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Facebook friendship bracelets put a name to Molly's face

Facebook friendship bracelets put a name to Molly's face

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Music festival wristband connects with Facebook to make friends with a tap

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It's a scene that will be familiar to many: after hours of dancing, synchronized teeth grinding, and hugs, your new best friend disappears into the night, never to be seen again. At Belgium's Tomorrowland music festival, a new wristband may make such predicaments a thing of the past. Tomorrowland's organizers have transformed the traditional festival wristband, which acts as a festival-goers ticket, into a modern-day Facebook friendship bracelet.

On receiving the wristband in the mail, users are invited to register it online and link their Facebook account. Then, at the festival, revelers are encouraged to make connections by simultaneously pressing a heart button on the wristband. Rather than automatically making a friend, the information is logged and sent as part of a daily email showing all the connections made that day. From the email users can choose who to befriend and who not to. It's far from the first time Facebook has been integrated with an object to help people connect — for example, just last year Budweiser Brazil ran a promotion that let you friend someone on Facebook by clinking glasses — but it's nonetheless an elegant solution to a perennial festival problem.