Now, even network TV has Facebook to thank. In a new untitled comedy that CBS just picked up, 20-somethings use Facebook’s “People You May Know” feature in order to make friends, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Jhoni Marchinko (Will & Grace, 2 Broke Girls, Men in Trees) will write and executive produce the single-camera show.
For those few people who don’t use the ubiquitous social network, the service’s “People You May Know” gives Facebook users the option to add people who have mutual friends with you to your friend group. At the top of the list are typically people with which you have many mutual friends. Maybe you met them through friends at a bar one night, went to college with them, or heard about them through a friend. As you go further and further down the list, the algorithm suggests less familiar people — say, your long lost cousin, or your ex-girlfriend’s sister — for you to friend.
We’re unsure of exact plot details, but we imagine that characters on the show will use the algorithm to ‘friend’ people and then talk with them on the social network before meeting them in person. In that regard, the untitled CBS show will be like a ‘dating’ show for friends. There’s a wrinkle, though: as the feature typically suggests people that the user is connected with through mutual friends, the characters may be meeting friends-of-friends that should remain that way for good reason.
While seemingly a new idea that blends tech and youth culture together, it’ll be difficult for CBS to pull the show off. Finding new friends certainly isn’t typically how people — even in their 20s — use Facebook. And it certainly panders to the idea that millennials are a superficial, digitally-obsessed generation.
It’s unclear if the show will use the ‘Facebook’ branding, but expect the social network on the show to bare a likeness to Mark Zuckerberg’s creation, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
As if we didn’t already spend too much time on (or thinking about) Facebook.
