On May 1, 2011, my good friend Nick (@FWBluesFan on Twitter) wrote a Facebook status. Now, Nick's a fairly quiet guy and by extension he doesn't really write very many Facebook statuses, so when he does, he makes them count. And at 11:27 p.m. CST, Nick wrote, "one more reason why America is the best country in the world." For those unfamiliar with their contemporary American history, this was the date that the FBI's most wanted man, Osama Bin Laden, was killed. And, because America is the best, we killed him dead. Because America. Well anyway, the status got a few likes and a few comments. And then a few more comments. And then some more. And then everybody went to bed. And then it got more comments. So on it went.
The status, at the time I wrote this sentence, had 952 comments.
Needless to say, Nick's simple status took on a life of its own. Since the day it was written, it has averaged about 1.3 comments per day. Keep in mind that this status was written TWO YEARS AGO. The status has become an integral part of the lives of all involved, particularly those of us who have commented regularly on the status over the last two years. But most importantly, the status serves an important purpose as summarizing what life is like in this era.
First of all, the very act of a Facebook status is still unique to a relatively short period of time. When my parents learned that Reagan was shot or learned that the Berlin Wall was coming down, there were no Facebook statuses. In the 21st century, we are able to celebrate on the internet. Some might say this shows a lack of community, with people living their lives and expressing their emotions on the internet--I'd say the exact opposite. Nick and I (and the other people who commented on the status) didn't all live in the same space but we were still able to discuss the day's events. Not only that, but we're able to effectively create a living, breathing document of how we felt, of what we thought, of the occasionally bizarre emotions that poured out of our brains.
Around when I first commented on the status, I considered that maybe we should anthologize the status in a Word document or print the comments out or something to that effect, but now I realize that it serves a greater purpose in its current state. The status has never died. Whenever one of us gets bored, we just go back and comment. It says a lot about what twisted, fucked up individuals (and I do it as much as anybody, so this is far from condemnation) we are that we continue it. I don't care enough to look up the full count of how many people have commented on this status but...it's a lot.
It's amazing to think about, how long this status has continued. A majority of the time I've known Nick has been since this status started. When it started, I was in college--three jobs later, the status has survived. I like to think that I've grown, and I'm sure many of the other contributors feel the same. But thankfully, I haven't matured so much that I can't fully recognize the significance of "The Bin Laden Status".
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