Recently it was announced that Betty White, beloved Golden Girl and 7 time Emmy winner, will become the oldest host of SNL in May. While I usually don’t pay attention to random announcements about future SNL hosts, this one caught my eye for 2 reasons: First, I’ve been a fan of Betty White since watching old reruns of the Mary Tyler Moore Show on Nick at Night (remember that old network?). Second, she got the gig because of Facebook.
That’s right! A Facebook page called “Betty White to Host SNL (please?)!” popped up a couple of months ago, and has since gained almost 500,000 fans! Since apparently Lorne Michaels pays more attention to Facebook pages than most figureheads at whom Facebook groups are aimed, he offered the position to Betty White and she accepted.
Finally, proof that Facebook petitions work!! I have been invited to hundreds of group petitions, everything from “For every person that joins this group I will give $1 to <insert topical illness here>” to “Help <insert topical social issue here” to “oMg I lOst mY pHonE,” and in my 4 year experience on Facebook, the only groups that have had any actual effect have to do with lost phones.
I stopped joining those groups when I realized that these petitions (minus the phone ones) don’t actually do any good. When I joined, no money was donated to research for Autism, Lupus, or Cancer, nor did my petition reach the ears of leaders in New Orleans, Haiti, China, or Rwanda. After a while, the groups became a little monotonous because everyone was joining them and nobody was doing anything about it once they did!
Most of the groups out there on Facebook aren’t even petitions. They’re high school or middle school reunion pages, state/city/school/general location pride pages, common interest pages, and random miscellaneous things like “This Seemed Like a Good Idea Last Night” or over 500 “Zombie Apocalypse” groups.
But here is proof that I was wrong! Somebody out there is listening! Facebook can be used for change, even on a completely frivolous scale.
Still, I’ll be excited when Betty White hosts. Here are some of my favorite Betty moments:
(Tina Fey, Molly Shannon, Rachel Dratch, and a few other past female members of SNL are slate to appear with her. If the writing is as good as it was when they were on it, then I really can’t wait!)
