The Curious Phenomenon

There's this odd thing that I used to see on FB all the time, the Inbox Question and Answer session.  You are all, no doubt, familiar with it.  People send you a bunch of questions, and you answer them publicly on your FB feed.  The questions are inevitably about really private things such as "Did you ever love me?", and so I guess there is a sense of daring given to the person when they answer there in that never-pausing wave of information.  It's the digital equivalent of stripping before a crowd, maybe.  It's always struck me as odd, though, as to why the asker of the question would want those things published in that very public forum, too.  If the question was asked anonymously, wouldn't they want the answer to come back that same way?

Until recently, I had never seen this sort of internet party game anywhere else but on FB.  The other day, a big version of it rolled through my Tumblr feed, too, a list of some 75 questions you could reblog and let people select from with a message.  If you reblogged it, you were telling your followers that you were willing to answer any of them that they selected.  As usual, the questions were fairly intrusive.  Some of them were things that, quite frankly, my close friends don't even know about me.("When was the last time you cried?")  Some of them were just goofy or ridiculous.  ("Do you think you can last in a relationship 6 months and not cheat?) So why would I volunteer to answer them for the entire e-universe?

I realize that there is this sort of anonymity that comes with putting fingers to keyboard.  And yes, I am aware that many of you are pointing fingers to the fact that this blog itself is not listed under my name.  However, I reveal just as much of myself as I'm comfortable with here.  You see only a flash of pale ankle under a long skirt, the nape of a neck above a kimono collar.  I'm not doing a full-on strip show for you here, no matter what you may think.  What is revealed is controlled.

That is my choice, I guess.  I just don't want perfect strangers asking me "Will your next kiss be a mistake?" or "Are you currently wanting to see anyone?" because my answers would probably have to be rude, flip, or total fabrications.  

Of course, I suppose that might be fun, too.  Maybe that's why people do it.  Maybe they all just make up nonsensical crap and nobody tells the truth at all.  For the one about the kiss, for example, I'd say something like, "Yes.  There is no way around it.  It's going to be a mistake. He knows it.  I know it.  We've been fighting it for so long because of all that stands between us, but every time we meet it gets harder and harder to resist.  There's this sort of ridiculous attraction between us, you know?  That kind where you look up into his eyes and you feel that little click and you have to make yourself look away because if you don't...well...  We mostly play it off, and since I don't see him very often, it's been easy to do, but I have this feeling that the next time we run across each other, it's going to be a kiss to alter two worlds completely."  I could say that and then everybody I know would be in a total lather trying to figure out who the hell I was talking about and what was going on.  That might be hilarious since it would all be complete and total fiction.  (Or would it?  Mwahahaha....  No.  Really.)

Or not.  Because you know what?  Even if it were total fiction and I had a blast writing little snippets of story to go with these snoopy questions, these things would still be items that if my friends wanted to know, I'd tell them privately.  I'm just old-fashioned that way.  I can't imagine that everybody on my FB feed wants to know crap about my life.  I'm having enough trouble imagining they even want to know the stuff I'm putting up as statuses, to be honest.  I feel silly every time I post something.  I can't imagine those few brave souls that follow me on Tumblr do, either.  Therefore, if you are absolutely full of curiosity about "If the person you wish to be with were with you, what would you be doing right now?" or "Have you ever kissed someone older than you?", I guess you will need to ask me privately.

(everything in quotation marks is a real question taken from the list that rolled through my Tumblr a few days ago.  I didn't make up any of them, and I left off a few of the more precious ones like, "Are your toenails painted pink right now?", "Can you drive a stick shift?", and "Is there a boy you would do absolutely everything for?"  O_o  Now you tell me.  Why isn't there a "boy's version" of this "ish"?  I would very much like to see one for the gentlemen.  In fact, I may just sit down and make one just as "precious" for the gents....)