the buzz log

But enough about me. Here's 25 more things about me.

In the old days, when friends gathered around the piano to sing songs and share tales, anyone who reeled off a list of personal pecadillos, preferences and other assorted personal trivia would probably be put in charge of changing the chamber pot.

But in the (post)modern age of memoirs, email questionnaires, and social networking, such odes to oneself now take on a chain-letter charm, and lots of Buzz. All Things Digital, which normally deals in the matter of tech company fortunes, delved into Facebook's "self-absorbed new craze" called "25 Random Things About Me," in which people list personal "facts, habits or goals."

The social part of it cleverly lies in the instructions: "Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note about 25 random things... At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged ... [Here comes the kicker] If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you." About me? Really? 25? How flattering. Isn't this the same pitch Bernard Madoff used?

The exercise (or meme, as culturalists like to call it) has triggered a spectrum of reaction from the blogosphere, from philosophical musings to delighting in shared discovery to bemoaning the pressure upon the tagged to come up with 25 reasonably intriguing factoids. The notion, like a writing assignment, has also inspired blogospheric riffs and confessions, like the female rabbi who, in a Houston Chronicle blog, admitted to listening to Rush Limbaugh. Technorati created a tag page devoted to assorted randomness.

A small Search uptick has registered on Yahoo! for variations of 25RTAM, probably out of voyeurism. Then again, who's to say that, in Talented Mr. Ripley or Single White Female-like fashion, someone won't be "borrowing" tidbits from other people's lists and cobble together a more fascinating profile?  

Of course, in the natural evolution of Facebook fads, clubs have sprung up around the 25RTAM issues. Groups with more than 20 members, to date (listed in order of total members):

• I Have Not Been Tagged for the "25 Random Things About Me" Chain Letter
• 25 Random Things
• NO! I Will Not Post "25 Random Things About ME!"
• Stop Tagging Me in 25 Random Things Posts You Tards
• Don't Write 25 Things
• I Like the "25 Random Things About You"...BUT!!!
• I Refuse To List 25 Random Things About Myself
• I Refuse to Complete the 25 Random Things List
• I'm Tired of Learning 25 Random Things About People

Next craze? We're guessing a toss-up between "25 Random Things You Didn't Know I Knew About You (AKA The Stalker Edition)" and "25 Random Books I Could've Written Instead of Frittering It All Away in Lists."