Blowing things out of proportion

[Upgradable]

Do you ever find yourself exaggerating a situation or event when posting about it on the web? Now, we all know that some people are prone to "rounding up" on carat weight (1.8 = 2.0?), but I mean more about situations?

I find myself occassionally going overly in depth regarding issues that are probably only tangentially pertinent. But I don't think I exaggerate.

What about you?

 

[Nashville]

I always swear every spider I see is the size of a tarantula.

"OMG honeeeeey!!! There's a spider in the bathroom!!! It's huge and brown and furry and it has FANGS that are dripping venom!"

:husband pokes head into the bathroom::

"Darlin, that's a daddy long legs..."

 

[packrat]

Moi? She gasped in shock. She put one gloved hand to her chest and patted her perfectly coiffed updo with the other.

I don't know so much on the internet, but IRL, I have a tendency to lean towards the dramatic. Lil' bit. Or..lotta bit depending on how you look at it. Mom calls it an hysterical complex. I call it good theater.

Spiders here are all brown recluses. And I have several brown recluse stories. I have to tell stories and do movements and expressions and commentary, and it all has to be big and over the top b/c it's funny. I have a tendency to harp on things. (My husband just informed me he is the harped upon) And I obsess.

I'm not a rounder upper tho.

 

[sctsbride09]

I tend to be a call-it-like-I-see-it person, but I can be pretty damn dramatic when it comes to spiders, like the others. Or if Im hungry. When Im hungry I turn into a bear, seriously, I dont even want to be around myself.

 

[MissMina]

Just the opposite.
In the words of the immortal Flip Wilson, "No matter how bad I get, always remember I'm holding back a little." ...

 

[yssie]

haha yes, spiders are always gigantic, hairy, and seconds from biting me unless FI comes to deal with it NOW!!!

 

[LGK]

Lol, I actually over the years have gotten a lot less likely to (over?) share the details of my rather odd life, on the net or off. Which cuts down a lot on the exaggeration. I actually never have needed to much- you can tell a good story and stick to the truth usually.

Bugs though. Those really do require a good story with some exaggeration, absolutely. Except when they really are ginormous and vile and don't need any exaggeration at ALL.

For example: for the record, I would like to state that the cranefly that is stalking me, really IS the size of an aircraft carrier, and it wants to get caught in my hair. Whereupon the legs will fall off and keep wiggling after they've done so. I swear this thing really is the size of my hand spread out. It has attacked me outside our home the last THREE NIGHTS IN A ROW. And followed me down the street for about a block, last night. (I did a really great bug dance when it did that, which had my husband laughing at me for about a half hour straight.)

At least my best friend offered to murder it for me. She's a good cranefly-squoosher. We couldn't find it though, so it's still out there. Waiting for me.

 

[Imdanny]

No, I don't do that. I either decide to talk about something, or I just don't talk about it. I don't lie or blow things out of proportion or round up.

 

[Gypsy]

Moi? She gasped in shock. She put one gloved hand to her chest and patted her perfectly coiffed updo with the other.

I don't know so much on the internet, but IRL, I have a tendency to lean towards the dramatic. Lil' bit. Or..lotta bit depending on how you look at it. Mom calls it an hysterical complex. I call it good theater.

Spiders here are all brown recluses. And I have several brown recluse stories. I have to tell stories and do movements and expressions and commentary, and it all has to be big and over the top b/c it's funny. I have a tendency to harp on things. (My husband just informed me he is the harped upon) And I obsess.

I'm not a rounder upper tho.

I love you packrat. I'm not admitting to nothing. I tend to get into detail about things. Drama? Maybe. I'm not a rounder upper. I'm an oversharer .

 

[Echidna]

Moi? She gasped in shock. She put one gloved hand to her chest and patted her perfectly coiffed updo with the other.

I don't know so much on the internet, but IRL, I have a tendency to lean towards the dramatic. Lil' bit. Or..lotta bit depending on how you look at it. Mom calls it an hysterical complex. I call it good theater.

Spiders here are all brown recluses. And I have several brown recluse stories. I have to tell stories and do movements and expressions and commentary, and it all has to be big and over the top b/c it's funny. I have a tendency to harp on things. (My husband just informed me he is the harped upon) And I obsess.

