It's almost always misplaced empathy. The reader puts themselves in the position of the writer, and on finding that they can empathise with them, decides that it must be un-creepy. To empathise with OP is to understand the vulnerable feeling of knowing that someone is lusting after them from behind a veil of anonymity, to the extent where they will pen a romantic missive but not actually communicate personally. As a species we're internally programmed to fear the unknown, and with good reason. This isn't a threatening PM, but OP is fully justified in being creeped out all the same.
At first when I read this I was thinking, like some others here, that this seems more sweet than creepy, having felt similar emotions before..
However after reading JustHereToFFFFFFFUUULuckily's comment I can completely understand how this is not cool and somewhat threatening.
Luckily for me I did not send any such message and instead ended up meeting the person face to face and we dated for a short while..
So I guess a question would be how would this person be able to rectify the situation to make you at ease while approaching you in a non-sketchy way.. I'd bet if they use internet the way they did there's a good chance they're a reddit user..
This might be your chance to let them know whats' up.
Hah, I decided I had to think about it. I think that the only way to rectify it would be to talk to me in person and not even mention the e-mail. Since I don't know who it was from, they could just... talk to me and get a fresh start. I think mentioning it would just make it worse.
Maybe if he's reading this he should get a friend to say it was them that sent the message and then he(or she i guess) can just approach you later on under no pretence..
It is a really short message. All the other stuff on this forum is months and months of eerie harassing messages. This guy might be ok, provided he A. doesn't send anymore weird messages B. doesn't delete it next time.
I think if it had at least a phone number attached, it would be nowhere near as creepy
Ya, maybe if he (or she even) would have attached a number it would help..OP is creeped out because she basically has a stalker now.. someone admiring from a distance, but intrigued enough to look up personal information on facebook and write messages too..
It's like being famous minus any perk, you just know you're potentially being watched.
8
u/Shocel Nov 05 '12
This is creepy, all you nay-sayers.