The notification said I'd been tagged in a post, which was intriguing at first.
Once I saw what it was, however, I felt rather unenthused. And for that, I felt guilty almost immediately.
I sat back in my chair and sighed. It's not that I didn't appreciate being thought of, I just... well, those types of "pass it on" posts aren't usually my jam. I've seen them circulate on every social media platform since Myspace. Maybe it was once a way to connect with people, but these days it feels like engagement bait. Which, it is; to be blunt.
My eye twitched as I read it again.
It thanked the person who nominated them and then listed a response to the pass-it-on prompt: what's the 4 word story of what you write about?
I scrolled up to read what others had come up with. Then words started popping into my head. Ugh. They wouldn't work anyway—they were adjectives, which made the sentence read like a list instead of a story.
Wow this is actually a bit harder than I'd have thought...
So I leaned forward and started typing, backspacing, and typing some more. With a self-satisfied grin, I re-read what I'd come up with:
Be curious, become capable.
Not bad.
I hovered over the "post" button before finally clicking it. I returned my attention to what I was working on, but still kept an eye out for any incoming responses from the people I tagged when I passed it on.
Are you an "I'll play" or a "skip me" kind of person?
onward.
For more on this daily column and The MAP Year Project, read the backstory here. And if you know someone who'd appreciate this, pass it along.