There is nothing quite like picking out your best summer holiday snaps and doing a photo dump on Instagram at the end of another hot, sticky day.

Yacht trips, beach clubs, and sunset dinners are all classic holiday tropes on social media. It’s either the “look at me I’m in a bikini and look fabulous” style shots on the beach, or just a simple selfie of your feet as you lounge at the pool with newly painted toenails.

It’s called “hols bragging” – making sure everybody you know is aware that you are just having the best time on the perfect holiday, with your best friends, perfect children and loved-up other half. Of course, we all know the dysfunction gets packed alongside the kaftan, but for the purposes of that beautifully captured shot? Details, details.

I had a punch-up with my half-sister in a hotel reception in Egypt one Christmas – but did it stop the idyllic photos of snorkelling among the coral reef and posing in front of a camel with a Father Christmas hat on? No, it did not.

I over-post on holidays, mostly because life otherwise is going to work and coming back, while also juggling the long school holidays, and who wants to see a photo of the office bin or a tray of kids’ fish fingers about to be cooked in an air fryer? Or the horrific mess of your home surrounded by exploding toxic squishy toys, overheated homemade slime, and nail polish all over the tables?

About 20 photos usually fit the bill, as was the case with my recent summer holiday in Corsica. It was a quick but carefully curated montage of mop-haired and sun-kissed kids post paddle-boarding, one of me in cut-off shorts on a yacht, horse-riding along the wild beach and others showing the powder-white sandy beaches and dazzling turquoise sea.

I had a punch-up with my half-sister in a hotel reception in Egypt one Christmas – it did not stop the idyllic photos of snorkelling among the coral reef

But I also know for every friend dropping me a heart, there were probably a few more rolling their eyes. I’m just hoping I didn’t quite fall into the cringe category of Victoria Beckham’s recent photo from her holiday in Portofino, Italy.

The fashion designer, 52, has been posting plenty of updates from the trip on her Instagram Stories. Coincidentally, they are staying near where I’m off to next week, and I am taking notes. The Beckhams are currently having some rest and relaxation, or as Victoria calls it – “making memories with special people”. Among them was a picture of herself holding her husband David’s overgrown facial hair and joking that his holiday beard “needed a trim”.

She posted a clip of her family watching an epic fireworks display from their yacht, cheesily writing: “Fireworks are just like the special people in your life that make you sparkle. I love you all so much!”

Whatever dramas the Beckhams have been through this year, the message here is loud and clear: we are a happy, close-knit family. The photo dump included one of her parents who joined them on the yacht, Jackie and Tony, whom she is pictured wrapping her arms around, with the caption: “Creating memories! I love you both so much!” Victoria shared a picture of her son Cruz, 21, and her daughter Harper, 15, following a dip in the sea. Her son Romeo, 23, is also on the holiday.

It looks like the family don’t have a care in the world, apart from the obvious one of estrangement from son Brooklyn, who last month had been doing his own hols, bragging with his wife Nicola from Elton John’s yacht a few miles away from the Beckhams’ yacht in St Tropez.

Victoria also posted a shot on her Instagram at the weekend of her on a date night with David wearing a black lace sheer dress that showed off her underwear, captioning it “Back in Portofino where we began [heart emoji] in 1997 x I love you”, referencing the last visit before anyone knew they were dating.

David replied with his own date night posting and photos of the family manifesting in the solar eclipse on board their yacht with crystals – despite the fact it’s about the only thing you shouldn’t do during a solar eclipse, as I discovered from my LA astrologer Dr Michael Lennox. “Manifesting & making our wishes [moon crescent moon emoji] Love you all”, David wrote. Which is all wonderful. Until it isn’t.

You see, there is a fine line when it comes to looking at other people's summer holidays. And that line usually begins with a cheesy caption.

Paris Hilton’s wrote “Another dreamy summer aboard [her yacht] with my #cutesiecrew” as she posted holiday snaps on her Instagram in Sardinia with her two children, Phoenix, three, and London, two, in onesies – with one photo of them sitting at the back of their yacht dipping their feet in the sea.

Likewise, Justin Trudeau has gone cringey with his captions in posts of him with his family and one of him holding beer with Katy Perry after their well-documented summer trip. “Grateful for the moments that made this summer so special, and for the people I got to share them with”. It’s always worth bearing in mind that a holiday post is not an opportunity to do an acceptance speech – it’s just a holiday snap, Justin!

Another favourite cringe moment comes when people show off their fabulous bikini body while adding all the junk they eat. Yes, Hailey Bieber, we mean you. “Different blues and lots of Nutella”, she captioned her post earlier this month, while she was spotted on a Mediterranean holiday, island-hopping between Greece and Italy.

And remember your holiday brag can become someone else’s private moment exposed. You might look lovely, but did your mate or mum really want their sweaty forehead or sagging bikini bottom slapped all over the socials?

Meghan Markle very nearly got it right with her low-key family holiday snaps in July, simply captioned “Summer Holiday”, featuring Prince Harry, Prince Archie, and Princess Lilibet visiting Portugal. But then she ruined it by sneaking in a photo of the intensely private moment of her husband and children taking flowers to Diana’s grave at Althorp.

But while invading your own privacy might just be a Meghan problem, the rest of us reach a tipping point when someone’s pictures seem to exist simply to promote envy from the rest of us and are desperately seeking social validation that just feels a bit, well, needy.

On a dreamy holiday? Great, I’m happy for you. The overshare “look what you’re missing” post from a dozen different places, infinity pools and endless cocktails, not so much. Especially when so many of us are in a cost of living crisis.

We know people only share the best parts of their lives; there is nothing wrong with it – we all do it – but when it crosses the line where every other word is “dreamy”, “special” – or there’s a relationship-performance post when you know the reality is far from the fantasy, that’s a one-way ticket to cringeland.

The rest of us will simply happily scroll on.