And today’s bizarre social media news……

I haven’t done a social media news round-up for a while, but today seems to have thrown up a couple of bizarre stories.  Stories worth commenting on for their improbability…..

1.  Salem Witch-Hunt comes to a high-school courtesy of YouTube.   This might be a stretch for you, but when I read about the bizarre illness allegedly being spread amongst teenage girls at an American high School – an illness that has symptoms such as tics and spasms – I thought of Tituba and her nice Puritan girls throwing fits in the Salem Courtroom and accusing the gentlefolk of witchcraft.  Ergo (some may say), the internet is of the devil.

OK, a stretch too far perhaps.  But here is the actual story:  LeRoy High School in New York has had an epidemic of teenage girls coming down with strange Tourette’s-like symptoms – twitching, tics and uncontrolled verbal outbursts.  Being teenage girls and particularly now that the media is interested, they have been posting videos of their symptoms online.  Extensive environmental testing has demonstrated no neuro-active toxins in the environment that might be causing such symptoms, so experts have diagnosed conversion disorder – the modern term for mass hysteria. And now there is potential for an epidemic as the symptomology spreads via social networking. Yes, that’s right – a real life computer virus. (You knew that pun was coming, didn’t you?)

Read more in Huffington Post. There’s even a video / slide show section at the bottom where you can test your psychological resilience and/or come down with the plague yourself. You have been warned and no liability is accepted by this blogger for the link!

(For more info on this story see Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible”.)

2. Putting censorship to the test. Twitter’s recent announcement that it would with-hold content in some countries in compliance with local laws is to be put to the test by Brazil. Thank-you, contestant Number One. Brazil is using the relatively minor issue of speed-cameras and roadblocks as its test case, suing Twitter for users publicising locations of these devices to alert other road users. (Gee, cos then they might slow down and not get booked for speeding – wait, isn’t the point of it to stop people speeding? Hasn’t the Twitter message just achieved that? And if it is only for a short while and on that road – it is arguable that the speed traps have a similar effect as well, except for lightening your wallet at the same time).

Anyway, the relevance of this article comes back to the Middle East uprisings in Spring of 2011. If Twitter decides it will comply with local laws, then it is arguable that the dictators of an oppressed country will simply make a law saying that social media cannot carry information against the government – and hey presto, the end of any uprising. This comes back to my previous posting Shades of Grey for Social Media. Whether you are a “good guy” is a matter of perspective, and while you may be in favour of people slowing down on the roads (and I am) and support police enforcement of such road rules (and I am), censorship is a slippery slope.

Twitter has now said it will comply only if it believes the requests are “valid and applicable” – both a very powerful and vulnerable position to put themselves in, and one that Brazil apparently wants to challenge. Twitter’s postings on this subject are here: Tweets must flow

3. News to Sheldon Cooper: Mathematics does not hold all the answers. A study into the algorithms used by online dating services has found (shock, horror) that you are as likely to find love in a bar as you are through their websites. While the websites do at least provide you with links to people who have declared themselves available and interested, and geographically appropriate, the comparing of various interests and similarities cannot determine if the sparks will fly and true love will strike. So the Big Bang Theory’s example where they linked Sheldon up with the delectable and bizarrely appropriate Amy, is a fluke – or as Sheldon would say, “what people who don’t understand random numbers would call a coincidence.” Indeed.

Of course that is assuming that it is true love that you are seeking on these websites. (It was true love you were looking for, wasn’t it???) But then if you just want a hook-up maybe the bar is as good for that as well. Probably quicker, anyway. The article is here and will be published in an upcoming edition of Psychological Science in the Public Interest.

There are a few others in today’s bumper crop:

- something about a social network called Path(who?) accidentally uploading people’s entire address books without consent thereby ensuring that I won’t be using them anytime soon. They have fixed it, by the way. (Can anyone tell me if I am missing anything at Path? Other than privacy invasions?)

- And another one about BBC News, CNN and SkyNews grappling with how to deal with Twitter coming out of their newsrooms. They want it to go first on their website for their audiences, then onto Twitter for the rest of the unwashed masses. Oh wait – perhaps “their audience” and “Twitter followers” (aka UWM) are the same people? A watching brief, I suspect.

