LIPGLOSS: My two cents on ‘Forty Days’

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You’ve probably seen it on your Facebook news feed to the point of exhaustion, but just in case you haven’t: “Forty Days of Dating” is a blog chronicling a kind of social experiment between two friends in New York. They tried dating for 40 days to see what happens, each posting daily accounts side-by-side on a sleek, aesthetically-pleasing website.

It’s adorable. It’s relatable. The colors are so pretty.

And I hate it.

Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for the finished product these two blogger-designers have put out there. It’s a great example of what a blog can be– personal and artistic and self-contained. But that’s the end of the disclaimer.

My biggest beef with “Forty Days” is the fact that it wasn’t posted in real time. The experiment lasted 40 days, yes, but not the same forty days during which the blog was updated. By the time “Day One” was first put up, the 40 days were over, and Timothy and Jessica both knew the fate of their relationship. To what extent each post was edited prior to publishing remains a mystery. Yet the blog is presented as a genuine day-by-day exploration of a fledgeling relationship.

I feel manipulated! I thought I was witnessing the real, nitty-gritty, uncensored inner workings of the dating experience! How dare they!

On a serious note, though, this whole time-delay factor blurs the line between social experiment and Gen-Y performance art. It makes the whole blog lose some integrity for me.

The other complaint my royal highness has is pretty contradictory to the first one. See, I get that Timothy and Jessica are two real people, and that a blog is not the same as a Hollywood rom com, but still…

The two of them are just so dang boring sometimes.

Oh, Tim has commitment issues? What a surprise. The girl is overly romantic and falls in love too easily? You don’t say! I tried to follow this blog on a semi-regular basis. But more and more I found myself scrolling quickly through posts (or entire weeks) simply because there was nothing surprising or interesting going on.

You’d think that, given the delay, they could have found a way to… I don’t know… spice themselves up? Make it a bit more interesting for all of us titillated Internetters?

Whatever.

However much I moan and groan, the blog is still being made into a movie soon, probably starring Zooey Deschanel and a hot unknown guy with ironic facial hair. Go see it, I guess. It’ll be like 500 Days of Summer, only shorter and maybe lamer.