Her Campus has some great articles about October being breast cancer awareness month. The pink-craze has spread to my actual campus as well; wear pink days, benefit concerts, and information booths have taken over. My Facebook has even “gone pink” too.
My Facebook status currently says “I like it on the yellow room’s couch.” It is a reference to the television room in my sorority house and also my support for fighting breast cancer. An article on the Huffington Post explains with more detail:
“October is breast cancer awareness month and the “I like it on” trend is an attempt for women to unite around that cause in a top secret way. The idea is literally to leave men in the dark.
This isn’t the first time a Facebook status update has gone viral. Less than a year ago, thee bra color Facebook status update went viral, also in support of raising breast cancer awareness.”
Of the 15 ‘friends’ currently popping up on my Facebook newsfeed (literally as I look at it right now mid-post), eight have statuses saying “I like it on…” That’s pretty impressive considering this viral sensation only took off earlier this week and I live in Mid-Missouri where we tend to be a step or two behind on some things. This social media campaign is getting press and attention – two things any ’cause’ craves. But let’s look at it from a bigger picture, what can Facebook possibly do for breast cancer…
This is a tweet I saw this morning that perfectly sums up the shortcomings of this Facebook effort…
“Yesterday, as women decided where they like their purses, 111 women across the US died from breast cancer. #RealAwareness #RealityCheck”
#RealAwareness and #RealityCheck were the perfect hash tags. If a social media campaign wants to have true effects it needs to prompt something. After I changed my status to “I like it on the yellow room’s couch” I had nothing to do next. Maybe if I was then asked to go to an informational video, a donations page, or actual event – then the campaign would really be worthwhile. As it stands, all it is doing is giving my random guy friends a chance to comment on my status with lewd questions asking where else I like “it.”
So here is what you can do this October. Go out an actually do something for breast cancer. Do an awareness project, do a service project, or do a fundraiser. Instead of living life through Facebook, make something happen and take your effort to the next level.
