Bebo Wants to Send Your Message to Aliens

Apparently Bebo wants to contact aliens, so the site is organizing 500 of the best messages from the public (celebrities are invited, too) until September 30th, when the poll for the best message will close. The transmission will take place October 9 from the National Space Agency of Ukraine, via its giant RT-70 radar telescope, according to a Sky News article. The planet at which the messages are aimed is called Gliese 581c, which is 20.5 light years away. The messages are scheduled to arrive in 2029. This marks the first time in which the public has been offered the chance to send a message to outer space, free of charge.

Virtually, social media is the spread of information, and now that includes sending information to outer space. Whether it is important to send a message to space is not the issue; it is the notion that it is possible which makes it important. Bebo’s offer to send messages to space illustrates how social media has changed the way the world works. People are more aware of what is going on in the world, and they have the capability to voice their opinion, whether positive or negative. More importantly, they have the capability to do something about it. For example, Twestival, which was organized using Twitter, is an event that is hoping to raise $1 million dollars to get clean drinking water to people in developing countries. The charity event was announced on January 8th and had 24 participating cities. During the following day, the number of cities doubled. By the end of the week, more than 100 cities wanted to participate. Furthermore, it was a global event. According to a Sky News article, “And, through the power of online networking, over 1,000 volunteers across the world from Beijing to Brighton, Dallas to Dhaka will be hosting Twestival events.” Ultimately, in one month 20,000 people in 185 cities were involved.

Social media has no boundaries, and it’s an exciting time in which to live. It seems like everyone is getting closer and closer together, meeting people from across the world, working towards a common cause, as in the Twestival case. If Bebo accomplishes what it has set out to do, maybe we will have someone else to meet and with which to communicate in 2029.