Everyday after school before I start my homework I like to visit a series of recreational websites. My first stop is always facebook.com and I check my e-mail, Then depending on the day I will visit websites such as failblog.org and fmylife.com. But my question is why do americans, including myself, enjoy reading about others mistakes and misfortunes?
All of the posts on these websites are meant to be funny and it almost becomes a competition for who has the worst life, a game I think we are all familiar with. When younger it was always a competition with my friends for who had the least amount of sleep the night before, or who was the hungriest. A conversation such as:
Person#1: "Oh man I am soo tired, I had so much homework last night and only got like five hours of sleep last night!"
Person"2: "Yeah that sucks, I had a lot of homework too but I only got like three hours of sleep."
Person#3: "Well I only got 2 1/2, I can barely stay awake."
But in reality why would anyone want to be tired or hungry? The same applies to this website, why would anyone want to post their misfortunes on websites in a hope to have to worst and most outrageous day? I guess my question has more to do with why people post these things, than why do people read them.
I think that the reason people write in to sites like FML is because we all want to be important and we want to be recognized for our pain or misfortune. Everyone seems to want to be somebody and to be noticed, so what better way than through our trouble? I think it also helps people relate to each other. Our success in life is pretty varied, depending on your personal values, but our losses are much more universal.
ReplyDeleteOur society relishes in pessimism and humor, so it seems logical that we would combine the two.
I think sites like FML are meant as a way to get out some of our anger and frustration and talk about our sometimes less than satisfactory lives. They are a way to vent when no one else will listen, and they can help turn our views on our own lives less negative, and learn to laugh at ourselves.
ReplyDeleteThis whole concept is totally true. I agree with Lizzy. People compete with others about who has it worse. If someone were to compete about whose life was better they would be seen as vain or bragging. Talking about what is bad in your life is a way to compete while getting sympathy or pity points. It's a way to get attention without being put down for it.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I would guess that a large chunk of those stories are made up. I agree with Tommy that people post their stories to vent to anybody who will read it, and they use it as a kind of healing process to get over some of the worst and most awkward situations in their life. I may not know exactly why people decide to post their stories, but I know why people read them. Most of them are pretty hilarious, and when I'm having a bad day, I like to read the stories to know that someone is probably having a much worse day than I am. It sounds horrible but it's true. Sometimes you just need a little lifter to help you realize that your life isn't so bad after all.
ReplyDeleteOh god, I love the site, but so much of it is just internet trolls.
ReplyDeleteLike, do you seriously believe some of them?