Thursday, August 7, 2008

My Daughter, My Prank, MySpace

A few years back my daughter was really into MySpace. It seemed like every time I spoke with her, she brought it up. “I did my layout.” “I added new pictures.” “I changed my song.” (I will admit that I sometimes sound like that now when I talk about blogging.)

After awhile she started in on me. “Mom, you should have a MySpace page. I can help you with it.” I finally caved. I made my page all pretty and added a song. I tracked down some people from my high school. I sent goofy comments to my daughter and her friends…And then, I got sneaky.

I decided to set up a fake MySpace, thus the birth of Employee No. 3699. I got the page looking the way I wanted and found the perfect song. I started bouncing around and requesting friends. I threw out some blogs that my ‘friends’ could respond to. Silly stuff like, “What is your best call in to work excuse?” When I had about two hundred friends and people were sending me comments on a regular basis, on both my page and in the blogs; I requested my daughter as a friend. She accepted and the fun began! It started with a comment or two on her page. Then I would comment to the comments she left on the blog posts. I baited the hook, threw out the line and slowly reeled her in.

When I would talk to her on the phone she would tell me I just ‘had to’ check out the Employee and request that I be a friend. She’d let me know what the blog topic was that day and what her comment was. I’d just listen and hold back the giggles. This went on for about a month or so…

Then I put her in my top eight friends. Not only did she call me to with the big news, she also told her brother and his girlfriend when they went to her house to visit. They, along with a handful of people, were aware of my little hoax. They kept a straight face and then laughed the whole way home.

About three months into all this, my daughter and her family were at my house for the weekend. After a few cocktails I couldn’t keep my secret any longer, I had to tell her the Employee was me. At first she just looked at me. Slowly it sunk in and she just laughed, shaking her head in disbelief. We went to bed shortly thereafter. When she got up the next morning she told me she had had a dream. She dreamed, get this, that I was ‘Tom’. He-he-he.

I kept that page active for about a year and then lost interest in MySpace. This past April I went back to it, but it didn’t last. People on MySpace don’t really get into reading the blogs; that’s when I entered the blogosphere and came here.

You can check out MyFakeSpace here.

14 comments:

Badass Geek said...

That is such a great prank! Very clever, and good for you for keeping it secret for so long.

MySpace isn't for everyone. I only have it to keep in touch with extended family.

Unknown said...

Ain't it great when you can f**k with 'the kids'? I do it all the time. On the other hand, I am also the constant victim of my sons' revenge.

Mental P Mama said...

I am very impressed....quite the prankster;)

Pleasant Living said...

You're a sneaky sneakster!

Megan said...

Firstly, I couldn't have kept it a secret for that long! SECONDLY I almost died laughing when I saw your first friend was "the office"

Michael C said...

Well I am glad you ended up in the blogging world and I think your prank was a GREAT idea. Perhaps I'll launch a fake Facebook profile!!

Whitney said...

OH MAN! That is hilarious! I was thinking that you were going to say you found out something abut your daughter that you never knew or something like that! Just goes to show you never know who is REALLY reading your blogs!!! And I agree...down with myspace. It's so boring to me. No one blogs.

Heather said...

Awesome!

Michele said...

What a riot!! I thought you were going to say you found some dirt on your daughter!!! I have a facebook and a myspace page...that's how I keep track of the girls because they won't tell us what's going on in their lives..lol.

Hugz,
Michele

Anonymous said...

That's a good one. I never did get into myspace or facebook but maybe one day. What a relationship you must have with your daughter (excuse me, Fraughter) that you can do these things!

Coal Miner's Granddaughter said...

That's an awesome prank, girl! Too funny. Glad you made the move to a true blog!

Anonymous said...

Oh My God! Im toad-ily doing THAT to my son when he gets into his myspace phase which I fear is only a week away from now!

Anonymous said...

I can't believe you were able to hold the secret that long! This story could be a good Lifetime Channel movie, I think! :)

Anonymous said...

That is brilliant. It must have been so hard for you not to laugh at times. Glad you switched to blogging instead!