Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Guest Blogger: Passive Aggressive Notes.com

By Kelsey Moon










I’m not a very confrontational person. If I had my way everyone would get along and everything would always be sunshine and flowers. Unfortunately things don’t usually work out that way, but I have a hard time letting people know when something they’re doing is bothering me. In such cases I am frequently tempted to resort to that paragon of passive aggression: The Note.


Just a quick jot on a sticky pad or a piece of notebook paper stuck to the fridge, filled with all the biting sarcasm you can’t bring yourself to express to the recipient’s face, perhaps even adroitly hidden under a layer of innocent sweetness. It’s the perfect way to communicate frustration, except for one problem. They usually don’t go over very well. In fact, the passive-aggressive note almost always makes the person at whom it is directed even less inclined to do whatever it is you want them to do.

I have realized this and do my best to avoid writing them, no matter how tempting it may be. However, there are apparently plenty of people who embrace the temptation open-armed, because there is a website entirely devoted to documenting such zingers left by frustrated people around the office, the apartment, or any other shared space. The voyeuristic feeling I get while browsing Passive Aggressive Notes.com reminds me a bit of PostSecret or Found, but who doesn’t delight in laughing at other people’s problems?

Some of the notes submitted are intentionally amusing, some are unintentionally hilarious, and others are just strange, as in the case of a girl who came home to find her roommate had employed the blitzkrieg approach and had left 11 nasty (and grammatically baffling) notes around their apartment demanding that she clean up her "dirty."

What a fantastic site. It is a perfect perfect place for reveling in other people’s tactlessness while providing an outlet for one’s own uncivil desires. So now I can both indulge my passive-aggressive urges and keep my friendships!

6 comments:

Kat said...

I so wish that I had photos of some of my past experiences with notes like these.

This website is sheer brilliance. Thank you for this post, Kelsey.

Anonymous said...

I stayed up way to late reading these notes. This site is pretty awesome.

I think this guest blogger is in my Mass Communications class with Dr. James. The name sounds familiar...

Kelsey said...

Yes, I am in Dr. J's class with you. I don't think we've met, but I remember seeing your name on Pipeline. If you're facing the front of the classroom I'm on the far right end of the first row.

Jeremy said...

I've spent way too much times on this site as well. Over the past few days I've worked my way through the archives to May 31, 2007. It stays open in Firefox constantly and I read a couple whenever I have a spare moment.

Anonymous said...

I sit on the second row, almost to the far left. Which suits my political ideology quite well.

Kelsey said...

Ha. Well, if I chose my seat to match my political views I'd probably be closer to the middle, but I might just end up sitting on the floor. ;)