''Reply guy'' is an internet slang term for someone who excessively responds to social media posts, often in an annoying, condescending, or overly familiar or flirtatious manner. Reply guys are often men, often with few followers of their own, and tend to respond to posts by celebrities, those with large follower bases, or women.
The phenomenon has been called an example of
benevolent sexism
Ambivalent sexism is a theoretical framework which posits that sexism has two sub-components: hostile sexism (HS) and benevolent sexism (BS). Hostile sexism reflects overtly negative evaluations and stereotypes about a gender (e.g., the ideas that ...
.
Origins
The term ''reply guy'' has been used with less negative connotations at least as far back as 2012, when a social media manager for the
Applebee's
Applebee's Restaurants LLC. is an American company that develops, franchises, and operates the Applebee's Neighborhood Grill + Bar restaurant chain. The Applebee's concept focuses on casual dining, with mainstream American dishes such as salads, ...
restaurant chain became known as "Applebee's Reply Guy" on Facebook for regularly responding to comments left on the page. By 2015, term shifted more toward referring to someone whose posts were perceived as annoying, rude, or as
mansplaining
''Mansplaining'' (a blend word of ''man'' and the informal form ''splaining'' of the gerund ''explaining'') is a pejorative term meaning "(for a man) to comment on or explain something, to a woman, in a condescending, overconfident, and often ...
.
Actions by social media platforms
In 2020,
Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
released a feature to allow users to limit who can reply to their tweets to only people who follow them, or to only people they mention in a tweet. This was described by ''
Vox'' as motivated in part by a desire to reduce unpleasant interactions with reply guys.
In 2023, the
Mastodon
A mastodon, from Ancient Greek μαστός (''mastós''), meaning "breast", and ὀδούς (''odoús'') "tooth", is a member of the genus ''Mammut'' (German for 'mammoth'), which was endemic to North America and lived from the late Miocene to ...
social network released an experimental feature to display a reminder when users compose a response to a stranger, or to a post that is over three months old. This was described by ''
TechCrunch
TechCrunch is an American global online newspaper focusing on topics regarding high tech, high-tech and Startup company, startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare.
I ...
'' as an attempt to "tackl
... the scourge of the 'reply guys'".
See also
*
Simp
''Simp'' () is an internet slang term describing someone who shows excessive sympathy and attention toward another person, typically to someone who does not reciprocate the same feelings, in pursuit of affection or a sexual relationship. This ...
*
White knight
A white knight is a mythological figure and literary stock character. They are portrayed alongside a black knight as diametric opposites. A white knight usually represents a heroic warrior fighting against evil, with the role in medieval literatu ...
*
Spamming
Spamming is the use of messaging systems to send multiple unsolicited messages (spam) to large numbers of recipients for the purpose of commercial advertising, non-commercial proselytizing, or any prohibited purpose (especially phishing), or si ...
References
External links
*{{wiktionary-inline
2010s slang
2020s slang
Internet slang
Pejorative terms for men
Pejorative terms for people