The internet is great for finding interesting stuff, whether it’s captivating articles or silly pictures of animals. Whenever I log online I’m confident that I’ll find something that wows me and that’s worth telling a friend. I like sharing content for a few reasons:

• I love my friends and family and want their online experiences to be as valuable as my own. (I spend a lot of time online and have learned to find good stuff pretty fast, unlike certain relatives who remain strictly within AOL’s daily headlines.)

• I want to appear funny and smart to my friends. The more quality content I share, the more (I assume) my friends will think highly of me.

This said, I want my shared content to be received well. I appreciate Likes, Comments, and Shares on Facebook, and Retweets and Favorites on Twitter. I want validation that my contributions to the internet community aren’t wasted, that the three seconds of attention I’ve sucked from my users was not in vain.

I’m interested in tactics that people use to encourage others to click something, especially in digital social environments. Many of them are spammy and not to the user’s benefit. Here are my favorites:

• CAPITALIZING EVERYTHING IN A FACEBOOK POST TO APPEAR LOUD AND IMPORTANT. ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU START ADDING EXXXXTRRRRAAA LETTERS TO SENNNTENCES TO TAKKEE UP MORE SCREEN SPACE

• Using exclamation points within every sentence! It makes you more exciting! And fun!

• Describing a link as, like, absolutely the craziest picture you’ve ever seen, the most fascinating video ever ever, the absolutely-hands-down-out-of-this-world-bar-none most cerebral-shocking funniest meme in the world!

Like many, I’ve also been guilty of these tactics. Each new wave of the internet (i.e. websites then Instant Messenger then Myspace then Facebook) has brought a new mode of communicating, and users struggle to learn that arena’s nuances of what’s acceptable, cool, frowned-upon, etc. It’s like learning how to talk on the playground, where anything goes, and then being introduced to the classroom, where Teacher suddenly forbids potty-language, and then being introduced to hyper-educated Aunt Penelope, who can’t bear to hear monosyllabic words.

Let’s not hate ourselves for using capital letters and the like, but let’s figure out what’s spammy and what’s not, for all our sakes.

Reed Immer is a Digital Marketing Specialist at Response.