And finally, an article about Pinterest adding tracking codes to certain pins so they can report back to interested users (aka commercial interests) on activity and earn….money. While it perhaps would have been nice for Pinterest to disclose it was doing such a thing, I think those who have had a look at Pinterest will have spotted that amongst the very many “community” pins, there are certainly some linking back to commercial sites. So the idea that Pinterest might want to (let’s use that horrible made-up word) MONETIZE their site really shouldn’t be a shocker. As the site remains free to use, the bills have to be paid somewhere. I for one am not really bothered.

And I am very disappointed that WordPress did not pick up the word “Monetize” in spellcheck.

Disaster movies (yawn)

photo credit: andrewsrj

I am over disaster movies. Whether it be alien invasion, impending asteroid, severe climate change, tidal wave, earthquake, epidemic, zombies, plane crash, world taken over by machines – they are all the same. Often they are just remakes of previous disaster movies as well.

Unfortunately there are people in my houshold who have not suffered through three or four decades of this tired old plot. These people think the movies are new and exciting. Hence I am occasionally subjected to one of these little horrors.

Opening Scene: Introduction of family / young couple in love / idyllic town / business.

(Me = YAWN!)

Impending Doom Scene: Someone knows that a disaster is about to occur. No-one will listen to them as they become more and more desperate, trying to get their message out. (Hello, Harold Camping, purveyor of Rapture dates.) You are required at this point to suspend disbelief no matter how outrageous the plot device. The romantic subplot will have a silly misunderstanding here that alienates our two heroes – about something trivial, nothing serious that the audience might take sides in.

(Me = Dawning of horrific feeling of deja vu. Part of my brain is going to sleep in self-defense. How did I end up in front of this same movie again?)

Beginning of Disaster Scene: – the “disaster” begins. People react in horror and fear, desperately trying to run or hide. Our heroes are semi-prepared and also start to run and hide, but they are more logical and strategic than the panicked masses. There may be an evil person here who will try to hoard resources to save themselves at this point. This is different to what our heroes are doing. Don’t worry, a very special death has been reserved for the evil person towards the end of the movie. Insert alarmed scientist who shows a map of how the entire world is being affected by this disaster (makes the movie more relevant and therefore more saleable around the world).

(Me = PLEASE let it be over soon! Another part of my brain has petrified from boredom.)

photo credit: Abode of Chaos

Mid-Disaster: Complete chaos. Lots of panicky running around by unnamed masses who are probably computer generated. Random things occur, cars fly across the screen and crash onto crowds of apparently disposable people. While monster feet crash down, tidal rushes swamp cities, earthquake ravines open up in roadways swallowing buildings and cars, and running crowds are crushed by toppling buildings (for which we barely pause – no sympathy there for the masses), our individual heroes are seen doing heroic things to save each other (rarely do they save anyone else). About this time someone gets lost or communication is cut off and everyone presumes this means they are dead. This is the bit where the special effects guys get to show their stuff, and you know they had a great time with it. The writers on the other hand have resorted to the formulaic “Hold on, Timmy, I’m coming to save you! Just hold on!” (close up of little Timmy’s hands slowly letting go of whatever tenuous grip he has as he dangles over a canyon – his fingers slowly release their grip just as our hero grabs his wrist and pulls him to safety. Cue triumphant music.) Someone else gets rescued from peril by their estranged husband / coworker that they alway had a crush on, etc, which results in a touching scene where they are reconciled.

(Me = the special effects are interesting – what will they do with the Eiffel Tower and the Capital Building this time? – but the story line (complete with dramatic music score trying to manipulate your emotions) iS dull and predictable.)

photo credit: Abode of Chaos

Disaster Ending: Our heroes have miraculously all survived. The person/s whose communication got cut off and was presumed dead has also miraculously survived and we get to see when they meet up again and realise they are all alright. It is as if Lazarus has risen from the dead again! There may be a sunrise about here accompanied by some uplifting violins.

(Me = nauseated by the schmalzy fake emotions that these movies seem to sell, the fake happy endings – lets forget that millions have perished, the five people whose names we know have all survived!.

Alright – so now you know the plot, no matter what the disaster, can we send a message to Hollywood that these are BORING, FORMULAIC movies? I think what I find particularly objectionable about these movies is the prepackaged and processed “moral of the story” aspects. The evil person gets their comeuppance. Love triumphs. The good people survive (at least the ones we know – there is no comment on whether the masses that perish are representatives of some modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah, or just cannon-fodder for our latter-day tale of simplistic morals.) Misunderstandings are resolved. At the end, a new day dawns and hope remains.

And my brain has crystallised in the course of an hour and a half.

photo credit: mediaspin.com