Late last Friday my brother phoned me from Facebook’s Black-and-White Ball with an exciting message: MC Hammer had turned up as a surprise guest, and he was hanging out with him. From this photo it appears that Hammer hadn’t heard about the dress code, or had simply ignored it, but I imagine that doesn’t matter when all the other partygoers spent the second grade memorizing your lyrics.
My brother’s call sparked an interesting question: was Hammer’s appearance at the Facebook Prom some kind of cosmic omen? Did his presence portend that Facebook’s moment in the sun, like MC Hammer’s, is already in the past? I don’t know what the answer is since I’m not up on what’s hip in the social networking scene, and I’m not trying to knock Facebook — please Facebook don’t hurt me — but I do know that the only reason I go to Facebook now is to play Scrabulous. It doesn’t seem as hip as it used to.