By Wesley Wong
One of the more interesting phenomenons of the Internet is the proliferation
of creative sites created by individuals about their personal life.
Many of these have attracted a cult following simply through emails
that have been forwarded from friend to friend. These initial sparks
of creativity are then picked up by other members of the digital community,
who create Flash animations of MP3's based on the original site. One
of these sites is www.psychoexgirlfriend.com,
which claims to get 750,000 hits per day.
The site is the creation of a guy named Mark, whose relationship
with an older woman turned sour, and bitter arguing between the two
ensued. He warns visitors, "run, don't walk, from a psychotic
woman". The primary focus of the site are the 50 or so voicemails
that the woman, or PEG (Pyscho Ex-Girlfriend), left him. Judging from
the timestamps on the voicemails, many of them were left in quick
succession without giving Mark a chance to respond. As I listened
to the voicemails, I got addicted. First, they were hilarious, and
the woman, who you find difficulty sympathizing with given the name
of the site, is hysterical and outrageous. In one voicemail, the woman
screams over the phone how she is going to the hospital because she
is overcome with grief. In another, she is frustrated that she once
again is unable to reach Mark, and yells at him for ignoring her and
then concludes that he must be out "boozing it up on his own".
Anyone who has been in a difficult and turbulent romantic relationship
will immediately recognize the tone and phrases present in these voicemails.
In that sense, the site is therapeutic and other men out there who
have PEG's will take comfort in the fact that they are not alone.
Judging from the heavily populated message boards, and the sites huge
following, there are many of such men out there.
The design of the site is very basic, and a navigation bar on the
left takes the user to various sections of the website. Beyond the
voicemails and message board, there is an online test to see if your
girlfriend is psycho, and a T-shirt store selling shirts. The shirts
are based on the voicemails, and one of them features a bunch of guys
sitting around drinking, with one asking, "What do you do when
you girlfriend goes psycho?" and another guy responds, "Simple.
You booze it up." Like all quality grassroots sites, the content
has spread to other areas on the Internet. For example, MP3.com features
several techno tracks that sample portions of the voicemails (http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/241/psycho_ex_girlfriend.html).
Unfortunately, beyond the message board, much of the site appears
to be static, so after one visit, users are unlikely to return. Nonetheless,
www.psychoexgirlfriend.com
represents a truly creative way of dealing with a traumatic relationship
that would otherwise be impossible over other media. In addition,
the creator is maintaining two important traditions of the Internet:
anonymity and helping others through sharing.