Social Unrest
The lines are blurry when it comes to who exactly owns what you post on social media networks like Twitter. That’s why developers have created an alternative set of social media tools with privacy in mind, including the newly-released version of Vibe, out now for iOS and soon for Android.
Isaac Wilder’s Freedom Towers and other “free networks” are alternatives to the corporate-owned, government-regulated fiber optic cables running underneath us. Do we need them? That depends on your politics. It doesn’t change the fact that they’re coming.
If — as some have suggested — Twitter is trying to cut down on free speech with its new censorship policies that were announced last week, then it’s not doing a particularly good job.
I admit that it’s rare for me to say, “You have to feel sorry for McDonald’s” and actually mean it, but after watching the failure of their recent attempt to turn Twitter to their marketing advantage, you actually do have to feel a little bit sorry for the multinational fast food giant. After all, how were they to know that any attempt to artificially create a hashtag meme was doomed to failure? Oh, yeah, that’s right: History.
No matter what side of the SOPA/PIPA debate you may be on, it’d be hard to deny that one participant in yesterday’s internet blackout seemingly benefited more than others. If nothing else, the January 18 blackout proved just how much the internet at large loves (and maybe even needs) Wikipedia.
It’s on — at least partially: Reddit has announced that it will be going dark for 12 hours to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act, and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has said that he hopes to coordinate with the site so that Wikipedia does the same. Will other sites join in? Should we prepare for the Great Internet Strike of 2012?
Can you imagine a world without Google or Facebook? If plans to protest the potential passing of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) come to fruition, you won’t need to.
On the one hand, it’s easy to predict where social media’s going over the next 12 months: more of the same, with the sublime, ridiculous and mundane occurring in equal amounts, both reaffirming and quashing our faith in humanity and technology. But a social media roadmap for 2012? I’m not sure anyone knows what that looks like at this point.
Well, this is depressing: A team of scientists from the University of Vermont appears to have proven via the judicious use of Twitter that people have been gradually growing more and more unhappy over the last three years.
At this time of year, Twitter and Facebook might come in handy for proving the existence of Santa Claus to cynical children. But given the abundance of fake Clauses out there, we thought we’d provide a guide to choosing your online Saint Nick wisely.
Tweeters of the world, feel proud: You are creating history, 140 characters at a time… even if you didn’t know you were doing it.
