The other night I was watching American Dad, and the show mentioned a section of craigslist called "missed encounters." I had never heard of it before, but the description given on the show made it sound like someone would post if they met someone in public and then wanted to somehow gain contact with them again. It seemed desperate sounding at first, and overly optimistic that the person who you are trying to contact with will actually read it. And then, if the person isn't completely disturbed, you would be lucky if they even bothered to reply. The creator of this section of Craigslist probably envisioned a romantic side of it, someone seeing the love of their life and trying to pursue them and get their attention, only to miss them slightly. With no way to contact them, they write an entry into the "missed encounters" section and hope somehow they will find the one they were looking for. I mustered up the courage to open up Craigslist, which itself is very sketchy looking. The entire site is void of any kind of color scheme or design, all you see is a page full of links.
While "missed encounters" does serve this purpose, the actual results are both creepy and hilarious.
ASSUMPTIONS
The author could potentially be a normal guy, someone who would choose a coffee shop for lunch as opposed to some sort of fast food restaurant. Of course, this is just me speculating and trying to interpret every possible emotion in these strange messeges. Obviously he isn't a normal person in the first place if he was too afraid to talk to this poor woman and instead preferred summoning her online.
WHERE IT TURNS CREEPY
Although this post ranks mild on the creepy scale, some of the language used would put me off if I was the lady in question and came across this post. "...but a didn't see a ring." Its normal to be curious and maybe take a glance at the woman's finger to see her marital status, but making a comment about it is strange behavior. Something about the way he mentions them "locking eyes" makes me think he is some sort of strange hopeless romantic.
PERCENT CONNECTED WITH REALITY
50%
Aside from the deduction for even using the "missed encounters" section of craigslist, the writer is at least aware that the woman probably doesn't frequent craigslist. He ends with "worth a shot.". You can hear the sadness in his voice when he admits defeat with this line.
ASSUMPTIONS
Desperation. This guy was driving down the street and decided that the pedestrian he passed would be an ideal mate, as opposed to trying to contact someone he was actually within earshot of.
WHERE IT TURNS CREEPY
The whole thing is creepy. This is a prime example of what is disturbing about 'missed encounters', you can just express your feelings for complete strangers. The internet is full of weird things like this, but a mainstream website like Craigslist really brings attention to how scary some people in society are. You could be walking down the street and without knowing it some stranger could write an ode to their love for you.
PERCENT CONNECTED WITH REALITY
20%
He tries to identify the woman with slightly more specific details about her than the previous post. This guy obviously has to be a little lost if he thinks this woman walking down the street would be appealed by knowing some guy driving by while she was walking wrote this all about her. Basically, everything posted on this website gives you a whiff of what delusion must truly be like, living in a world where you can choose your partner of the street either out of complete ignorance that she knows you exists or desperation to such a degree that everyone you encounter (or see in the rear view mirror of your '98 Ford Taurus)
ASSUMPTIONS
Oh, good lord. This is the post I originally encountered that inspired my desire to write about this topic for my AP Lang blog. This kind of mortifying stupidity makes me scared of the general public. Somewhere, not too far away (unfortunately) the person who constructed this post is walking the earth, leaving ambiguous missed encounters that tell you everything about the poster without any details about them written. This person is somewhere else, man.
WHERE IT TURNS CREEPY
It never turned creepy. It was born this way. Lets break it down now:
"you were with your kid."
To analyze this to death and then (is beating the dead horse an acceptable idiom?) beating the dead horse by trying to convince you its even creepier than you thought before, the image that plays in my mind is some poor , disturbed gentlemen glaring from afar at some unfortunate woman with her child, unaware this predator is lurking in the background.
"..so I didn't introduce myself..."
The composer lacks the social skills to go up to the (unfortunate)person he is interested in and introduce himself like how a functional member of society should do. Instead, he chose to just linger and watch the woman get a good old-fashioned American meal for her and her child and then express his interest for her on Craigslist.
"...if your single email me."
Well first, the improper use of "your" is a pet peeve of mine, so some lack of formal education of the composer is implied. What is missing from this desperate and completely unlikely to be successful attempt at contacting this woman is an actual description of her beyond she was "with her kid". The odds of the composer coming in contact with the woman are slim to none. First, in the unlikelihood that some woman would be intrigued by this post and reply, the chance still remains that it isn't the woman he is looking for, as the only qualifying characteristic is that they were with their kid at this McDonalds at an unspecified time. Then again, I'm sure any reply to this is good enough for the composer. McDonalds is the place to pick up chicks, ya know.
PERCENT CONNECTED WITH REALITY
None.
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