Meaning
Posting exaggerated or emotional claims about one's personal problems online in order to attract sympathy, attention or followers. A dismissive accusation rather than a neutral description, coined as a play on 'catfishing'. Informal and judgemental; experts warn the label can silence genuinely struggling posters, so use with care. Regional use: General English; strongest in UK and online contexts.
Origin
The term was coined by journalist Rebecca Reid in a January 2019 article for the Metro newspaper, prompted by Kendall Jenner's Instagram posts about her acne, which turned out to be part of a paid partnership with Proactiv; Reid defined it as using one's emotional problems to hook an audience on the internet. It gained wider attention when Good Morning Britain discussed it and the term trended on social media in early October 2019, and The Guardian later listed it among its top words of 2019. Later in 2019 the digital safety group Digital Awareness UK reported a downside: young people posting genuine mental-health struggles were being accused of sadfishing and mocked or bullied, and clinicians have cautioned that online posts lack the context needed to distinguish an attention-seeking post from a real crisis. Because Reid documented her own coinage in a follow-up piece, the first use is unusually well established.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- sadfish
- sadfished
- sadfisher
- sadfishing accusation
Usage Examples
- Fans accused the influencer of sadfishing when her tearful story timed neatly with a product launch.
- Teachers worry that cries for help get dismissed as sadfishing by classmates.
- He deleted the melancholy caption, deciding it read like sadfishing rather than honesty.