#NationalBestFriendDay: Social Media Campaign to Recognize Best Friends (because the whole world needs to know, not just them)

Well dear readers, on this, my last blog post for my class, I must admit, I'm kinda going to miss it. It's been fun ranting and raving my thoughts on here for you to see, and I'll actually be a bit sad once it's over. However, it's not quite over yet; I do have one more....

So, this morning as I logged into Facebook, I noticed its top trend was actually a hashtag, which kind of threw me off. Facebook does use hashtags, but not nearly as much as Twitter, who invented the concept and has pretty much cornered the market on it. That's why it is slightly unusual to see one of Facebook's top trends as a hashtag event, rather than a more "newsly" (is that a word?) event, such as something political or controversial. Upon further investigation into the subject (and by that I mean clicking on the trend link to get a description) I was able to figure out why Facebook was so eagerly utilizing the hashtag on this of all days. Both Facebook and Twitter are taking part in this #NationalBestFriendDay trend, self-identifying it as a "social media campaign" which basically means they're taking the lead on this, and both promoting and expanding member usage throughout the day; even those who are once-a-weekers when it comes to Facebook are taking to their pages to show some love for their BFFs, because they're terrified of being left out of the trend (after all, it is only a one day thing)

 On Facebook...


 and Twitter.


Amazing how crazy one little trend can make us, isn't it? I logged into my Facebook at 11 am, and already hundreds of thousands of people had posted about their best friends with the hashtag. Not only that, but several of my own friends had flooded my news feed with pictures of them and their besties, along with several large paragraphs going on to explain why exactly the love them. And I guess I shouldn't make fun - I fully intend to do the same thing when I've finished this post, but it's just the concept of how quickly a trend can spead. It's like wildfire.

And to make it easier for us (in case we're unable to post paragraphs upon paragraphs about our besties) other sites are making it easier for us. In an article titled "20 Best Friend Day Quotes to Share on Social Media and Text", the iDigitalTimes literally outlines a handful of quotes you can text to your best friend, or post alongside any embarrassing pictures you might put up on social media with them from years ago. It's crazy; now if you can't think of anything to say, the internet will find a way to say it for you. And despite that some people just don't have a way with words, they all still want to take part in this, because it is a trend that will be over and gone before they know it - and god forbid they be one of the only people that didn't do it, especially when their best friend did it for them. That can definitely cause some tension, and the claws will come out...

Meowww,
  - Robyn

P.S. Here is that picture of me and my best friend, as promised, despite not having a giant paragraph next to it -- no words are needed for this guy. The best snuggle buddy ever :) Miss you Lambeau!