Several of my facebook friends seem to have posted this. Have they been hacked? Have they bought into this notion – and if so, what exactly is the notion? I can’t imagine they give a rat’s butt about the stated topic, which is repeated verbatim. Here’s more of it:
I decided to participate in an experience called “Meeting between bread.” The idea is to see who reads posts without a photo.
Seem like some stupid scam. Anyone know what’s up?
Does it involve sharing/reposting or clicking on a link?
It’s just a copypasta chain letter thing. The gist is “comment with one word on how we met and then re-post” but with a few layers of “if you don’t comment and re-post, you’re not REALLY my friend, are you?” added. Some people are easily guilted by that bit and it spreads. And then their friends who might be easily guilted/manipulated into proving their friendship and proving that they DO read people’s text posts spread it further.
Take note of who’s posting it. Chances are pretty good they also like Minion memes and pictures of sad puppies, disabled children, and soldiers that say “I bet I won’t even get 1 share” or “people say I’m ugly. Share if you think I’m not” or “1 share=1 prayer”
My favorite one is something I get through messenger occasionally from old people- something like “Hey, I got another friend request from you, so I think you’ve been hacked. Please forward this to everyone on your list!” … that being the message you’re supposed to forward. No, I’m not going to tell everyone on my list that I got second friend requests from them because… I didn’t.
Yeah:
I’d love for you to comment in one word about us. For example: a place, an object, a person, a time when you remember me. Then copy this text and post it on your page (don’t share) I will go to your page to leave a word that reminds me of you. Please don’t comment if you don’t have time to copy the text. This will destroy the experiment.
Why the admonition against sharing? How will the “experiment” be ruined if someone comments without doing the copy/paste bit? Does any of this make sense at all?
It just adds to the manipulative nature of it. If it sounds like it’s coming directly from your friend- that this overly-earnest emotional plea really is something that’s personally important to them- you’re more likely to spread it. Notice that it’s all in first person. And a lot of the variations I’ve seen lately open with something like “This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while and it means a lot to me…” which actually gets me reading it until I see “a meeting between breadfruit” and realize it’s not something that’s really coming from my friend.
I found this page while googling just to remind myself of what the whole thing usually says. It has more information than I was looking for, but I thought it was interesting and relevant:
Because your friend that posted it followed the instructions as written. One of their friends will do the same thing and the chain continues. That’s all it is, someone started it and it just keeps going.
OTOH, when I see the ones specifically asking to share, I’m guessing that whoever originally started it can, depending on various privacy settings, farm a lot of connections that way.