Who Are The Influencers?

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of some of my family come into the city to visit. My aunt, cousin, and two younger second cousins ventured down to Little Italy for some amazing chicken parm at Sophia's followed by even more amazing desserts at Ferrara's. The eclair is amaze balls.

After dinner, my little cousins and I were walking and talking. They are 10 and 12 year old little girls. They are both so smart and have such great personalities! I feel like at that age I was very shy. We chatted about school (boring), boys (cute!), and Instagram (so cool). I was even tagged in one of their posts. It's wild to me how involved with social media children are these days. One of my cousins posted an picture of a decorative cake she saw at Ferrara's and had over 15 likes in 20 minutes. If I can get 15 likes on a picture... ever, it's been a successful day on The Gram.

 We walked around Soho for a bit before it started to rain and then headed back to their hotel where I was educated on what sports they play and their summer plans, while they both played a game on their iPhones. I was very intrigued as to what was so interesting, I asked what they were doing. They introduced me to 2048, the popular new game app. I had seen this game show up on the most popular list in the App Store, but never truly understood how to play nor was I interested in learning.

My cousin was teaching me how to play before I could get a word in. All I saw was little fingers swiping like crazy across her bright iPhone 5 screen. (I only have an iPhone 4s.) The next thing I knew she was handing me her phone and telling me what numbers to swipe. I am not certain I can explain how to play, but I can tell you I am hooked! Hook, line, and sinker.

I went home that night and downloaded 2048 to my phone and have been playing ever since. My high score is 12,292, and I'm quite impressed with myself for being a rookie.

As I played this game and it became more and more apart of my go-to app collection, I realized how influential my cousins had been without even knowing it. Maybe they downloaded the game because they were bored or it looked fun. Then they showed it to me, I showed the game to my roommate and my friends, and this big circle of 2048 lovers emerged all because my little cousin introduced it to me once night laying on their hotel bed stuffed with pasta and pastries. Thank you little cousins, thank you. You are little influencers.