Today, the White House announced it was going full-on 2016 with a new bot for Facebook Messenger. Now if you want to drop Barack Obama a line with your thoughts on international terror or dank memes, you can just type and send.
“Our goal is to meet people where they are,” the White House explained in a press release, showing a clear understanding that “where people are” is staring blankly at computer screens all day long. “It’s about creating opportunities for people to engage with their government in new and accessible ways, using the same technologies we already rely on in our daily lives.” As for the likelihood of the president actually reading your message, Obama reads ten letters from citizens every day and messages sent via the bot will also be eligible for this. This means your chances probably aren’t great, but you have to play to win, right? (The Olympics are really getting to my head this week.)
Still, it takes less time to fire off a few sentences on a computer than to write a traditional letter and pop it in the mail. (After you go out and buy new stamps, because when was the last time you sent a letter anyway?) Now, it’s just a matter of figuring out what you want to say to Obama and making sure there’s nothing on your Facebook you wouldn’t want the government to see. (Though, who are we kidding, they’ve probably already seen it anyway.)
