Thursday, May 31, 2007

Only One Friend (From my LJ Days)

As you know, I started this blog a few days ago, and thus far, Emily of the mommy board has been my only LiveJournal friend, a fact about which LiveJournal has felt it necessary to remind me every time I post an entry. The first time I view a newly posted entry, a little box pops up, telling me, "You've only made 1 friend."

First of all, the modifier is misplaced. It should read, "You've made only 1 friend." So there's that. But also, it's insulting. Why include the word "only" if it's just a record of how many friends you've added? "You've made 1 friend" is sufficient and succinct. I need only the facts, please, no editorializing. Because the subtext is, "You loser. Just who are you blogging for? Yourself? Get a notebook, fool" and also the subtext is, "Invite more friends--increase our membership!" So they're trying to embarrass me into padding their membership numbers...nice.

All this to say, it worked. I invited more friends, even though I feel a little embarrassed about it, as if I'm suggesting that my life and my writing are so very compelling--come and see! So to those of you I recently invited, the truth is, I don't think I'm super exciting and interesting, nor do I expect you to think so. I just want my profile page to say "Holy crap, you've made 8 friends!"


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