Aces Full of Links: Facebook Group Hysteria

October 31, 2009

Facebook Group Hysteria

Facebook is a place where you can join groups to tell people about things you like and dislike, things that you want and want to avoid. But group-joining is sometimes more than that. Facebook groups sometimes seek to cause change, usually by promising some effect for some critical number of followers. Witness these real Facebook groups:

If this group Reaches 500,000 members I will name my son Batman

Think of the children!

For Every 1,000 that join this group I will donate $1 for Darfur.

It's a worthy cause (er, what was the specific charity again) but I think my clicks are worth more than a tenth of a penny!

I love JESUS! If you love JESUS join this group.

Wait - you wouldn't be exploiting people's religious beliefs just to see how many people will join your group, would you? No.

If a billion people join this group Mark is allowed to get a Labrador

I dunno, Leah. If you don't want Mark to get that Labrador, you might want to set the goal a little higher than a sixth of the world population.

Facebook: SWITCH BACK TO THE OLD NEWS FEED!!!

As far as Internet emphasis goes, three exclamation points is not all that many; however I'm pretty sure this cause doesn't even warrant that many.

Here are some groups that have yet to be created, but they are clearly inevitable:

If 5 people join this group, my wife will get off the couch and get me a beer
For every pi people who join this group, I will donate the square root of negative one dollars to mathematics education
If 666 people join this group, the Lord of Darkness will trade your souls for my 15 minutes of fame on a reality TV show
If billions of people join this group, McDonald's will bring back the McDLT!!!!!!!!!!!!
JOIN THIS GROUP IF YOU DON'T WANT ME TO PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE
If this group reaches 3,000,000 people, unicorns will be real

Posted by James at October 31, 2009 10:23 AM

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Comments

The Darfur one pisses me off -- if you believe in a cause, give as much as you can, regardless of how popular you are. If that person gets no new followers, will s/he not give a cent to the cause?

Posted by: Karen at October 31, 2009 11:54 AM

That's also my general feeling about things like this: if you're going to give, just give. There is the possibility of raising some awareness with a Facebook group, but I doubt it really generates much interest.

Involvement means more than clicking a "join" button.

Posted by: James at October 31, 2009 2:01 PM

It also points somewhat to the credulity of people. "If 1 million join this group, Facebook promises to change back to the old feed!" Seems unlikely, but because it says it on the screen, people just click and believe.

Posted by: briwei at November 2, 2009 12:11 PM