Today, my mom had my girlfriend and I over. Out of the blue, she pulled out my grandmother’s wedding ring and gave it to me saying I can now propose. My girlfriend started screaming and said yes. I have been seeing someone else for 3 months and was going to break up with my girlfriend tomorrow. FML.

Apart from the initial laughter one may experience after reading this, it isn’t really that funny to begin with. FML — what in the world does that mean?

Well, up until a week ago, I honestly had no idea what that acronym stood for — let alone that it had an entire Web site dedicated to people claiming their lives were terrible.

The Web site fmylife.com is a blog-like Web site that allows anyone with Internet access and a story to tell to post anything they want. These stories apparently require an “FML” at the end.

So why is it necessary to create a Web site designed for people to complain about everyday occurrences for thousands of others to read for enjoyment?

Perhaps I don’t understand this peculiar craze among people. Upon visiting this Web site this past weekend, I realized all the mediocre entertainment this site has to offer.

Sure, I may have laughed at a couple of the entries, but I found the entire site to be disturbing, rather than a form of entertainment.

The site has a few more added features for those of you with a sick sense of humor. In addition to the site’s disturbing subtitle, “My life sucks and I don’t give a f—,” the site also allows for individual entries to be rated.

With tabs at the top of the site reading: Top FML, Flop FML, Random FML, etc., this site relies on the readers to rank individual submissions in order to see who has the worst life.

Underneath each submission, you can vote for two different categories: “I agree your life is f—ed,” or “You deserved that one.” Certainly if I were the one posting my own story of misery, I wouldn’t want to know that I deserved it or that someone thought my life was terrible too.

It’s conceivable that the entry you find particularly hilarious could very well be posted by someone who suffers from depression — and that mini-paragraph is their call to anyone who will maybe understand where they’re coming from.

But instead, you laugh at their momentary misery, then show that paragraph to your friends as you all enjoy a good laugh.

Depression affects about 10 percent of the population, or approximately 19 million Americans in a given year. With only 20 percent of those seeking treatment, it’s very possible that some of those use this site as a venue to anonymously share their pain.

Facebook statuses have changed from “John is at class” to “John is at class. FML.” Really? Is class, the list of chapters you need to read before 8 a.m., or the test you neglected to study for truly so terrible that it requires you to attach FML to the end?

We may use this site as a temporary form of entertainment as we wait for the next episode of The Real World to come on, or like Facebook, as a distraction from the mountains of homework we all have accumulated.

However, perhaps we use this as a way to make our day seem better in comparison. So you failed that test you never studied for, yeah, FML — we all get it. But instead of crying about it, we read about the guy who was cheating on his girlfriend and is now engaged against his will.

We all must feel just wonderful now, right? For some, like the cheating boyfriend, I felt no sympathy — but for others who wrote of their embarrassing moments, I did feel a slight tug on my heartstrings as I imagined my own reaction in that situation.

Instead of laughing in someone else’s misery, think about yourself in that situation. “Today, I was singing Alicia Keys in the shower and hitting the insanely high notes. My father ran into the bathroom and threw open the shower door, screaming. He thought I was wailing in pain. FML”

This girl must have known she was setting herself up to be a complete laughingstock to other people. Why would you do that? Maybe you’ve posted something on this Web site. I guarantee people were laughing at your misery.

Nobody should subject themselves to humiliation twice, and really that’s what all the users of this Web site are setting themselves up for, as they climb the ranks in the Top FML.

I would hope that many people would have the common sense not to participate in this Web site, because it really does have so many moral issues tied to it — especially with the voting.

Don’t voluntarily put your embarrassing stories out for everyone to laugh at, even if it’ll make their days better. Tagging FML on the end of everything isn’t necessary, because I’m sure your day isn’t really that bad, and never was to begin with. Pick yourself off the ground after you tripped, and leave the story for your friends, rather than the thousands of people.

— Justine Hain is a freshman in pre-journalism and mass communication and Spanish from Rochester, Minnesota.