TIFFI’S FRIENDS SAY…

Not too long ago, we received an email from what appears to be a long time reader. Our reader calling him/herself “Terry” writes….

I remember a few years ago, you had a (column) called “Tiffi’s Friends Say”. It was about somebody who you placed on Facebook, and the things that her online friends would say about her. What because of Tiffi, and are her friends still talking about her?

As we stated, we don’t know what the gender of Terry is, so short of calling Terry an “it”, we’ll address our long time fan to the best of this writer’s ability using a “he”, “she”, and/or its equivalents.

Yes, we did have such a column called “Tiffi’s Friends Say..” We started to post that column around c. 2010 around the time when Facebook was a place to post one’s ideas and thoughts for all to read, aassuming you were “friends” with the others you “friended” through notes, paragraphs, as well as a photo and/or an image that was worth sharing.

We had an idea at that time to see how others would react to a person on Facebook that in reality, didn’t exist. We were not out to fraud or mislead others for devious purposes. We just did it just to see if it was quite possible to get personal information from others without specifically asking for it.

So we created a few personalities with names, locations made up, as well as using stock photos of pictures of people found through various sources we had access to at the time. Then we created these personalities while attempting to become “friends” with others. A few we never heard from, but many were willing enough to become “friends” without knowing if these personalities we created were indeed for real.

Out of the few we kept track of, we focused upon one person we named “Tiffi Purewhite”. “Tiffi” was a middle aged woman (perhaps in her 50’s) that lived in a small town in southern Illinois-Carbondale. She was a typical, if not stereotypical, person from the Midwest, somebody that was gentle, faithful, and held a sweet persona.

Over time and tide, Tiffi generated some 2500+ “friends” from around North America. (US and Canada mostly) that were of the same personality as Tiff, mostly middle aged white women. (No offense to not being as diverse as we could, since this was an experiment, not anything that dealt in diversity.)

To make a long(er) story short(er), we read some of the entries posted by Tiffi’s “friends” over time and tide as they had their say in what was important to them, yet trivial to anyone else. So we collected some of these lines and created this column letting everyone know what was on the mind of the friends that Tiffi collected.

To give you an idea of what some of her online buddies had to say, here are some random phrases extracted from Tiffi’s Facebook site (or “wall” as it was called) as collected during the 2013 calendar year…

It’s after 3 am. My neck hurts. I remember how I used to be able to tell the weather with my hair. It’s naturally curly and it would go into spiraled frizz mode during rainy weather. I thought that was a pain until I was introduced to Rheumatoid arthritis.

-Diane

Hey 80’s kids, what movie was I thinking of while waiting at the curb to spring my son out of high school on a beautiful spring day? (Okay, it was for an appt, but you get the idea.)

-Gwendolyn

Hi all–Anyone still have a land line phone at home?

-Kathleen

Super sad. Schnitzel, 1week old kitten, didn’t make it. No kitty on my radar. 😦

-Angela

Bruised some ribs. Wearing back brace today. So thankful to have this aid to help me keep going. What’s going on with you?

-Janet

The house in Charlotte is sold! Hallelujah!

-Barbara

Hours on the phone. Insurance still comes up as “ineligible.” So not getting in tomorrow like I had hoped.

-Susan

I hooked my computer to my TV. Now I can sit in bed and see your pictures and play my games on a 44 inch screen. Pretty neat.

-Terry

Mary called to tell us she is going to be inducted into the college National Honor Society! So proud of my girl!!! WOOT!

-Pam

Made meatloaf, green beans, and brewed some ice tea before I went to Mom’s this afternoon. What does my husband ask me? “Are we having company?” LOL.

-Ann

It is insanely stupid how happy a bag of Skittles can make me.

-Romona

Does anyone realize how many truly strange people there are at airports?

-Bonnie

Yesterday I was taking books from the top of 4 shelves and found a couple I haven’t read! Well, the living room is full if scattered games, books and boxes but the pile to give away isn’t very big! What should I do with all the author signed books? We have old records and a sound system that barely works. My hubby likes to hold on to things. Sigh. Not sure how much I can get rid of!

Well it’s one of those all day rains so I will drink my coffee and continue to READ!;)

-Janyce

When your kiddos are fighting over who gets to clean up the spill, you know grandma’s been in the house! Thanks, Carolyn …I’ll try to keep up the trend for at least…well…today. 😉

-Nicole

Would a seven-year-old say they slept good or slept well?

-Andrea

1. Go to airport.

2. Splatter coffee on blouse.

-Tamela

6 days. 14 pounds. BAM.

-Sandie

So what became of Tiff herself? Well, we decided to end this experiment due to the fact that Facebook was starting to be too commercial and added a lot of extras, most notably Facebook Live, where using one’s cell phone can present an audio and video stream, almost like a “live” video hookup. Much of this service was created by others for fun and thrills, while others used it for questionable purposes.

So Tiffi stopped collecting “friends”, as well as posting her own comments. From what we can find, the last entry she posted was on January 1st, 2018, letting everyone know that she can be reached through an outside email address that we created.

A few weeks after we placed our post, we somehow lost the password to get into Tiffi’s account and we never bothered recovering it. So through that blunder, we just left Tiffi out there to defend for herself.

And yes, Tiffi’s Facebook presence is still available to view. Just look her up using the link https://www.facebook.com/tiffi.purewhite. If you do post anything, just remember that Tiffi won’t respond. However, her “birthday” falls on March 17th, and many of her remaining friends will place a birthday greeting. So wish Tiffi a happy b-day if you want! She will appreciate it!! (Really!!)

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