Social Networking is Taking Over
Posted by Solutions Center on Thu, Jul 02, 2009
About two weeks ago, after being tangled in a lengthy love affair with the ever popular social networking site Facebook, I grew tired of the service (what can I say, the apps and requests that pollute my page really started to get out of hand). So just like any other social networking junkie would, I went out and found myself a new mistress, Twitter. After being against the idea of "tweeting" for quite some time, I gave in - and much to my disbelief, it's pretty cool.
Over the first few days, to be honest, it was rough. I wasn't even sure what I was supposed to do on the darn thing. I watched the "How To Use Twitter" video , which wasn't all that helpful, and then decided to make the best out of it. I started following my friends (only the close ones, Larry David and PDiddy - me and Puff go way back) and then I started to grow a small following.
What really started to spark my interest in Twitter though, was my coworker, Liz. If you didn't already see it, last week she wrote a pretty interesting blog discussing the idea that Twitter is for more than just socializing. I read her blog while at work that day, and was massively impressed. Upon my arrival home that night, things got even more interesting. While talking to a friend of mine, I found out that wanna-be celebrity scumbag, Perez Hilton, got punched in the face by someone associated with the Black Eyed Peas. That's pretty cool to begin with, but what I found out next was even cooler. Perez, after taking what was probably a much deserved pop to the face, sent a string of tweets out to his followers saying that he was being "assaulted" and needed the police. Like all good sheep should, people began calling 911 for him. In fact, there were so many people calling that the Toronto 911 phone lines became tied up!
It's really interesting to see the effect that social networking is having on our everyday lives. We are completely entangled with it. As terrible as it is that some idiot had his followers tie up 911 lines while there were other emergencies that most likely warranted more attention; it's amazing to know that something like tying up the Toronto 911 lines over a social networking site is even possible.
Before I wrap things up, I wanted to mention something else I've been reading about Twitter lately (that's far more notable than Perez), Iran. Over the past couple of weeks, Iran has been going through something along the lines of a revolution over their recent election crisis. Twitter has been playing a major role in the on goings over there. The mainstream media has been banned from the cities, and with so much violence and chaos amongst the land, the Iranians have been using Twitter to spread news of what's going on. Twitter has become so important in this crisis, that when it was scheduled to go down for maintenance during peak Iran hours, the U.S. Government asked that it hold off and let the flow of information continue.
I don't know about you, but I think it's pretty cool to see the transition that these social networking sites are going through, and how they are becoming prevalent and important tools all across the world.