“We don’t ask for inspired, lofty, brilliant prose,” write the people behind newly created (and appropriately named) Facebook page Singaporean Influencers and Bloggers Write SHIT English and are Annoying AF.
“We ask only for grammatically correct English. Is that too much to ask? Surely not.”
We couldn’t agree more, of course. Waging a war of words against the plague of paltry prose published by the legion of social media influencers, the people behind the Facebook page aren’t pulling their punches. They’d rather shove knives into their eyes than read what bloggers write about. Oh look, they even illustrated it:
Admittedly, we wouldn’t dare call ourselves bastions of exquisite written work (only human, after all), but some of the bloggers’ posts cited by the Facebook page really do write in an “Annoying AF” manner. Behold:
Ironically, what the page does is to provide further publicity and, in turn, more clicks to the very bloggers they’re disgusted by. Critique is part and parcel of every Influencers’ career (if you can call it that), and bad publicity is still welcome publicity for them.
Really though, the blame for the legions of wannabe blogger celebrities with substandard written English lies with the enablers themselves: brands. Once brands, companies and marketing execs start being more discerning when choosing publications — like focusing on better content quality instead of casting a wider net to get the word out — then we’ll probably see lesser “Annoying AF” paid bloggers.
For years, we’ve heard stories about the alleged demise of social media marketing (and it really is dying). There’s no reason for brands to continue enabling them — the rates they’re demanding are way too high; their quality of sponsored content is at best mediocre; they don’t add value to the brand; they don’t really guarantee return on investment. Fuck, placing that much power and priority on them is making them big-headed, not to mention letting them run wild with cringeworthy writing.
Singapore’s extraordinary reliance on bloggers and influencers has generated a whole industry of them, but as we’ve learned of late, the relationship with them is starting to crack beyond our shores. It’ll take some time for the fractures to finally reach here, and there won’t be any tears shed over seeing their little clubs (and “SHIT English”) crumble.
Reader Interactions