Goodbye Bush, Hello Obama – 124,000 People Agree to Meet & Do Nothing

I am still trying to get my head around this phenomenon. Through Facebook I was invited to the Goodbye Bush! – Hello Obama! event. I thought, hmm, I get a fair share of odd Facebook pokes, drinking requests, and notifications. But this Obama thing was a first for me.

My next thought was, oh boy, here we go, one of my local friends is inviting me to a street rally, or to a community center to gather with other Obama enthusiasts. Nope. No such thing. This Goodbye Bush! – Hello Obama! Facebook event takes place online.

Online? Yes.

Alright then there must be some type of application I need to download, or a webcam or something will be needed so I can participate. What? I don’t need to do anything to participate? That’s right.

I inspected the Event Info (a bit of it seen here).

It turns out this “event” starts on Sunday, November 2, 2008 and ends on Wednesday, November 5, 2008. Wow, that’s a long event. The best part is this quote directly from the invitation:

There seems to be a lot of people who think that this is a ‘real actual physical event’ it’s not – its just for fun. You don’t actually have to COME to anything – This is an online event only. Just celebrate in your own way somewhere. Wherever you are from.

Alright. I can do that. I don’t need to actually be anywhere or do anything, but I get to have a warm fuzzy feeling that I am part of something big. What an age we live in.

I was first invited to this event back in September. I think there were less than 20,000 peoples signed up at that point. Now there are about 124,000 taking part. That means about 3,466 people a day have signed up for the last 30 days. I can’t think of a company or brand that wouldn’t love to get that kind of action.

So, Duncan, what’s the point of all of this? Why are you talking about it?

I am just a bit awestruck at the power of social networking. There are millions of people using Facebook and other social networking tools. They are happy to participate with brands, politicians, and sometimes kooky ideas, if they feel like they will belong to something.

It’s great to follow your friends, especially when all you have to do is nothing.