Jon Stewart, Cremation, and Alcatraz: My List of Randomness from Facebook (Back in the Day)

I was just looking through my old Facebook Notes and came across this gem. Surely you remember the “25 Things about Me” list that went around about a year ago (mine is dated February 9, 2009). It was accompanied by these directions:

Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you. To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.

This particular chain-letter meme apparently so infiltrated Facebook that Time, NY Times, LA Times, and Salon reported on it:

• It’s a “recent bout of viral narcissism,” Time seethes; “it’s just so stupid.”
• LA Times echoes this sentiment with its piece entitled “Facebook’s 25 Things Too Many,” which states that “These are answers to questions so boring, James Lipton doesn’t even ask them.”
• Third, and thankfully much less blunt, NY Times merely attempts to figure out why the exercise “has suddenly become a phenomenon.” For most people, the writer asserts, it’s a rather “creative way to indulge in social networking without coming off as needy or shamelessly self-absorbed.” (I guess the Time reporter begs to differ here.)
• Finally, Salon reports that there’s actually a beauty to some of the random thoughts people are sharing about themselves and once you get over the potential annoyance of it all, you “realize that, at its best, it’s one of the more compelling — and, yes, even oddly inspiring — wastes of time to hit the Web in years.”

Well, like roughly 5 million others — yeah, that’s right; an estimated 5 million people participated in this little event — I came up with 25 Things about Me, which I’ve posted below. For the record, this is one of the only chain-letter memes I’ve participated in on Facebook or on any other social networking site; I also don’t do Facebook quizzes or maintain animals at Farmville.

This exercise, however, intrigued me because, if done thoughtfully, it not only informs your “friends” what’s important/unimportant to you, but it also reminds you of the same. And really, isn’t that what writing — creative, academic, or otherwise — should do, i.e., reinforce and/or allow you to flesh out your likes/dislikes, interests, ideology, theories, etc.? Inevitably, themes will run through the 25 Things about Me list to confirm this. For instance, my list repeats statements about pop culture, teaching, travel, and family. While I remember trying to be as random as possible, hoping to provide a nice sampling as they say, evidently, I didn’t — or couldn’t. And that’s okay because it is those things that interest me, and it is those things that were significant in my life when I wrote them down. So rather than thinking of this particular meme as stupid or just another “bout of viral narcissism,” perhaps we could consider it a little time capsule, highlighting what is noteworthy to us at one particular moment in time.

Jon Stewart, Cremation, and Alcatraz: My List of Randomness

1. I think that Jon Stewart might be the smartest person currently on television.
2. I never imagined that I’d live within a 5-mile radius of Tom Cruise’s in-laws. (Katie Holmes is from Toledo, OH.)
3. I detest lingerie and what it signifies.
4. I once watched my husband assist David Copperfield with a magic trick.
5. I have no desire to visit Hawaii.
6. Last night I dreamed that Gregory House, M.D. and I were gettin’ frisky. But when something yellowish began to ooze from his mouth, we ceased our fun and called in Drs. Foreman, Cameron, and Chase for a consultation. (Evidently, this is what watching nearly 50 episodes of House in two months can do.)
7. I am constantly amused that my 81-year-old grandfather maintains a website.
8. Every car I’ve purchased has been white.
9. When I earned the Ph.D., my parents gave my husband and me plane tickets to London.
10. The only concrete handprints at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre that I’ve put mine into are Gene Kelly’s.
11. I thoroughly enjoy writing research papers. Grading them, however, is a different story.
12. The most frequently played songs on my iPod are “What a Feeling (Flashdance)” and “Greatest American Hero.”
13. I still miss Tim Russert.
14. I will always argue that reading and/or teaching Shakespeare can be as spiritual as anything that occurs in (or outside of) a church.
15. I once fainted during a mammogram. Yep, passed out cold.
16. In the winter of 2004, I nearly ran into Ricky Gervais as he exited a London pub.
17. I am ashamed to say that I have attended a World Wrestling Entertainment event.
18. My four-year-old nephew emails me from his own Gmail account.
19. I want to be cremated after I die.
20. I once created and taught an college course entirely on Seinfeld.
21. I have spent my wedding anniversary in the confines of Alcatraz. (The phrases “bonds of matrimony” and “ol’ ball and chain” acquired new meanings that day.)
22. My high-school boyfriend encouraged me to watch David Letterman. I’m still doing so 17 years later.
23. I fear three things: pregnancy, childbirth, and the 18 years that follow.
24. I owe my “occupational happiness” to three teachers: Janis Hill (high-school English), LaRue Sloan (Shakespeare), and Adrienne McLean (film).
25. Oh yeah, I also fear Wikipedia.

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