Facebook Makes Me Laugh

Usually my status updates on Facebook are meant to give people a taste of my keen sense of humor. Sometimes they offer my witty observations of life, but mostly they're talking about the husband's antics, or those of the cats. It's a quip that marks what my life was like at a specific moment in time. What surprises me, though, is how people react.

Take, for example, a popular post:

My husband was wearing his ridiculous lounge wear with the stylish addition of a pot holder. Why a pot holder? Because the mug of hot cocoa he microwaved became too hot. Why not a pot holder might be a better question. Posts like this garner the most responses from my bizarre network of friends and family. In this post, nine people liked it and 14 felt the need to comment.

Enter the cat:

People on the Internet love pictures of cats, that's been made clear. Nine people liked this picture, too, but a different nine people than those who liked the husband-sporting-a-pot-holder photo.

Upon scrolling through my Facebook wall for the past few months, I've come to a few conclusions:

1. I do not go to Facebook to share "real" news about myself. People in my Facebook world want light, fluffy musings and I am happy to give that to them. I do not go on to Vaguebook about life trials and injustices. There's enough of that crap. And if it's really important that you know about something, I'll call you.
2. Part, if not most, of my online "brand" is my sense of humor. Life happens, and as Jimmy Buffett would say, "If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane" (horse's mouth at 1:07). I believe that you get what you give, so giving off post after post of negativity will only make fewer people listen when I have something to say. Not good to drive away your potential audience, right?
3. People are more apt to respond to a picture with a cat, than a picture without one. The exception is including a picture of the husband in a funny scenario. Combine the two and you get a new level of comment glory:

The difference is people still talk about this picture to us in person. While there were four comments on the picture and four likes, we've had multiple friends bring this up when we run into them in real life. What did I learn from that? Humor is memorable. Work it in to your daily life not only for your own sanity, but with the knowledge that it may help people remember you some day. Only (ok mostly) good things can come of that, right?