survey says....

pretty much since the invention of email, there's been this phenomenon of the online survey. no, not a quiz to find out which celebrity would be your ideal celebrity mom for your celebrity pet...and no, not a survey that you fill out about your eating/shopping/surfing habits so that you MAY win a 50$ gift certificate to pottery barn. i'm talking about one that looks like this:

last person you talked to: your mom

last person you kissed: your mom

last person who saw you naked: you, when you walked in on me on top of your mom

and so on....

originally, this little survey thing seemed to exist solely on an email level. you would receive the survey in your inbox, freshly filled out by your friend, and you would read their answers and think haha, how clever they are!! now it is my turn to show my friends how clever i am! look out, keyboard! it's time for the funny introspective details about ME!

fortunately, this seemed to die out after a few years. i thought it might be because as me and my friends got older, we no longer felt the need to electronically share our favourite moments from Friends.

until this little thing called facebook came along. oh yeah, and blogs.

suddenly, everyone is posting notes with fresh new surveys. ok, not everyone. but some people. frankly, i probably would never have noticed if it wasn't for this pesky amount of free time i've had at work every day. 'noticed' doesn't mean i've actually READ these things, but i've taken note of their existence. ok ok...i do read one once and while, but there's usually a whole lot of skimming going on, and it means i'm either expecting something funny cuz the author is a funny person, or i'm waiting for something 'funny' cuz it's just so banal it becomes absurd.

now i'm not sure if i'm actually knocking people who still fill these things out. ok, maybe i am, but i don't intend to be mean, i just want to analyze why. i do understand the value of wasting some time and attempting to be creative on some level without actually having to construct complete sentences. perhaps what i find- oh, let's call it, interesting, or at least, 'of note' - is why these peoplethink that we are actually curious about these useless facts?

passively posting something on your personal webspace is sure as hell a lot less obnoxious than stuffing someone's inbox full of these things, for sure, and yet i must wonder...what is the thought process behind a 28 year old declaring to the world that their favourite caffeinated beverage is a cappuccino? if they really want to let people know these things, why not start writing your memoir? as you go through your life on paper, you'll hopefully come to recognize what is worth describing (ie. losing your virginity) and what's boring (what's on your desk right now).

i realize that it's pretty hypocritical to talk about this on MY own personal webspace...a place where i post my opinions and likes and dislikes. however, i have yet to come across one of those surveys that is entirely justifiable as something that must be shared with the world, even if the 'world' means 2 readers...one of whom is me, wondering why i'm reading this stuff. maybe if i want to date you, THEN i'll want to know that the underpants that you are currently wearing have bears on them. bears holding baseball bats. hehe. you are so cute. let's date.

however, that one survery where you push shuffle on your mp3 player and each song represents a scene in the movie of your life is pretty cool, i gotta admit.

the scene where i meet your mom: 'love in an elevator'