Putting It On the Line Online

ABC News On Campus reporter Loren Grush blogs:

Ever have one of those days when nothing seems to go your way?  You burn your tongue on your coffee or you get gum on your shoe?  Well, at least you can say that you didn't mistake your wife's pepper spray for your asthma inhaler.

Sadly this actually did happen to online user  DeepBreath, who let the internet community know about their misfortunes on the popular message board site, FMyLife.com.  This website allows users to share their daily unhappy  occurrences with people all over the country.

“It started out slowly, then through word of mouth it kind of exploded,” said Alan Holding, moderator for FMyLife.com.  “People write us to tell us the website is great, but we also get a few insults due to story denials.  So the benefits of running the website are mostly through user feedback.”

Holding says that the intent of the website isn’t to make fun of people’s misfortunes but to allow them to share their pain with everyone.

“Some people complain that it’s glorifying other people’s misery, but if you take a closer look, nobody’s forcing people to post to the website,” said Holding.  “The main idea is that the stories have to be funny, self deprecating, or self mocking.  There’s nothing cruel on the website.  We don’t laugh at people, we laugh with them.”

The website has inspired the creation of two similar sites known as MyLifeisAverage.com and MyLifeisG.com where users can share either their successes in life or their everyday mundane occurrences.  One such user simply described how exciting it had been to make French toast in the morning that the poster couldn’t sleep the night before.

Chris Wueste, a store manager in Austin, Texas, quickly turned a horrible day into a funny one when he shared a work mishap on FMyLife.com.

“The entire concession stand at work with 5,000 pieces of candy tipped over,” Wueste said.  “It took us three hours and we lost 300 dollars.  So when I got home, I just really needed to vent and no one was home, so I decided to post.  It turned out to be really funny.”

And if these sites don’t allow you to rant about what is on your mind, there’s probably still a site that you can turn to.  Similar websites are springing up all over the net.  Textsfromlastnight.com allows readers to laugh at silly text messages that others receive from their friends.  There’s even a site titled WOW Rehab where people can complain about how much World of Warcraft has ruined their lives.

University of Texas law student Jessica Fertitta was so inspired by these sites that she’s is working to create a site of her own.  The site: notsorryforpartying.com.

“After graduation, my friends and I felt that as adults in the ‘real world,’ we were expected to give up the fun we had as students,” said Fertitta.  “Eventually we got over that and adopted the motto ‘Not Sorry for Partying.’  This site says to people you can have fun at any age, but if you do something, we’re here to laugh with you.”

Jorge Peña, an assistant professor in Communication Studies at the University of Texas, isn’t surprised to see websites like these becoming so popular.

“These sites are not that different from social support groups,” said Peña.  “Maybe the format is different in that it is a little bit more in real time, but in essence, the idea of having a venue in which people are relatively anonymous has always been around.”

Peña says that overall, people are just looking for the same kind of fulfillment they always have.

“Technology allows people to do things more effectively, but the need to relieve loneliness has been an ongoing process before the Internet came about,” said Peña.  “It’s a new tool to achieve a familiar goal.”