You see, a little ring is a little thing but it has very big social assumptions. And that bit of bling absolutely BLEW up my facebook, which led to this blogpost.
Last weekend I was with my redneck family in Arkansas and that always makes for fun and interesting times, like this...
So we were at a bar - which probably doesn't surprise you - but it wasn't a redneck, rowdy place like you might picture. We were keepin' it classy at a wine bar called
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And after one too many glasses, my redneck family came up with an idea - aka my fake fiance.
You see, "what had happened was".... quite innocent at first.
My aunt recently had her 25th wedding anniversary and upgraded her engagement ring to this:
2.5 carats of pure sparkly goodness.
Naturally, all the ladies wanted to try it on. But it was kinda like Cinderella and the glass slipper: it didn't fit until...
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I tried it on. And, voila, it fit just perfectly. Unfortunately, unlike Cinderella, I wasn't able to keep it and it didn't come with a prince :/
Not a real one anyways.
Since the ring fit, my redneck family took a picture. Then, my uncle suggested/peer pressured me to put the picture up on facebook.
My response: "Do you know the uproar that would cause!?!"
BUT THEN... the wheels started turning...
What would happen?
They thought it would be funny.
I thought it would be interesting - just what kinda reaction would I get?
So there began the experiment.
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Within a minute, I had my first response: "Excuse me what!?!"
And then, the FIRST PERSON to like it - I am not kidding - was my pastor at my homechurch.
He gets on facebook like all of once-a-month. Mind you, my daddy was not on this trip and it was Saturday night. Therefore, the next morning I feared my daddy would hear "congratulations" at church and not have the slightest clue about what I had gotten into... While my relatives thought this was just hilarious, a bit of fear overtook the funniness for me at that point as I was thinking my whole church and then hometown would hear of my "engagement" because news travels fast in small-town-South-Carolina :/
And it seems news travels even faster on facebook.
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Within an hour I had about 25 "likes" and 20 or so comments. When all was said and done, it got up to 35 "likes" and almost 30 comments.
Because of one little ring... and a big social assumption.
Some of my favorite comments were:
"Lucy, you got some 'splainin' to do!!!!!! ;)"
"Danggg somebody put a ring on you haha"And this one from my uncle who was adding fuel to the facebook fire:
"Sarah, I'm so happy for you two... Congrats!"
People were:
- congratulating me
- offering to plan my wedding
- feeling left out because I had not told them about "the guy" sooner
- a little suspicious/doubtful and wanted some details
Once I got over the itty bitty sting of people's disbelief at my having "found a man", some of my favorites from the suspicious people were:
"gasp! for real? :D Congratulations!"
"whaaat is going on?! obviously we haven't hung out in a long time!"
"omg i almost just fainted."And my personal favorite:
"Color me cynical, but I somehow don't believe this fish decided it needs a bicycle yet."
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But, I myself was shocked that everyone fell for the photo.
So many of my friends accepted one facebook photo as truth.
One minute's worth of minimal facebook stalking would uncover that:
- I was not even listed as "in a relationship" much less "engaged to" anyone
- I didn't have oodles of couple pictures for my profile picture... not even one
- My other photos didn't document me with the same guy over and over... I guess my friends thought I fell in love-at-first-sight instead of dating someone for an extended amount of time???
- And then there was this, a picture posted shortly after the ring pic... I'm nowhere near a man, and there isn't one my age in the picture. NOTE for friends/facebook stalkers in the future: I will show off the man more than the ring ;)
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I guess my friends are just not as adept at facebook stalking as I thought they would be...?
Anyways, the next morning I came clean and commented on the picture, admitting that it was not announcing a new engagement:
"Hahahaha! Thanks for all the comments; didnt mean to make yall feel outta the loop.
"But what happens in Arkansas stays in Arkansas ;) JUST KIDDING!!!
"I did not get engaged but I did just do a lil experiment. Blogpost coming soon - and hopefully a 2.5 carat ring like that too ;)"
But that has not been the end of it.
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I cannot tell you the amount of people who have asked me or my close friends "Is there something you forgot to tell me?" or "Is Sarah really engaged?"
And it wasn't just my friends or facebook friends.
No. That one picture - that social assumption - that facebook fire - spread to co-workers, former professors, old Sunday school teachers, distant relatives, loose acquaintances.... even this random encounter:
I was at home for a few days over spring break and in a local store. I saw a lady staring me down as I passed her in the aisle and when she followed me into the next aisle, she asked: "You're that girl from facebook, the one with the ring picture, right?"
No lie.
Blushing a bit, I owned up to it and said, "Yep, that's me." Turns out she is my facebook friend but I cannot even remember why; she owns another store in town and I think I liked her facebook page to try and win a giveaway or something like that. I definitely do not know her well at all. BUT that bling was bright enough to catch her eye and even she took note of it long enough to recognize me days later in passing. Wow.
One. Little. Ring.
Who knew it could make that big of an impact.
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They always say a picture is worth a thousand words... but they never said if those words were fact or fiction ;)
They also say, never to assume because when you do, you make an a$$ out of me and you.
Seems that is quite the case. My facebook friends fell for my photo of a fake engagement but now I'm pretty sure I'm going to deal with explaining it for quite some time ;)
