Sloppy Joe

If social networking were a cafeteria, Facebook would be the kid that everyone steals food from. Social networking services Instagram, Twitter, and Vine have taken Facebook’s tater tots, ketchup and chocolate milk and left the Sloppy Joe.

Facebook saw better days back in the 2007-2010 era. “Friends” would post frequent status updates and there were albums for every major event or trip. Today, Facebook has become a communication database. It’s certainly much less addicting than it used to be, but why? The answer: Instagram, Twitter, and Vine. There are so many social media outlets out there today that have taken the best parts of Facebook, and made them their own. We can now document minute-to-minute experiences through images, 140-character statuses, and quick video snippets with the touch of a button. Each medium has it’s own uniqueness which has virtually reduced Facebook to a contact list.

The way I see it, Facebook is now for personal advertising purposes and wishing people a happy birthday. Occasionally, if a picture goes well on Instagram, it’s worth posting on Facebook, as well. But Instagram, Twitter, and Vine have taken away what used to make Facebook fun. Instagram has become the ultimate photo-sharing medium. It is easy to use with a simple layout and minimal functions, but it is insanely fun. The hardest part of Instagram is choosing a filter. Twitter is best described as present, new, and up-to-date. It’s the best place to get a live feed during an event, whether it be a sporting event, an awards show, or world news. Essentially, Twitter has become the paramount status update network. There’s less stress on what is being said on Twitter because there is so much more content to be read on Twitter. It’s also a great way to interact with your favorite celebrities. Twitter’s sister social network, Vine, is gaining popularity and quickly becoming the supreme video-sharing outlet. These spliced video clips have added to the crazed .gif culture of the Internet. Vine is a new way to get creative and it is sure to gain more attention in the coming months.

Facebook is the base of all these new social networks. Though it’s not as popular as it used to be, it is still frequently used as a sign-in to other sites and programs. For example, you can sign into Instagram through Facebook and for several other website accounts throughout the worldwide web. This is what keeps Facebook in the pinnacle position. It is the head honcho, the mother of today’s social media, and the big man on campus, even if all it has is Sloppy Joe.

Ye old Facebook.

There isn’t a day that goes by that the vast majority of us don’t use a computer to surf the web, be it on a desktop, laptop, cellphone, or tablet. It’s pretty difficult to picture life before computers and the internet. How else did people find answers to life’s pressing questions like “How do you ask someone on a date?” or “Do fish ever sleep?” ?  But just think about how young the technology really is–the first Apple came out in 1984, the internet went live in the mid-90s, Facebook hit the web in 2004, and Twitter in 2006. Despite it’s few years of existence the technology is evolving and developing at lightning speed. This concept is brilliantly showcased in a series of print ads for Maximidia, a Brazillian company that holds an annual seminar on developing media.

Without telling too much the ads do a great job of getting the point across that technology is constantly going out of date and you’ve got to keep yourself informed to stay on top. Do you think the ads are effective? Do you think we’ll see technology in the next decade that really could make these popular sites obsolete?

Twitter and the Future of Micro Messaging

Twitter has been a quickly growing social media platform in the past few years. The use of Twitter for politics has also been emerging; the phenomenon has been referred to as the Twitter Revolution. This points out the different revolutions and protests that were coordinated in part with the use of Twitter. These events include the 2009 Moldova civil unrest, the 2009-2010 Iranian election protests, the 2012-2011 Tunisian revolution, and the infamous 2011 Egyptian Revolution.

Countries such as South Korea, Iran, India, France, Egypt, and China have blocked Twitter usernames or even the whole system in their countries at certain times in the past years. China is known to censor most social media websites and Twitter is one of those websites that cannot be currently accessed in the country. Twitter has been a major source of instant news and information in the past years and one can only imagine what Twitter might evolve into in the future.

Tin-Can is a Twitter-like messaging app that has messages hop from phone to phone via wi-fi, the developers of the app describe it like a “spreading somewhat like the flu”, and it works without the use of the internet or cellular network. The idea behind this app is that it’s a messaging utility that allows communication where connectivity is bad and/or lost, such as in a disaster area, a concert, or even possibly a protest.

Tin-Can is a very interesting concept and I can’t wait to see what happens after it is released for free in June. Although this app will only be available for Android (hopefully they’ll release an iOS version soon afterwards) it has huge potential. As encrypted messaging apps and social media platforms evolve, we will probably see these integrate into future political issues. This is all so wonderfully dangerous and exciting! I have posted the developers’ KickStarter link below where you can learn more about the project or donate some spare change:

Dear Posters of Politics and Religion on Facebook

Dear Posters of Politics and Religion on Facebook,

This is why I hate/love you.

Alright you silly Facebookers, listen. We get it. You have opinions, great. And you want to share those opinions, cool. But look, here’s the deal. If you’re going to post about how much you love/hate Barack Obama or why God is great/doesn’t exist, well, expect to get some shit for it. If you’re going to share YOUR opinions, others can share THEIR opinions. That’s the way it works. If you don’t like it, don’t do it. Believe it or not you actually get to make that choice all by yourself. But please keep on doing it, it gives a lot of us some great entertainment.

Honestly, I love when people post about their stances and argue for them. If they have a good argument, even if I don’t personally agree, I still respect them more, if not, well… at least they consciously have chosen to take a stance. My agreement or disagreement doesn’t matter. It doesn’t mean we can’t be friends anymore. This brings me to my first point: don’t unfriend people because of their statuses.

Posting on someone’s wall that you’re unfriending them for something they posted just makes you, the unfriender, look like an ass. Okay okay, if they posted some crazy shit about nazis or puppy killing, you definitely should feel free to unfriend them and maybe spread the word to the police, but otherwise, pipe down and get over yourself. If you really disagree with their opinions so much, how did you become friends in the first place? And if you’re really such a piece of dick that you can’t just say, well we don’t share the same opinions politically/religiously, so I hate them forever end of story, then well you’re never going to have any friends. People are who they are. No one will ever possibly share the exact same beliefs as you. It’s time you got used to it and accepted it.

Look, sharing our political and religious beliefs is a great way to learn and grow. Sure, some people take it too far. There are plenty of people out there who say Obama is the messiah, while just as many say he’s the antichrist. They’re both bat-shit-crazy. But the majority of people either agree with his policies or disagree with them. If you see a post that you disagree with, don’t immediately hold it against the person who posted it and engage in a battle of the dimwits. This brings me to my second point: Do some fucking research.

First, know where to get correct information. If you’re just looking at Huffington Post or FoxNews, you’re not going to get real information. Look at sources from both biases. Read newspapers from Europe and Canada. Dig a little. If you’re sitting there thinking, wow, that’s a lot of work, but you feel strongly enough to make a comment in opposition to the post, you’re an idiot. And lazy. Don’t be THAT GUY who argues against a post with a comment that the next twenty commenters lay down arguments refuting. Do your research, know what you’re talking about, and draft an intelligent, informed counterargument. If that sounds like too much work,then just post a silly picture of a cat eating a cheeseburger and be on your way.

What you have to realize is that when someone makes a post about something they feel strongly about, it’s not going to change their mind when you comment that they’re a dumbass. A reasoned response might actually make the original poster think for a second and maybe look at it from your angle, but for the most part, it’s like telling someone that green is actually not as good a color as blue and they’re small-minded for thinking that it could ever even compare. I think we can all agree puppies are cute and a cat can do no wrong on the internet. So if you’re looking to share opinions and don’t want to get people’s blood pressures rising, post a pic of an adorable Pomsky (husky/Pomeranian) puppy (like the one down there) and get on with your life. That’s my plan anyway.

Because dogs are better than cats. =D