The new obsession online these days is the idea/phrase “Don’t judge me.” I don’t think the adults who use it so liberally even understand what it means any more. Is it one of these?

“Don’t have an opinion about what I tell you.”?

“Don’t be angry with me.”?

“I am perpetually psychologically in the third grade and can never, ever be crossed, or I will have a flaming temper tantrum like the little whiny bitch I seem to be inside, even though I am an adult, chronologically.” ?

_________?

These things are not the same as “being judgemental”.

Why do people plaster their uncensored, and sometimes plain idiotic, thoughts, words, opinions, on the Internet, knowing full well that they will be read by others, and then whine “Don’t judge me.” ? as if they can’t handle a response?

I have a simple solution! 

If you do not want your every thought replied to or questioned, asked for clarification, or even just a “Hey, are you OK?”, there are these marvellous devices called blank journals, made of dead trees, wherein you can scratch out with ink your thoughts…or you can type in a document on your computer, and never publish it to the Internet – without anyone ever hearing, seeing or knowing about them.

Oooh, shiny!

That is the only way never to have to worry about a response of any kind.

What bothers me is the impreciseness of the expression.

What are people trying to say when they say “Don’t judge me.”?