Intentional Misrepresentations

As we often do in the morning, Sugar and I chatted in the kitchen, then we checked the ongoing Words games and breezed through Facebook quickly. I don’t exaggerate the word “quickly,” as sometimes people post things I don’t want her reading. This morning, I stumbled across this status:

By the time you read this ill be gone ....for the first time in my life im leaving this city , not the way i had planned , but maybe if i leave i can stop looking . No matter how much a person changes they still have to pay the price for what they've done, so i know i have a long road ahead of me , but i know ill see you again , this side or the other ...........

This was put up by a woman that I know fairly well. She’s recently been through some really hard times, long-term boyfriend cheating on her, etc. Naturally, I was concerned. My mind raced with what this status might mean: is she moving away? Is she suicidal? Homicidal?

So, I panic. I’ve heard a thousand news stories about how people have used a Facebook status to confess to crimes, bully or cry for help. I did not want to be one of the people that just sat back. Since I no longer had her cell phone number, I forwarded the status to Tiny Mike to see if there was reason for concern. He agreed, gave me her number and texted her himself. I also replied to her post and asked if she was ok. After a while when she didn’t respond, I texted her boyfriend to see if things were ok.

And then I waited.

And waited…

And waited….

40 minutes later I hear back from her boyfriend. (Yes, she stayed with the cheater!) He found my text to be amusing and told me that she was quoting from the movie, The Town. I was immediately bullshit and my pulse raged in my head. Have these people not heard of the boy who cried wolf? Do these people not remember the drama they just brought down on an entire group of friends? What the hell? In what world is this ok to do?

I immediately removed my comment from her post, and then made up my own snarky status about following proper writing guidelines when quoting from lyrics and movies. I was nice enough not to mention punctuation and capitalization rules. I’m angry because I was basically made a fool of (not that anyone really knew that but me!). I see people do this on Facebook all the time. The put up little snippets, just a few words, to either get people to fish, get attention, spread rumors, or start shit with someone else. That behavior is unnecessary and uncalled for. The people on my friend list are part of my world, but certainly not the center of my universe.

I am infuriated that people use an outlet like Facebook for purposes that I just can’t seem to make sense of. What was the point of that quote? We all know what she recently went through and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to draw the same conclusions I and many others did.If she liked the quote, that's fine and good, but let everyone know where it came from. I think it's more likely that she knew she'd generate concern and attention and I am regretful that I have her one fucking iota of concern. 

She has since posted an explanation and, “Thanks for all the love” comment. Perhaps I need to be less gullible and maybe not take someone’s status seriously. Or maybe I should just see if that UNFRIEND button really works. 

xoxo

Ice Princess