It’s easy to distract yourself at a computer. Facebook, e-mail, MySpace, fmylife.com, mylifeisaverage.com or one of the several free blogging forums available — whatever the technological vice— it inevitably eats up the precious time you claim you don’t have.
Mine is “The Daily Wh.at.” The tumblr. hosted blog features an array of daily posts, including videos, cartoons, photographs, etc. Most post titles contain the phrase, “of the day,” such as “Video of the Day” or “So This is Happening of the Day,” while others get more specific like, “Crazyass Christine O’Donnell Thing of the Day.”
The multi-media hub is the mecca of Internet treasures, re-blogging gold for those who actively “tumble.” The site revels in the out-of-ordinary; it is a gallery for the strange, miscellaneous, hysterical and at times, unbelievable. Since many posts consist of something someone somewhere thought was funny, you are likely to encounter something that resonates — or spend hours scrolling until you do.
Many of the posts are fan submissions, such as the recent post featuring two College students, Matty Daley, senior English major, and Bobby Canciello, sophomore interactive multimedia major, in a “So This is Happening of the Day” post for setting a new world record for longest continuous kiss.
While the site suits my need for comedic relief and procrastination without social interaction, I think there is something profound about “The Daily Wh.at.” By collecting media from numerous sources — a variety of testaments to what we think is interesting, funny, etc. — the site is a micro representation of our culture. Whether it be major or minor news from one corner of the world, or a cartoon depiction of obese Disney Princesses, the site’s posts, to an extent, are an active commentary on this generation’s personalities. It also connects followers, no matter where they are from, with the common theme that extraordinary, or just plain bizarre things exist everywhere.
It may be that the site isn’t as pervasive as I suspect, but it at the least functions on a personal level — if only to supply the comforting notion that somewhere, someone shares my sense of humor.
Katie Brenzel can be reached at brenzel2@tcnj.edu.
