If you have been on social media long enough then you must have many times come across TBH posts and wondered what it was or how you can use it too? This article is an all you can need help to creating your own TBH posts. If your are wondering about how they started? what they mean? how they are used? or how you can use them and be part of the trend then you have come to right place. TBH posts have a lot of other branches on social media as well, for example, ‘like for a TBH’, ‘TBH and rate’, ‘comment for a TBH’ and ‘rate date’ etc. in this article we will start from the beginning so that you have a clearer idea of how to go about this trend.
Meaning of TBH
TBH is a short term for ‘to be honest’, as the name suggests TBH posts are basically used to give honest opinions about other people who like or comment on your TBH posts. This is a new way of connecting with people whether it is through social media posts, private messages or comments. The TBH posts trend is mainly followed by teens all over the world and tweens too! In this ever changing era trends like these can make you feel old, even if you are still young, but not to worry because by the end of this article you will be completely informed about this trend and can start your TBH trends for sure!
TBH trend started in the middle of the 2000s to talk about social stigmas or things you are not comfortable talking about, at first. At that time TBH as a trend was used to talk about issues that needed to be spoken out about but were silenced generally by the society. This had to do with the brutal truths faced in our daily lives. But later it just became an honesty trend and used as social media currency to gain likes or comments or follows by giving TBH opinions to people. Now, this is mostly used to give nice or general opinions about the people who like or comment on your TBH posts.
Just for added information here are a few other acronyms you may come across on social media which are related to TBH posts.
- OTHO stands for ‘on the other hand’
- JMHO stands for ‘just my humble opinion’
- FWIW stands for ‘for what it’s worth’
- TBTH stands for ‘to be totally honest’
- 2BH stands for ‘to be honest’
- TBQH stands for ‘to be quiet honest’
- IHDK for ‘I honestly don’t know’
- TBPH stands for ‘ to be completely honest’
- IMAHO stands for ‘in my absolutely honest opinion’
- TTBH stands for ‘to be brutally honest’
- JBH stands for ‘just being honest’
- MHO stands for ‘my honest opinion’
- LBH stands for either ‘let’s be honest’ or ‘loser back home’
How TBH posts work
Well this is the most important part. How you can use TBH posts and make them work for you?
Basically if you find someone attractive you can comment on their photos or posts that TBH you are really pretty/hot and if you want,you can add that we should talk more. This is a very basic way of using the term TBH. Another way is that you post a TBH photo and say that whoever likes it you will give them a TBH. Giving a TBH means that you can either personally message them or write on their wall (for Facebook) or comment about them on the same post. You can write what you think about them good or bad and let them know your honest opinion about them.
Nowadays all TBHs are good and usually have a compliment for everyone. Moreover you can post TBH for comment or follow which means that whoever will comment on your TBH posts will get a TBH from you in any of the ways mentioned above. And if we talk about Instagram and you put up a TBH post there then if they follow you or like your post you can give them a TBH either in the comments or through their DM (direct message).
There is also another way to go about it and that is rate for like. In this you can post a picture and you get ratings from 1-10. There are also pictures you can post which have points for different attributes, physical or personality wise. And people can give you points on it by commenting the number of attributes you have. Hence there are many ways with which you can get popular on social media through these TBH posts trends.
TBH posts for Instagram
As mentioned above there are many ways to post for TBH and it acts as an Instagram currency to gain more likes or followers. You can share many different TBH photos on Instagram, some have different ratings for different traits, and others have different fun games in it. All act as a basic survey of people’s opinion about one specific person. The question that arises is why TBH posts are needed? especially among the teens? Well if you want more likes and followers to boast about to your friends and social circle this is surely one way to get those. Also if you are bored this is a fun way to pass time and get other’s opinions too.
Moreover this is one subtle way to get connected with your crush or to start a casual conversation with them. It also plays a great role in boosting self-confidence and knowing what people think about you. It so happens that many of the friends you have on social media are casual acquaintances or friends of friends or just people you randomly met a few times. TBH posts are a great way to connect with these people and increase your social circle. Hence these posts play more than one role in connecting on social media. It must be remembered however that as per rules of TBH trend if you have nothing good to say about a person, or do not want to associate yourself with them you can just ignore there like and not give them a TBH.
TBH and rates
This is another way for posting for a TBH as mentioned above, there is a scale from 0-10. In which zero denotes the lowest rate and ten the highest. When you post this status it means that you will be rating on the recent activity of the people on your post.
TBH rate and date
Well as the name suggests it has something to do with dating. This kind of TBH post is for a specific person you may like or want to date. What happens here is, that if you post ‘date for a TBH’ and there are people on your profile who like you or want to date you then they can like or comment on your ‘rate and date’ TBH post. If you like them back too you can comment back and give them a TBH. In this way you can start a casual conversation with them and see where it goes from there. This also goes for you that if you like someone and you see this post on their feed, you can always comment or like and see if they reply back.
TBH posts and other social media outlets
Here this must be remembered that this #TBH trend is not just for Instagram or Facebook but also is done on Snapchat, Tumblr and Twitter etc. Of course, the basic rules apply to all these different social media outlets but you can always add your own fun side to these TBH posts by adding creative slogans and pictures on these posts to attract more attention. Make sure you TBH pictures are eye catching. You can create your own fun posters or search the internet for cool TBH pictures.
On Snapchat if you post a TBH photo then you will get TBH opinion in reply to that snap. You can ask for honest opinions on either something that you are capturing from your camera or just an honest opinion about yourself through Snapchat. You can also get ratings on your photography skills or opinions about other people that you take a photo of from your Snapchat.
Same goes for Tumblr, you can share your TBH posts there to get reactions on your piece of work, your profile and you as a person. It must be remembered however that although the trends have slowly changed with time and now TBH generally means giving a nice opinion about someone you may not always get the opinions or reactions that you anticipated. Hence one must not feel let down if this happens. Taking positive criticism in your stride and coming out a better person by the end of it is a noble task on its own. Thus TBH posts have their positive and negative sides both. It is up to us how we take them and learn from them.
Cybil 
Emma