"I like it...."

Although I have incorporated Face book into almost every blog so far, there was a topic this week that I could not pass up. One night last week, I received a number of Facebook messages with the breast cancer "I Like it Campaign" challenge. In order to support breast cancer, the campaign was to send out a series of messages to all of your friends asking them to post where they like to hang their purses. That night, there were hundreds of statuses with the quote "I like it...... on my bed" or "In my car" etc. etc. Of course this was only the statuses' of women and it left many of the men on face book feeling very confused, as it alluded to a certain other activity. It was amazing to me how fast this trend caught on, and how many of my face book friends were actually posting their statuses as such. Many of the statuses I saw were meant to be funny or a joke, some were serious. And the more statuses there were, the more boys on Face book started to get fed up. One of my guy friend's status' read "If I see one more "I like it" status I'm going to kill myself". While a little extreme, the overload of status updates were starting to get annoying. I didn't really understand how posting such a telling status was professing your support of breast cancer, but I also figured that at least people were becoming more aware. The Times Newsfeed said ".. What exactly does provocatively saying where you like to keep your purse or bra have to do with a horrible disease that has challenged the lives of so many?". Regardless, the campaign was catching on, and gaining a lot of supporters, which is what social media is all about in our generation. The spread of news and information over the course of hours and the ability for this trend to catch on and create such a frenzy, gives light to the power of social networks. This article explains that the idea is to leave men in the dark and that the "I like it" trend is an attempt for women to unite around the cause in a top secret way. While some think that this demeans breast cancer, I think it is a clever way to raise awareness and there is no better way to spark people's interest than to start the trend via facebook.