Humblebrag: The Art of False Modesty

Something immediately annoyed writer Harris Wittels about Twitter. All of a sudden it was OK to brag, so long as those brags were ever-so-thinly masked in crappy, transparent humility. Once Harris identified this widespread issue, he decided to take action by naming this phenomenon and creating the twitter account called Humblebrag--solely dedicated to retweeting the humblebrags of others.

Started less than a year ago, the Twitter feed is literally adding thousands of subscribers every day. A humblebrag, as defined by Harris, is a specific type of boast that allows the offender to broadcast their achievements without the necessary shame and guilt that should normally accompany such claims. Here are two examples:

@JoshHighland tweets: "Just filed my taxes. Biggie was right, mo money mo problems."

@glowyjoeybunny tweets: "I hate when I go into a store to get something to eat and the male staff are too busy hitting on me to get my order right :( so annoying!"

Harris also shows us what humblebrags might look like from some of history's most notable names, as well as devoting an entire chapter to @TotesMcGotes, the greatest humblebraggart of them all.