Why Greek Life Should Be Like Angry Birds

I love the game Angry Birds. It is so simple, it’s addicting. In doing some research for this blog entry, it seems I’m not alone in this feeling of infatuation with the game. According to an article I read on INC.com, Niklas Hed, the co-founder of Rovio Mobile, the Finnish company who created the Angry Birds app had some statistics he wanted to share. Specifically, Mr. Hed stated that since the game was released in December 2009, it has been downloaded more than 200 million times. In addition, Mr. Hed went on to say that in May of last year, Angry Birds became the best selling app in the United States.

So what is it about Angry Birds? Why the intrigue I wondered? After doing some more reading about the game’s popularity, I came up with a three key points as to why it was the best selling app in the United States. I then related it to Fraternity and Sorority Life and why Greek Life should be like Angry Birds.

Everyone Talks About It

As stated above, Angry Birds is the BEST selling app in the United States. When people get a new phone that is able to download apps, Angry Birds is one of the first recommendations that people suggest you should download. Unless you have sat in a dark room, alone, for the past few months, you’ve heard about the game.

The same should be true about joining a fraternity or sorority. Your values, your actions, and the pure excitement of being part of a brotherhood or sisterhood should speak for itself. When students come to campus for the first time, Greek Life should be the first recommendation people suggest to be a part of during the collegiate experience. Ask yourself, if your organization had an app, would people want it? Would they want it like they want Angry Birds? Greeks need to build excitement to join so that everyone is talking about it. Make you figurative fraternal “app” the best selling app on your campus.

You Continually Try To Get Better

Angry Birds is all about making it to the next level. I’d go so far as to say that the pure simplicity of how to play but yet the complexity of making it to the next level is why some people will spend hours playing the game. Mr. Hed, in his interview with INC.com stated that when they first created the game, the number one issue he received from players was that people wanted more levels. So he built more levels. He went on to say that, “if you like something, and it’s all the same all the time, you will get bored.”

It is that last quote that resonated with me in regards to Greek Life. If your fraternity/sorority experience was the same all the time, wouldn’t you get bored? Of course you would! So, why not be like Angry Birds and continually get better. Build your own “levels” for your organization. Hopefully, you’d get so “addicted” to your organization and trying to achieve the next level; you’d look back as a senior and reflect positively on all the positive changes you made in the past four years.

It Becomes Something You Struggle to Live Without

I’d challenge anyone to play Angry Birds just once and try not to immediately play it again. It truly is an addicting game. A game that makes it hard to put down. After awhile, it can become a game that you struggle to live without. Put another way, if you have an opportunity to play it, you play it because it has become that engrained in your head.

The same should be true for your Greek organization. Once you have built the excitement in which everyone is talking about your Greek organization and you have built a framework that strives to do better each day, the final piece is making it something that you can’t live without. It is that daily devotion to your Ritual. It is that reckless passion that comes when someone speaks about your organization in a negative way. It is truly striving to make better men and better women.

In closing, I think Angry Birds provides a true template for how our fraternal members can make their Greek organizations great. If you get people talking about it, you try to get better each day, and you build a devotion to your organization so strong that no one can break it. Most of all, it’s simple. Angry Birds is simple. Making your organization great is simple. Follow your values, read your Ritual, and do what you say you will do.