Facebook Creativity Challenge

Originally posted in July 2015, I think it’s time we resurrect this idea and try again – who’s in?

This morning, I proposed a week-long Facebook Creativity Challenge, to begin Monday. Part of the challenge is to estimate, up-front and honestly, how long you’ll last. I’m guessing I can make it three days!

At the end of the week, I hope you’ll come back here and share your results in the comments.

The Problem

Our Facebook friends are our friends because they like us, not because they like CNN or FOX News, an inspirational quotation generator, or funny cat memes. If we were hanging out in the back yard, over beers and burgers, we’d share news of the day, gossip, and a funny joke or two. And we’d talk about why those things were interesting or important to us. We’d discuss a book we’d read or admire the one our neighbor Jim wrote. We’d sit around and admire Bob’s landscaping work or Jane’s woodworking or Kelly’s crocheted afghan.

We wouldn’t run over to the neighbor’s yard, grab their political yard sign, and plant it – forcefully – in our own yard, while staring at the BBQ guests with stony silence. That’d be weird. We wouldn’t grab the newspaper from the bottom of the parrot cage, clip an article, and wave it in the neighbor’s face without at least a grunt of explanation. We wouldn’t take Sally’s paintings off her wall and hang them from our maple tree. Because – in addition to being weird, it’d be stealing. We wouldn’t take family photos out of Jim’s photo album and use pictures of his kids after their tonsillectomies – pathetic as they looked upon learning that “all the ice cream you can eat” is a cruel and painful hoax – to make it look as if these adorable but miserable kids had a rare, incurable brain tumor and then get everyone we know to share them and fund our shady little Kickstarter.

Now, say Sally the Artist hangs a few baskets on the side of her house, filled with postcards bearing her artwork, and invites you to take a few and share them. You’d do that for her, surely – if you liked her work?

If Jim, the writer, puts out a small excerpt of his work, with a link to his Amazon page, and asks you to help him spread the word about his latest book, you’d help a friend out, right?

And if the company you work for is launching something new and cool that you think your friends might want, there’s absolutely no reason not to tell them all about it.

If Kelly invents something exciting and new in her basement, you wouldn’t just refuse to contribute to her Kickstarter on principle, would you? Well, now, we know who won’t be getting the earlybird discounts…

The Other Problem

We’re all creative, imaginative people craving an outlet. I don’t care if that’s fingerpainting, cooking, carving The Devil’s Tower in your mashed potatoes, knitting nose warmers for the dog, or photographing cockroaches under the couch – I’m talking to you. And me. Yes, me, too.

We should be making our own inspirational posters, funny videos, essays and poems, or viral memes to share. They don’t have to be ad-agency slick. They don’t have to be great, enduring works of cultural importance. Just let it out – whatever it is – and tell it to play.

The Solution (Well, A Solution, Maybe…)

You in? No winners or losers, no failures or futz-ups – just think of it as a little experiment and creative encouragement.