My sister in-law picked a fight with me. No provocation. Just wound up and hit me with a big, nasty leather pillow. Highly unusual behavior from her. She’s a grandmother for cryin’ out loud. So I retaliated. Smacked her right in the Facebook. The Pillow Fight War of 2008 had begun.
Pillow Fight is a Facebook application that encourages…well, I’m not sure what it encourages. It may just be electronic silliness, but it got me thinking. What was originally the domain of the Millenials has quickly become a part of day to day interaction among those of us who have a little more life experience (or more than a little more).
The interesting thing is the difference in how we use it. Rather than a “here’s-what-I’m-experiencing-this-very-second” stream of consciousness, we treat it more like an electronic bulletin board. Or digital Post-It notes on a universal fridge.
Pictures of high school classmates at their kids’ weddings. Vacations. Reunions. Dog training tips. Birthday reminders. Lists of wines that go with beef jerky. And pillow fights, of course.
Makes me wonder how we’ll use it in thirty or forty years. Maybe something like this:
http://www.straightfrommybrain.com/pages/right/pensionbook.html
By the way, my official Facebook ranking is: Pillow Ninja.
Beware the night.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I think it’s great that you’re bringing an old person’s viewpoint to the topic of Facebook.
Wait… that came out wrong…
But, seriously, what’s interesting about what you bring up is Facebook’s viability as an application framework. When connecting to new people or reconnecting with old people isn’t your focus, Facebook makes itself interesting by giving you something to do unrelated to making those friendships. You can raise a virtual pet, create a virtual army, or hit someone with a virtual pillow.
I love this post because in talking about the “what are you doing” now feature of facebook with some of my friends, who are typically older than 24, their common response is “who care? my life is not interesting enough to post anything about what I am doing.” Its a great perspective to note that people in varying stages use these mediums differently.
I’m still laughing at the banner ad for Werther’s Originals…