I'm not a rounder upper tho.

I love you packrat. I'm not admitting to nothing. I tend to get into detail about things. Drama? Maybe. I'm not a rounder upper. I'm an oversharer .

I'm with Packrat and Gypsy, especially the oversharing I once read that my personality type has thin psychological boundaries. I think that's pretty spot on!

 

[Steel]

Nope.

Ditto MissMina; great quote

 

[gemgirl]

I tend to not share too much of a personal nature, but if I do, I generally go the other way and minimize it a bit.

 

[elrohwen]

I'm not sure I do it online, but I definitely do it in real life. Though I would call it hyperbole more than exaggeration I'll say something like "It was so crowded! There were 8 million people there." Clearly there weren't actually 8 million.

It annoys me when people call me out on it - "There weren't actually 8 million people there." Duh, I know, I just like to exaggerate to tell you how crowded it felt to me

 

[Cehrabehra]

Moi? She gasped in shock. She put one gloved hand to her chest and patted her perfectly coiffed updo with the other.

I don't know so much on the internet, but IRL, I have a tendency to lean towards the dramatic. Lil' bit. Or..lotta bit depending on how you look at it. Mom calls it an hysterical complex. I call it good theater.

Spiders here are all brown recluses. And I have several brown recluse stories. I have to tell stories and do movements and expressions and commentary, and it all has to be big and over the top b/c it's funny. I have a tendency to harp on things. (My husband just informed me he is the harped upon) And I obsess.

I'm not a rounder upper tho.

I love you packrat. I'm not admitting to nothing. I tend to get into detail about things. Drama? Maybe. I'm not a rounder upper. I'm an oversharer .

This is me too- doubt anyone is surprised lol

 

[radiantquest]

I am an over-er. On all counts. It is not that I lie or embellish, its that I really believe that bug/spider saw me and chased me.

You know the saying "Long story short..." DH says that all my stories are "Short story long" I think it is just because I want to listener to get a real sense of how it felt when whatever happened happened.

I also say the obvious exaggerations. For example, "It was 259 degrees in the north east today."

I have been told I tend a bit toward the dramatic side, but I think (or hope) that it is not the drama queen that is annoying.

 

[4ever]

No I dont tend to blow things out of proportion, in person or on the net, I'm more likly to downplay somthing than exaggerate.

I think most people who like to exaggerate/blow a situation out of proportion alot online and in person do it because they are into the drama and the attention it can create

 

[MonkeyPie]

I often say things like, "40 billion people!" or "All of God's children were there." When clearly, that is a lie. But it sounds better than saying, "There were a lot of people."

 

[doodle]

I'm a clown, so I tend to go for whichever will be most comedic at the given moment. I find it silly though when someone feels the need to call you out on an exaggeration, like with elrohwen's example. What are you supposed to say to that, "You are SO right! There weren't 8 million people at the post office today! There were actually 33, plus a pregnant woman who looked to be about 28 weeks along, so we'll just say there were 33.777778 people at the post office today. Thank you, kind citizen, for enlightening me!" I mean, c'mon people!

 

[packrat]

Haha YEAH! Let's all us dramatic people get together! Think how fun it would be! We can tell funny stories. I'll tell about the time JD heard a funny noise when he was driving.

 

[tigian]

When describing things to my DH, I'm definitely a drama queen. Hey, it's for effect! He calls me on it, but I insist that is the way it is. It's hard to deny when he points out how the story changes each time I tell it. First it was 10 minutes, then it was 30 minutes, now I had 2 hours!
When it comes to online or with people I don't know well, I tend to play it down or keep it simple.

 

[TooPatient]

Nope.

Shocking as it may seem to some, I don't exaggerate in real life or online. I do tend to leave out some details to downplay the severity of some things because there are times where it would get too personal, or worry people, or just be more than I feel like talking about.


Spiders? Spiders are ALL huge. I do the best I can to accurately squeal the size so that FI can know what he is facing (dime size, quarter size, or OMG).

Far less of a problem now that we've got the all organic (pet safe) bug killer people who come out every 3 months (we had problems with yellow jackets & ants). They'll also come out in between services free of charge if I find a spider or anything I want dead.