The TIFU subReddit is devoted to people sharing stories of the ways they royally screwed up. TIFU does stand for “Today I F*cked Up” after all.
They’re not all necessarily something that happened “today.” A lot of people with share the stories of days they messed up and we all sort of collectively pretend TIFU stands for “The-day I F*cked Up.”
Sometimes those stories are hilarious, sometimes they’re cringy, and sometimes – like this one – they become a sort of modern cautionary tale. Remember, children, social media is social. We can see you.
Reddit user KingShrek420 (we absolutely needed to share such an awesome username with you all) shared his brief-but-beautiful TIFU with the world recently.
“TIFU by not realizing people on twitter know what you’ve liked. This was when I was in secondary school and was in the closet about being bi.”
“So as someone does I used to watch p*rn on as many social media platforms as I could for some reason. One of these was twitter and I used to use my main account that my parents and uncle followed instead of using a throwaway as I’ve learned.”
“So one day I used to Twitter and liked a lot of gay p*rn, not realizing that others could see it and when I woke up the next morning both parents were looking at me strangely which I shrugged off. Later that day my Dad came up to me and said he saw what I liked and I just froze. My mam also came up and talked to me about it and was equally as awkward. My parents were surprisingly fine about tho.”
“TLDR: Didn’t realize people saw what you liked on Twitter and parents found out I was bi because I liked gay p*rn.”
Oh. Oh my.
Well … we guess that’s certainly one way to come out. Not a way we recommend, and based on the post we’re pretty certain the original poster wouldn’t have opted to come out that way either.
It turns out the OP just isn’t that great under pressure. He could have kept a cool head and said he was hacked or it was a prank by his friends. Instead, he went for the hard denial and said he didn’t even have a Twitter account.
Except his username was his full legal name, and he referenced Twitter a lot when talking to his family, sometimes on Twitter.
Fail.
Interestingly, not knowing how technology and social media work has been behind quite a few of these sorts of moments. Ted Cruz (or Ted Cruz’s Twitter account, we can’t say for sure it was Ted clicking or watching) liked a bunch of Twitter porn, causing Cruz some serious embarrassment when everyone saw.
Ted and the OP aren’t the only ones who messed up this way. The Reddit responses were a bit of a mess.
“Similar thing happened to me before I knew about browser histories. Sites I had been frequenting ended up riddling the family PC with viruses. Dad took it to a tech guy. Tech guy conveniently printed out a sheet with all the sites listed so my dad and I could have the most awkward conversation of our lives.” – TooShiftyForYou
“When I was in highschool we had an absolutely geriatric old man as a principal. He had an official school Twitter account. Same thing happened to him, but with hundreds of students so count yourself lucky!” – TheArchivist22
“Uf. My young (18 YO) nephew did not realize that all his friends (his MANY aunts,) could all see the stuff he posted directly to his girlfriend’s Facebook wall. It was basically all the stuff he thought they should try. Poor guy. Christmas was ROUGH.” – icanhasnaptime
“My cousin outed himself on Facebook by liking a picture of a buff shirtless fireman.” – breakfastbeerz
So how many of you reading this just sat there horrified at the realization that your followers can see everything you like on Twitter? Go ahead, take a moment to come up with a better cover story than the original poster did.