This Elfie phenomenon has over taken Facebook and it’s annoying as fuck. What started as some sort of cute thing to do for your kid has turned into daily updates from about 100 different people on the latest clever/cute/tricky/quirky place they have put Elfie for “the kids”. All of it clearly so that they can get praise or props from fellow FB’ers on how clever they are and how smart they are and how great parents they are etc…
Look, if you’re doing it for your kid that fine and dandy but once you start a daily photo blog on Facebook to show all of your adult friends how clever you were last night when you put Elfie in on the ceiling fan with a bag of marhmallows and cup of cocoa it starts looking like it’s all about you looking for ego stroke.
It’s strange: I have a Facebook account, and yet the first place I hear about all of these worn-out Facebook fads and memes that everybody’s sick of always seems to be here.
I had never heard if it either which is no surprise given that I’m Jewish and don’ t have kids. From a quick search, it seems that it’s a book that comes with a small elf doll and is a Xmas thing. Every day, the parents are supposed to hide the doll somewhere in plain site and the kids are supposed to find it.
Well, the FB part is what the OP said- the Facebook part is posting photos of the oh-so-clever places they hid the Elf. Supposedly they’re bing clever for the kids, but really they want praise for themselves.
I have 4 kids and I’m proud to say that this is the first I’ve heard of Elf on the Shelf. It appears to be something pretty new, that hasn’t yet taken over the Christmas season. It amazes me how they come up with new ‘traditions’ that are anything but. More work in this busy season? No thanks.
When I was growing up 35 or so years ago in California, we had a christmas-season tradition that sounds basically identical… but the elf was a little wooden cone with an elf face painted on it that my parents got at a craft fair or something. But that’s at least some evidence that it’s a “real” tradition.
But as others have said, I haven’ seen a single picture of this on FB, and I do have some FB friends who will post photos of things at the least provocation.
And if a bunch of people are all doing this and are all FB friends, the charitable interpretation is that they’re posting photos to give each other inspiration on clever places to hide the elf.
OMG… after going to the web site, this is so lame!
It is basically a commercial product packaged up with a bunch of spin (and called a “Tradition”) to enable the parent to use it to try to get their kids to behave during the Christmas season.
By the time today’s toddlers grow up, the idea of “Big Brother” will be absolutely expected and accepted and they’ll wonder why we old folks ever whined about privacy rights.
Any parent who buys this crap deserves the warehouse their kid will place them into when they get old… They’ll be cubes outfitted with skype enabled recliners and that will constitute a ‘full life’ for the elderly.
It also sounds like a good way to make your kids paranoid.
Bad enough they have to worry about God seeing everything they do. Now they have a menacing, tattle-tale elf always snooping around. And the whole “not touching” thing? I suppose it’s a way to protect the elf from being kidnapped (hehehe)–which would be the logical solution to the whole problem–but it just bumps up the creepy factor.
But I honestly can’t work up too much froth. Sounds like grown-ups just trying to have some fun during Christmas time.