Sweet 16
SYDNEY, Australia-
I think I noted it in a prior StrangeRush.com post that I’m not really into the whole Facebook thing. I know how effective and vital it is for “social networking” with those people who need to be networked with……and that is why I will be working on improving the current StangeRush.com Facebook (and Twitter) fan pages in the near future.
So when it comes to Facebook, there’s no denying the power of the “Social Network.” Anyone whose seen the movie the Social Network understands the global influence of the largest networking website in universe. Millions of people worldwide use Facebook on a daily basis to announce the goings-on of their daily lives. Millions (and eventually billions) of people use sites like Facebook, Myspace, and Evite to send out party announcements for free………I know, I know, Myspace is so 2007, but it still has to be worth at least a couple million bucks, right?
In Sydney, Australia a teenage girl used her Facebook account to send out an announcement for some of her classmates for her, once in a lifetime, “Sweet 16” birthday party. She put the time and date of the her party and her address and stated in the announcement that she didn’t have time to send it our to all her friends individually, but that they could bring friends as long as they notified her ahead of time. She declared it was an “open-house party, as long as it didn’t get out of hand.” Her initial concern was whether anyone would show up at all.
Luckily for the young lady and her family, the party never had the chance to get out of hand, but it definitely would have had it not been canceled. Somehow the Facebook invite went (a little) viral and within 24-hours of the original announcement, 20,000 people had replied that they would attend. That was when the girl’s father got involved and contacted authorities and making sure the notice was removed from the site, then he officially canceled the fiesta of the year……boo, what a party pooper!!!
If you are breathing a sigh of relief for this young lady, wondering where 20,000 people would have parked and how her house and neighborhood would have looked hosting thousands of people (obviously that was never going to happen)……….well, that was just the beginning. Several days after the announcement hit the “Social Network,” 200,000 people had officially RSVPed that they would be there (Now, that’s a whole lotta Aussies, mate). And remember, that’s 200,000 people who HAD the birthday girl’s address from the original invite announcement.
It was noted by police that anyone who showed up at the location looking for a party would only find police officers patrolling the area.
The moral of the story: Don’t put your address on Facebook, or any social network for that matter…….especially when you’re only Sweet 16.
