As of late, I have been intrigued by the newfound power of social networking. I read a story about where a smart Brit had an idea to flash mob a London Underground station. A flash mob is where tons of people suddenly assemble, perform an odd action, and then disperse.
His idea was a silent disco, inspired by a T-Mobile commercial. At first he had only invited a few friends, but many more people accepted the event and in turn, invited their friends. Eventually thousands of people showed up at the station.
Pretty insane, right? Of course, massive Facebook organized events don’t only occur in London. Right here in Middletown events are planned through Facebook to appreciate teachers, wear crazy clothing or simply to see how many people the event can reach.
After I read that article, I wondered if I could ever start a crazy fad like that. The thought came up again later. My friend Katie Bottenhorn lives in Florida; although we only see each other once in a while, we keep up through Facebook. Katie showed me a picture of a giant Oreo tower.
The tower had 40 layers of stuffing sandwiched between two crisps. As we talked about how stunning the photo is, I realized it would be a cool idea to have an Oreo Tower Day. Within 5 minutes, our Facebook page was posted and people began to reply.
Our plan was random, unnecessary and frivolous. In other words, it was the perfect idea for an odd Facebook event. Our goal, simply, was to have people all over the world making Oreo Towers.
Since we have different social circles in different states, we are able to reach a wide variety of people. So, after we set the time and date of the event as March 9, 2009, as well as entering a tiny description, we began inviting our guests.
I clicked every person on my friends list who would appreciate the immense frivolity of the joke, which in the end came out to about 200 people. After finally sending all of the invitations, I left for an hour to do homework.
When I came back, I found that my results were a mixed bag. On one hand, we already had 50 people attending. However, we had forty people who declined, and about twenty maybes. This is standard for Facebook events; however, it seemed that all of the people who accepted were Katie’s friends. The “no” pile was almost completely comprised of my friends.
At first, I couldn’t comprehend exactly why Oreo Tower Day was failing to capture interest in Maryland. After all, I had always thought that Oreo’s were a beloved brand of cookies.
After talking to my friends, I realized this was not the case. I had never realized that all of my friends hated Oreo’s. I got many replies along the lines of “as fun as it sounds, it seems a little disgusting,” and “I don’t like Oreo’s…yuck.”
However, the Floridians accepted the requests in droves. Everyone who made a comment on the event from Florida was extremely positive. Remarks such as “This will be SOOO tight,” and the like appeared continuously, making me disappointed in my home state.
After a few days, both the “attending” and “not attending” file had reached the 100 person line. The numbers on both sides expand exponentially.
Even though I did not witness the amount of success I had hoped for, I truly realized the power of social networking. At this moment there are one-hundred and twenty people who have accepted the event and two-hundred who have not.
One hundred years ago, an average person reaching that many people that easily would be completely impossible. So, in that light, I suppose Oreo Tower Day is a success, no matter how many Marylanders dislike Oreo’s.