is one of the most frequent dangers of sadfishing, since it can turn the author of the posts, with which he was only looking for positive attention, on the target of cyberbullies, who will see in him a perfect prey to unleash his aggressiveness, in this case through comments humiliating.

The last of the risks associated with sadfishing is also the most dangerous, and it is the danger of attracting attention with this type of warning about sexual predators pedophiles, who comb the networks in search of possible victims, being those who show emotional vulnerability good candidates on which to try to exercise their despicable acts.

Examples of sadfishing in celebrities

After an extensive tour of the concept of sadfishing, we can now go on to see some examples of this type of behavior that have been popular at the time on social networks.

1. Kendall Jenner and acne

The first example of sadfishing that we can review is precisely the one that led to the creation of the term itself, by the writer Rebecca Reid, as we have already mentioned above. It happened as a result of a publication by the model Kendall Jenner on the profile of her social network Instagram.

In this publication, Kendall Jenner related the unknown fact of her adolescence of having suffered from acne, a reason that caused her a lot of discomfort at that stage, in part due to the looks she perceived from the people. However, although she generated feelings of empathy in some of her followers, others were enraged.

The reason? That that publication was accompanied by an advertising campaign in which Kendall Jenner herself promoted cosmetic products for skin care. Many people perceived a sadfishing action aimed at attracting attention for commercial purposes.

2. Justin Bieber and his illness

The popular singer Justin Bieber decided, at the beginning of 2020, to share on his social networks (on Instagram, as in the case above), who suffered from a pathology known as Lyme disease, transmitted by bacteria found in the ticks.

This revelation caused pity in some of the fans. But, as is often the case on social media, other people didn't take this post well. Many accused Bieber of making a crude attempt to attract attention, that is, sadfishing, and played down the disease., claiming that in reality the treatment to cure it is simple.

In any case, the point is that a person exposed a problem that generated discomfort and concern, in search of approval and attention from other individuals, and in many cases what he encountered was a visceral reaction against his person.

Obviously, social networks host all kinds of users, some better and others worse-intentioned, so it is easy to find this type of reactions, especially in high-impact publications such as those made by people with millions of followers, such as those in the examples commented.

3. Sam Smith and his tears

Singer Sam Smith made a post (once again, on Instagram) in 2020, during the coronavirus crisis, where he was shown crying on the stairs of his home, because of what he called "a quarantine crisis". This action, like the previous ones, attracted the sympathy of some and the anger of others.

In the second group would be the journalist Piers Morgan, who reprimanded Smith for this action, which for him would fit into the phenomenon of sadfishing or seeking attention. Morgan asked him to control himself and avoid this type of publication, while he said he could not bear this type of actions by celebrities.

Bibliographic references:

• DeWall, C.N., Buffardi, L.E., Bonser, I., Campbell, W.K. (2011). Narcissism and implicit attention seeking: Evidence from linguistic analyzes of social networking and online presentation. Personality and Individual Differences. Elsevier.
• Hawk, S.T., van den Eijnden, R.J.J.M., van Lissa, C.J., ter Bogt, T.F.M. (2019). Narcissistic adolescents' attention-seeking following social rejection: Links with social media disclosure, problematic social media use, and smartphone stress. Computers in Human Behavior. Elsevier.
• Maltby, J., Day, L., Hatcher, R.M. (2016). Implicit theories of online trolling: Evidence that attention ‐ seeking conceptions are associated with increased psychological resilience. British Journal of Psychology. Wiley Online Library.