Students flock to new Princeton FML site

FML, an abbreviation for “fuck my life,” entered the cultural lexicon after the January 2008 launch of the popular blog FMyLife, where people submit embarrassing or painful stories that conclude with the signature acronym. The blog, which can be found at fmylife.com, currently receives around 1.7 million hits per day, according to an August 2009 article in The Boston Globe.

Last week’s introduction of a Princeton-specific version of the blog, Princeton FML, provides a new opportunity for students to express their frustrations with the everyday trials of life at Princeton, students said.

The creation of the Princeton blog, which can be found at princetonfml.com, follows the launch of similar sites at peer institutions. Harvard freshman Jonah Varon, a moderator for Princeton FML’s parent blog College FML, said the first college FML site was FMyStanford. Other universities with FML sites include Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth, Penn, MIT, Boston University, UCLA and USC.

“I think that college FML sites have some advantages over similar sites that are targeted toward a broader audience,” Varon said in an e-mail. “College FMLs provide students with an anonymous forum to share their thoughts and feelings with each other … I think this desire to communicate anonymously exists at a lot of colleges, so I’m working on starting College FMLs at schools across the country.”

Posts on Princeton FML range from run-of-the-mill complaints about life in Forbes College, relationship troubles and corresponding with unresponsive thesis advisers, to more eccentric and Princeton-specific woes.

“I’m an Orange Key tour guide. Whenever I introduce tour groups to the ‘junior slums,’ parents stare at me like I’m some sort of trust fund brat. FML,” one poster wrote on Sunday.

On Wednesday, another poster wrote, “I went to Fruity Yogurt. I bought $7.42 worth of taro-flavored yogurt. The cashier was new. He charged $4,111,180 to my credit card. FML.”

Yet the purpose of blogs dedicated to campus mishaps is not readily apparent to some students.

“I don’t really know why universities need to have their own FMLs,” Ray Auduong ’13 said. “It’s kind of cool that we’re familiar with some of the locations quoted, but a lot of FML humor comes from the situation itself,” he explained.

Liz Katen-Narvell ’13 said, though, that the site is simply entertaining. “I think Princeton FML is a fun way for Princeton students to laugh at the ridiculous things that happen here,” she said.

The Princeton blog is moderated by a group of Princeton students, who said they want to remain anonymous. Posts on the college FML sites are approved based on “what’s funny and appropriate and what’s not,” Varon explained. Following approval, entries are posted within about 24 hours.