Taylor Jacobs ’14 and Rachel Labarre ‘14
Staff Writers

Ask most Staples high school students and they will tell you that they use Facebook. Facebook has surpassed every social network page, including the once very popular page, MySpace.

One of the most popular things about Facebook is the events. An event is something that any Facebook user can create, with a time and date. It can be something used to invite friends to a birthday party, or “Pet a freshman day.”

Events like “Pet a freshman day,” get spread around like rapid fire. It is possible that one person creates the group and invites all of their friends, who then may invite all of their friends, who then invites all of their friends, until “Pet a freshman day” has 25,718 people attending it.

Chances are that a very small percent will actually “attend” this event.

Austin Ct Uprising Bishop and Mike Piscitelli are said to be the creators of “Pet a Freshman Day” on Facebook.

The freshman class of Staples high school had a lot to say about “Pet a Freshman Day.”

“I don’t think something like this is necessary, even if it is a joke. People that are older don’t need to do things like this just to prove their superiority, especially at school,” said Issy Pieper ’14.

Most freshmen agreed with this opinion, but a decent amount of people said they would attend.

In addition, people’s posts on the event’s wall suggest that “pet” has multiple terms, and some may take this day the wrong way, resulting in a bit of chaos.

There are many other Facebook events similar to “Pet a Freshmen Day,”such as, “International Make Someone Feel Uncomfortable Day,” and “International Answer the Phone like Buddy the Elf Day.”

To those who don’t know, Buddy The Elf answers the phone by saying “Buddy The Elf, what’s your favorite color?” So, on December 18, 2009, 219,022 people attended “International Answer the phone like Buddy the Elf Day.”

The information box for this event says, “We got 270,000 participants last year; that’s more than the population of Lincoln, Nebraska! So this year, let’s spread the Christmas spirit even more. It’s simple; on December 18th, every time somebody calls, regardless of who it is, you answer with ‘Buddy the Elf, what’s your favorite color?’ (If you’re a receptionist this will be a very special day for you.)”

Elf is a famous movie that many people know of, and many people also are in hysterics over how funny Will Farrell is. Due to this movie and the social scene of it many people have decided to attend this day on Facebook.

“International Make Someone Feel Uncomfortable Day” was a huge hit with 385,859 people attending! It occurred Friday, November 19, 2010.

People on the wall expressed their thoughts that they do this everyday, but now they can feel normal so they were glad to be participating.

Although Facebook events are still used for reasons such as birthday parties, concerts, or sales at local stores, many are now used for popularity schemes; these events attempt to gain members. Although not everyone will participate in these events, there may be many people who have and will because of the humor gotten out of it, and not because of the importance of the event.