FML. I know you have all looked at it. Laughed at it. Maybe even posted one yourself. If not, at least you know what it is.

So, why do we read FML? It’s funny. It’s painful (but not for us). And sometimes we’ve been there, right? It’s called schadenfreude, a German term, which, according to my friends from musical “Avenue Q,” means “making me feel glad that I’m not you.”

Does all this sound familiar? It probably does. That’s because schadenfreude is nothing new. People have been laughing at others forever. But there’s a new fad stemming from this old sentiment. What I’m talking about is the other side of it, where it’s not just one person laughing at something he or she sees. On a Web site like FML, each person is posting his own misfortune for the world to read. Each person wants others to take pleasure in his or her pain.

It seems kind of counter-intuitive. When someone trips, many people would brush themselves off, carefully look around and breathe a sigh of relief that nobody saw it. Now, these same people run to their computers and post a story about it for the world to read.

This phenomena of putting ourselves out there is not so new either. Take the “Real World” series for example. People voluntarily sign up to party, have sex and throw up on screen. Not exactly humble. Or healthy for the participant’s—or the viewer’s—self-esteem.

That’s why with FML, our Internet world has made a breakthrough. My point? People are realizing that their own pain is funny. So they’re sharing it in a healthy way. They’re anonymously letting others laugh at them as a way of laughing at themselves. It’s great! It makes people more amiable. It makes situations less embarrassing. It makes people happier as a whole.

This whole FML phenomenon is a confidence boost. People of the computer age are now learning to laugh at themselves and to let others laugh at them. Maybe the sharing makes the situation more comfortable. The situation suddenly doesn’t seem as terrible when it’s made someone else happy, does it?

In a world where we share our interests, favorite movies and relationship status with everyone we know (and some we don’t), it’s not too much crazier to anonymously share our embarrassment so others can enjoy a schadenfreude moment.

And from the other side of the fence, sure it’s rude to laugh at someone else’s misfortune, but it’s only human nature. Plus, they posted it, so it’s okay to let it bring a smile to your face.

So, excuse me while I read the latest posts and smile at our human foibles.