S&MML

The newest phenomenon to the internet. The overnight success of a French creation. The overly simplistic approach to daily whining about our lives. A place to vent. A place to laugh. But for many people, FML.com shows its readers enough to make them feel a little better about their current situation.

For those of you who don't know, and there are some out there, FML stands for a more vulgar version of 'Fudge My Life.' The general theme of the website is that anyone in the world can leave a short sentence or two about some unfortunate course of action that seems to scream either really bad decision, or a really bad case of bad luck. Posts that begin with a 'Today' and end with a 'FML' for pages. And pages. And pages. And I have read them all. Every line. Every page. Every FML.

I am a sadist.

What other possible explanation could I have? What other form of logic could be applied when I read and read and reread pages and pages and more pages of people's misfortunes, shortcomings, and struggling efforts, and I enjoy it? I mean, people losing jobs via text message. People getting cheated on for sisters and brothers and best friends. People vomiting at inopportune times. People insulting the blind. The handicapped. People who really need to reconsider some of their life decisions. Some guy was divorced by his wife. On his 39th birthday. She gave him a gift. It was a subscription to match.com. This is the kind of pain that apparently I enjoy.

Yet every single life-hater out there, posting all their run-ins with the back half of the crap stick, they're all masochists. Yeah I said it. The lot of them. While they're not intentionally injecting their lives with this embarrassment and pain, they are advertising it. And I'm not saying it's a bad thing. It can be very healthy to turn obvious blunder into humor and take a far enough step back to be able to laugh at your miscues. But these people's desire to be seen falling into the depths of bad luck and bad decisions only provide me a medium to laugh from my ivory tower of living a, at the moment, better life.

I mean, no one has ever mistaken me for a woman and told me how ugly I am. I don't think.

But if you really think about it, this website, along with many others, revolve around this display case mentality, either providing a space to affirm your triumphs or tribulations, or by providing a mechanism for others to observe it. No matter what side you're on, we're all partaking in this Sado-Masochistic exchange of bits and parts of our lives.

Who saw a post about FML turn into S&M?