Tag: SMH

What if Facebook was named something else?

I really can’t say it wouldn’t be as popular as it is if it was, it’s just that the name gives me the feeling it was chosen just before the executive team adjourned after eating breakfast…

“What about Facebook?”

“I should pay for your eggs all the time! Great name! I say we go with it.”

Ideas, names for companies, names for brands, names for bands…they just happen in the most unconventional settings and typically by accident or as an afterthought.

The reasons why things happen are not really because they’re meant to happen.

Things happen just because they do.

And we like to think we can exert some influence or control over them.

In fact, after something successful happens, instead of a rush to gold, there is a rush to take credit.

These are the kinds of things that get me shaking my head.

The way we were

As someone who is guilty of romanticizing Facebook, I am not ashamed that for the longest time I refused to look up the meaning of the acronym SMH.

I know we have Google and also less privacy-invasive search engines like Duck Duck Go (speaking of…how did they come up with that name?).

But, I digress.

Regarding SMH, I just wanted to get it, figure it out on my own.

I could have asked a friend, but again, I felt compelled to come up with it myself.

So, I began troubleshooting the way I always do.

I start throwing stuff up against the wall.

Shut My…

Head?

Shake My Horse?

Shut My Horse?

As you can see, I was feeling pretty confident about the M word being My.

Could the S word be Suck?

Shoot?

Shoot my horse?

Only if it was an act of kindness.

Steel my …

I was beginning to think even the My word for M was wrong at this point.

I felt the fact I was trying to figure it out on my own coincided with just about all of my Facebook friends using SMH in their various posts.

My troubleshooting SMH became an obsessive quest.

Blah blah blah SMH blah blah blah!

So continued all the posts from friends and some relatives too.

What the hell could SMH be?

It had evolved into a hipness thing as it seemed like everyone was using it.

I couldn’t continue

Usually when troubleshooting, if I don’t come to the answer easily, I feel my path to whatever it is I’m trying to troubleshoot has become too complex, too convoluted and not simple enough.

Once, while I was having a glass of wine, I thought I had it.

Stuff May Happen.

While that is a great guess, it obviously doesn’t get me shouting BINGO as it’s also not correct.

Strutting Might Happen.

Forget it. No matter what anyone may tell you, wine doesn’t really help you solve the mystery of certain acronyms.

Finally, I had reached the point of no return. I was going to have to enlist the aid of Google.

Before I did, I returned to my original thoughts about what else might Facebook have been called.

Hatebook?

Lovebook?

Politicsbook?

As I reached the end of my rope of frustration and as I was typing out SMH, I had an epiphany:

Shaking My Head Book!

Of course. And that’s all folks.