FML is the new LOL.
For anyone who is not familiar with this abbreviation, FML is shorthand for “fuck my life” and has been recently popularized by Fmylife.com, a blog that basically consists of brief, user-submitted anecdotes of unfortunate personal events. Thus its slogan: “My life sucks, but I don’t give a fuck.” Each story starts with the word “Today” and ends with “FML,” and topics range from love to work to anything in between. Originally derived from its French precursor, VieDeMerde.fr (meaning “shitty life”), the Web site has recently become wildly popular and, since February, has been averaging more than 1 million visitors a day. Chances are, you’ve probably visited the site before, or at least heard about it.
This site has become my new obsession, and on days when I’m feeling especially depressed the Web site helps comfort me. The endless list of hilarious stories makes the site addicting, and as depressing as some of the stories are, you sometimes can’t help but quite literally laugh out loud at the person’s expense. Even though it’s not very nice, it’s reassuring to know that there are people out there who are suffering even more than you are.
In a sense, Fmylife is similar to Twitter except that it is completely anonymous, which is probably why the site is so successful. The stories tend to be extremely honest and blunt, and are usually about things that most people would not share with their immediate acquaintances, and sometimes not even with their close friends (at least not without changing a few facts to make it less embarrassing).
That is not to say that everything on the site is true. Chances are, many of the posts are completely fabricated, and sometimes they are easy to pick out because they usually just don’t make sense (the people who make up stories usually try too hard). However, the best and most hilarious stories are often the most unique and bizarre. As the old saying goes, truth is often stranger than fiction, and some of the stuff that you read is just too fucked up to be fictional.
With finals coming up, I am sure there are going to be many students posting their academic miseries, just like during Valentine’s Day, when there were countless entries involving misguided love. Anyway, here’s my statement of the day: “Today is Spring Fling, and I’m stuck in my dorm room trying to finish two papers that I left to the last minute. FML.”
William Shieh is a freshman English major.