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Facebook's '25 Things' are life stories in miniature

By Patrick T. Reardon | Tribune reporter

February 16, 2009

Studs Terkel made a career of interviewing "voiceless" people—non-celebrities from the workaday world—and then serving as the medium to get their stories to the broader public.

Nowadays, though, anyone with a Facebook profile can publish a mini-autobiography by posting a "25 Random Things About Me" note.

This is a good thing. Although some have mocked them, these 25-things notes are the latest evidence of the democratization of literature. It used to be that the only people who got to write autobiographies were those who were famous, infamous or otherwise had a life story that publishers thought would sell. With this Facebook thing, though, such calculations of profit and loss disappear.

"There's no downside to it if only 10 people read it," says Brendan Riley, who teaches courses in writing, new media and popular culture at Columbia College Chicago.

A 25-things note is similar to but more focused than a blog—even though the list is supposed to be "random." Nothing on Facebook, of course, is random. Members use the service to craft an image of themselves as they'd like to be seen. One of these notes is simply a more distilled version.

"Even if you're putting in things that are bad, you're making them amusing rather than horrifying," Riley says.

The notes are designed to inform and also entertain. "People wouldn't do these if they weren't fun," says Fred Stutzman, a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who teaches a class on Facebook.

Like cocktail party chatter, they're filled with personal tidbits that, knowingly or unknowingly, provide insights into character.

Consider one note in which the writer asserts, "I am a polymath. ... I am a media artist. ... I am a filmmaker. ... I am an avid sailor. ... I am a musician." Sounds like the kind of a guy who'd corner you at a party by the dip bowl and drone on and on and on.

By contrast, the list from a married woman with two kids begins: "I used to fart at guys at the bar after they would buy me drinks, to make them go away." A bit coarse, perhaps, but she's likely to be a live wire as a conversationalist—if she doesn't want you to go away.

Sure, many lists include mundane items such as "I love humidity."

But then there are those items that stop the reader cold: "I found out when I was 27 that I was adopted." And "I never thought about cancer, but here it is. It won't be easy but it's a winnable game. So far so good. Hair is going."

The writer of a 25-things note is supposed to specifically tag 25 Facebook friends, alerting them to the newly published list. Each is then expected to create a list and tag another group of 25, including the original sender.

This reciprocity is a new, more democratic wrinkle in the autobiography game, especially useful on Facebook, where a "friend" isn't necessarily someone you know well. These notes help friends learn about one another. In addition, they address a problem that has long plagued an American society in which people often move from one place to another.

Stutzman points out that many people older than 25 are using Facebook and these 25-things notes to reconnect with people from their past. These short autobiographies can provide a quick overview of the writer's life.

"Maybe Facebook is filling a need we've never been able to fill before, enabling reconnection with the people we left behind," he says.

So these notes aren't only informative and entertaining, but they also build community. In a real way, they're the literature of democracy.

preardon@tribune.com