LifeSucks.com

A new trend is afoot in cyberspace: pity-me web sites. At these sites, a nonstop parade of anonymous strangers make posts that amount to "My life is horrible because...." in a continuous-forum format, a la Twitter.

I first learned about it when the Paris correspondent of London's Telegraph reported on Viedemerde.fr, translating that wildly popular French site's name as "bad life." Literally it means "s****y life." Typical recent posts at the year-old site (thanks to Babelfish for the translations) include:

"Today there was a small fire in my apartment building, so I jumped up in the middle of what I was doing and and ran outside. I noticed the neighbors looking at me strangely; then I realized that I was still holding in my hand what I had been holding when the fire alarm went off: my vibrator. My life is s****y."

"Today I was visiting a museum and enjoying an exhibit when a five-year-old child punched me in the crotch. My life is s****y."

The idea became so popular in France as to spawn spinoff sites such as Jaipasdechance.com ("I have no luck") and Jobdemerde.com ("s****y job"). And this year, Viedemerde's entrepreneurial founders created a U.S. version of their site, the now-very-popular Fmylife.com (as in "f*** my life"). Just as at the French site, many if not most FML posts seem a bit fraudulent: more like made-up jokes than actual anecdotes. Some typical recent examples:

"Today, I walked into my house to find everyone sitting around the table and looking sad. I thought it would be a good time to crack a joke and said 'What's wrong? Grandma finally die?' Turns out she had. FML"

"Today, I went to the jewelry store to sell my wedding ring after a long and painful divorce. The shop owner took one look at it and called the cops because I tried to sell him a diamond ring that had been stolen from him 3 years ago. My ex-husband left the country a week ago. FML"

"Today, I realized that my roommate has been using my loofah to clean our toilet. FML"

Jokes, right? But the premise at these sites is that their postings are purported to be real, as befits the new social-networking milieu. But just as at other social-networking sites, it's quite simple to fib. It's all anonymous, and the wittiest or otherwise most extreme posts get the most comments, winning the poster his or her fifteen minutes of what passes for fame. So why tell the truth?

Well, because one of the most attractive principles about online forums is the fact that you CAN tell the truth there, safely and anonymously. Among like-minded strangers online, you can share things that you cannot reveal to friends, family, coworkers or anyone else you actually know -- out of fear, shame, political reasons or what-have-you. Were Viedemerde and its ilk not semi-joke sites but repositories of authentic had-a-bad-day venting, they might serve a therapeutic purpose. But even as they are, Viedemerde-type sites are clearly serving SOME purpose, as evinced by their enormous popularity. What is this purpose, if not that of a genuine support system or pity party?

The answer probably lies somewhere between the postmodern obsession with grievances and trauma (watched Oprah lately?) and the equally postmodern obsession with performance, this compulsion to behave as if one is perpetually on camera or onscreen, inhabiting that reality-show reality in which one struts and squats and stammers intimate confessions -- winking, as if daring you to believe it ... or not.