One of the more annoying internet phenomena that has come along, and could be called a global epidemic thanks to Facebook, is the "25 Things About Me" lists. These are lists that someone will "tag" you with asking (or demanding may be a better term, you antisocial web user!) for you to tell everyone 25 things that are unique to "you". Leaving alone the fact that "tagging" is the internet equivalent to the loathsome telemarketing call, unasked for and almost always unwanted, how objective are these "25 Things..." lists? They're usually eerily positive, and I haven't ever seen any mention of any pants wetting incidents in first grade (not that that happened to me, but I've heard of it happening to others). So, since you WILL inevitably be tagged with such a request and if you're not sure where to start, I have found all the help you'll need in this column from the New York Times, written with keen insight (and a fair bit of snarkiness) by Amy Harmon. Among her more valuable tips:
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#1. Say that you hate things like this, and are doing it only to get the (oh, so many) friends clamoring for your list off your back.
#11. “Admit” that you always identified with weird ancillary character on popular TV show in 7th grade, as if you didn’t know that everyone in retrospect agrees that was the best character.
#17. Recount a dramatic moment, like having your heart broken or getting arrested, but withhold details, forcing readers to ask for them in your “comments’’ section. In case you didn’t know, comments equate to status on Facebook even more than number of friends.
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Now that I think about it, the only thing perhaps more annoying and self-aggrandizing than the "25 Things..." list is having some blogger assuming superiority by proclaiming he would never participate in something so vapid. Thank god I'm not like that!
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one year ago today @ E.D.T.: eating my way around town!
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