'I Like It On' Facebook Status Update Goes Viral: What It Means

"I like it on the floor," "I like it on the couch," "I like it on my desk" ... you may have seen some of these Facebook status updates today.

But what is "it"?

It is for "purse." The Washington Post's Melissa Bell explains:

[W]omen are posting where they like to keep their purses when they come home, but they conveniently leave out the word "purse."

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and the "I like it on" trend is an attempt for women to unite around that cause in a top secret way. The idea is figuratively to leave men in the dark.

This isn't the first time a Facebook status update has gone viral. Less than a year ago, the bra color Facebook status update went viral, also in support of raising breast cancer awareness. Another famous viral status update was "Sometimes I just want to copy," which spread on both Twitter and Facebook.

Comments

[Wes Steffen]

11:54 PM on 12/01/2010

holy hell its only talking about people playing xbox 360/PS3 there only talking about where they game

[Gribnoy]

06:05 AM on 11/04/2010

Also read intresting article about "Like" button - http://moo.bz/XaUI9S

[princess78]

10:24 AM on 11/04/2010

no beacuse some people do not

[Angelina Gomez]

10:37 PM on 10/11/2010

http://safesexideas.com did an article about this earlier this month...stay informed people!

[Angelina Gomez]

10:37 PM on 10/11/2010

safesexideas.com did an article about this earlier this month...stay informed people!

[Isaac Fishman]

02:53 AM on 10/09/2010

Does this going viral have anything to do with today's chat problems? This has become a catastrophic problem with far-reaching implications...

http://hollywoodunderground23.blogspot.com

[timPac]

06:57 PM on 10/08/2010

i like it on the front lawn. in the middle of the day.

[Keith Reavis]

06:18 PM on 10/08/2010

I just really want a "dislike" option.

[Barbara Saunders]

05:32 PM on 10/08/2010

I'm confused. Although many of my friends thought it was silly, I get the connection between the bras and the breasts. This one is a non sequitur.

[Tom Langley]

05:30 PM on 10/08/2010

Why would a "Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign" be structured to leave men in the dark. The disease is increasingly common among men, and oh by the way, every woman I know who had breast cancer had a husband / partner standing beside her all the way. This gender baiting stuff is strictly silly, infantile baggage.

[Barbara Saunders]

05:38 PM on 10/08/2010

I generally agree - but: Single women (and men) get cancer, too. And, according to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, a female patient is SIX TIMES more likely to be divorced after a diagnosis of certain life-threatening diseases than a male patient while the divorce rate actually was lower for couples with a sick man than for couples in the general population.

[BoganJerkosovic]

03:46 AM on 10/09/2010

From that, I might conclude that women who realize they're going to die become chronically dissatisfied with what they've achieved in their lives, and then blame their level of contentment on the people around them rather than themselves. Men facing death might tend to place higher value on their families, or consider ``I've got few chances left to become someone I can respect.''

I suspect you've got a different conclusion in mind than my mysogynist one, and I'm not sure which of ours I find more convincing. I'm just saying, mysonymy-bating observations like this don't actually do anything to get inside a relationship and understand what's going on there, though if you find it soothing to hate men for some reason you might take comfort in them.

At least among all people regardless of health, divorce is initiated by the woman overwhelmingly more often (about double, i think), and this imbalance starts precisely in the year when the law was changed to allow alimony and splitting of assets in ``irreconcilable differences'' divorce cases but not before. This statistical portrait's a little more intimate, and it's not pretty. I think, if you are a woman and want to play gender-baiting games, you'll end up less frustrated if you avoid the topic of divorce.

[Jeany]

05:20 PM on 10/08/2010

Personally? I hang it, I have a special place for it.

Oh, and this topic is closely associated with KEYS, at least in my house.

[selenasade]

05:04 PM on 10/08/2010

This is a stupid idea. I am no prude but it disgusted me. I wouldn't dream of posting it as a status.

[Mary Hanna]

04:08 PM on 10/08/2010

Useless..

i mean if they really wanted to keep the men in dark then they wouldnt have posted this article..

[Wes1]

04:06 PM on 10/08/2010

The endless bombardment of point of sale and other forms of cancer donations are nothing short of a way to get your money. Yeah, like it's going to actually cure cancer, that dollar you just gave while getting tampons at Duane Reade? No, it's not going to do anything but line someone's pocket. The brainwashing continues.....

Cancer, whether it be drugs, or the dream of curing it, is a for-profit enterprise.

[selenasade]

05:06 PM on 10/08/2010

I agree with you. Well said!

[Pambie]

03:45 PM on 10/08/2010

Hard to not be aware ... being faced with the color PINK at every turn.

[Wes1]

03:19 PM on 10/08/2010

"Raising awareness"? I'm pretty sure everyone is quite "aware" of all types of cancer. Unfortunately, it's not going away anytime soon. Cancer is simply nature's reaction to our own advancements in medicine that have left the Earth with a human race hell-bent on draining all its resources. Good luck curing cancer...it's not going to happen. People want it all...but they can't have it. There are consequences to everything. Humans, are essentially like little cancer cells on this planet. It would be better for the Earth if we were gone. You can vilify me for this, if it makes you feel better about yourself.