Facebook's '25 Things' Too Tempting to Pass Up
Not everyone is a fan of arbitary personal facts. Yesterday, Time published an article panning the latest viral note making the rounds on Facebook - '25 Random Things About Me.' Its premise - write 25 things about yourself, post it on your Facebook page, and ask others to do the same - is popping up on newsfeeds faster than you can say 'vanity.' And yet, it's too just too much fun not to fill out. I first got tagged in the note on Jan. 24. Little did I know that after skimming through my friend's quirks - who knew she sometimes dreams of swimming in pools of chocolate? - that a frenzy had begun. I wrote my own '25 Random Things' three days later. And as of Feb. 6, I've been tagged in the note four times - a modest number compared to some of my friends. Admittedly, I could do without some of the personal "facts" my Facebook friends listed. I don't care that your favorite color is blue or that you really like to have fun on the weekend. This isn't '25 Universally Liked Facts' - get creative! Facebook's more humble population is avoiding the latest in what Time writer Claire Suddath calls "viral narcissism." After three days of trying to write 25 facts about herself, my friend Samantha gave up. "I realized I'm just not that interesting," she wrote on a Facebook status. "Now if someone starts a '10 Dirty Little Secrets,' that I could do!" I am not one of those people, and maybe I should be ashamed of it. To justify some of that guilt, I put my cyber tail in between my legs and added "Or: Caving In to Peer Pressure" to my own '25 Things.' But really, the note just appeals to that pesky human desire to be the center of attention - even if it's only as a blurb on an acquaintance's news feed. But it's more than that. I genuinely enjoy reading things about my friends that I may not have known otherwise. I don't mistake it for false intimacy, but I take comfort in knowing that one of my friend's doesn't know if she even wants a career after college and inspired by a Dominican pal who hopes Latin Americans one day overcome all forms of oppression. For people like me, '25 Things' is a way to relate. Unless your favorite color is orange. Then I'll have a bone to pick. -- Rachel Young |
