Think back to the early days of the internet, I’m talking pre-MySpace, when chain emails filled up 75% of our AOL inboxes. Heavy with capital letters, multi-colored font and riddled with typos, chain emails had us either catching our breath or rolling our eyes. Would we be murdered by a soul-sucking ghost if we hit “delete”? Would our crushes finally ask us out if we forwarded to ten people? Did we miss our chance to claim part of Bill Gates’ millions? Don’t deny it, 9 times out of 10 you probably forwarded the message too.
Now that chain emails are part of the distant past (except among my Dad’s friend group, it seems), we’ve moved on to bigger and better things. You know what I’m talking about. Yes, Facebook chain statuses. “Come on ladies, the Challenge is ON! If you have a man in your life who helps bring balance to your world, who isn’t perfect but is perfect for you…” – or – “Share if your daughter is beautiful and smart!” (Thanks mom ;))
Normally I scroll past these types of statuses faster than I can blink, but a few weeks ago one of them caught my eye. The “chain status” was posted by my friend Lindy and contained the phrase, “IF YOU LOVE TO READ!” If you know me, you know that there’s nothing I love more than getting lost in a good book. The gist of the status was this – I would buy one book to send to someone and in return, I could potentially receive up to 36 books. 36 books for the price of one?! Uhm, sold! All I had to do was ‘like’ the status and Lindy would send me more details. I know what you’re thinking, “What’s the catch?” I know, it crossed my mind too but I decided to like the status anyway and find out if it was worth re-posting.
(My version of the post that got my attention)
Shortly after liking my friend’s post, I got a message from her that gave me all the details for moving forward with the process and no, I’m not revealing the instructions – you’ll have to friend me and like my status if you want in. 😉 To my surprise, there was no catch. Well, unless any of your friends are associated with murderers and give them your address but I mean what are the chances, right? Anyways, thanks to Amazon Prime I was able to send off my favorite book to a stranger within minutes, then I posted my status and waited for the likes to start rolling in.
After sending 40 odd messages to the friends who liked my status, my work was done. I was anxious to see if I’d receive anything, I would’ve been happy getting just one book back. Over the next two weeks, books started arriving on my doorstep. If you love reading as much as I do, you’ll understand the feeling I got – it’s seriously better than Christmas morning. In the first few days, 3 books showed up. I left for vacation shortly after and when I got back, another 5 books were waiting for me. Just a few days ago, my 9th book arrived. Hello – does it get any better than this? I spent roughly $12 on a book and got back my money’s worth and then some.
Getting a ton of books was great but I really think the best part about this whole chain status experiment was being able to share my love of reading with other people. Even if I wouldn’t have gotten anything back, it was cool to be able to send my favorite book to someone else who enjoys reading as much as I do. If you’ve seen this status on your newsfeed but were unsure about it, or if you get the chance to do something similar, I would highly recommend it! If you want more details, feel free to email me at dana@gossipgenie.com.
