insane tweeting

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2135408/Twitter-record-broken-Chelsea-v-Barcelona.html

This article is about the record breaking amount of tweets posted during the Chelsea vs Barcelona soccer game that took place last tuesday night. It broke the previous tweets per second record for a sporting a event during last year's Super Bowl between the New York Giants and New England Patriots. The Super Bowl had 12,233 per second, and the Chelsea game brought in 13,684 tweets per second. According to twitter, there were 13.7 million tweets during the Super Bowl, but the total number during the soccer game wasn't calculated. To me, these number are insane. It is shocking that this many people take to twitter during sporting events when everyone who cares knows exactly what's going on. They feel their opion is more imprortant than any other option, and want to show team spirit.

Mobile apps

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-20/nexon-rises-after-saying-it-may-buy-game-developers-tokyo-mover.html

This article is about Nexon Co which is video-game maker that went public last year. Some of the games made end up on social networking sites such as facebook. One company similar to Nexon is Zynga which makes "FarmVille" on facebook. This article opened me up the billion dollar business that create facebook apps. Nexon plans to have $1.2 billion in sales this year alone. I didn't realise just how large these companies can make off apps for social networking sites. Now, these companies are shifting to apps for mobile devices which are bringing in even higher profits from record sales. I think video-game companies are going to continue growing because of all the new smartphones and tablets being bought be consumers.

college athletes and social networking

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/31/sports/universities-track-athletes-online-raising-legal-concerns.html?_r=1&ref=facebookinc#

This article is about college athletes and their social networking profiles. The N.C.A.A is keeping an eye on college athletes and their profiles. They are looking for violations of N.C.A.A rules by making them surrender their user name and password, using software to stalk their posts, and forcing them to friend people to keep an eye on them. They also believe college athletes are irresponsible when it comes to social networking, and won’t think twice if given the opportunity to bash a school sports program. I think this is terrible. I believe everyone has the right to express themselves on social networking sites. It is wrong that college athletes have to give up their rights to play sports. The University of North Carolina's football program was given a one-year bowl ban and lost 15 scholarships after an N.C.A.A. investigation that was started because of a Tweet sent by a player. The N.C.A.A is getting away with this which is wrong. Maryland senator Ronald Young said, “I think it’s violating the Constitution to have someone give up their password or user name. It’s like reading their mail or listening to their phone calls.” Senator Young has sponsored a bill that would make it harder for universities to monitor their athletes online. This is a good start, and I hope many more sign the bill to protect the rights of student athletes.

Paying for Facebook

With Facebook being in the news for trying to go public, I have been thinking about what the social networking giant is going to do to make more money and satisfy investors. If Facebook starts charging people to use their site, I believe many people are going to stop using it. Facebook should always be free, but give users more options when it comes to personalizing their page. One thing they can do is charge for different profile styles. Right now there is the original version and the new timeline version. I think users would pay to be able to have a choice of more options and allow for different text colors, page colors, fonts, and add free pages to be use.      

Kony?!?!

Nobody can deny how fast the Kony movement spread once it hit Facebook. One thing that needs to be said is that nothing will be done to find Kony just because someone in their dorm room "shared" the video. People feel accomplished when the make their status about Kony. In order to do really do something to support the movement, people have to reach out to the American government and United Nations. Many politicians are on Facebook and other social media sites where they can be reached by the average person. There is strength in numbers and with the upcoming elections in November politicians will do anything to gain an edge over other candidates no matter what position they are running for. This is the perfect time for people to have their voices heard by those in a position to take action. I feel this is also more affective than raising money because the millions of dollars raised for various causes never seems to reach the people who need it. New Orleans still has damage from hurricane Katrina, Haiti is still devastated from the earthquake that hit, and many areas of Japan look the same as the weeks after it fell victim to natural disasters.  

The Social Media Takeover

Social media is taking over the world as we once knew it. Social media has left the confinds of our computers, and has penetrated the outside world. If you pay attention to what you see in public, read, and watch on television you will know what I'm talking about. Marketers have been placing the little icons of sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more in the corner of everything they can. I see them on billboards, websites, newspapers, stickers, and just about everything else. This gives them great publicity and helps spread ideas. People will "share" what they are reading on Facebook so others can read it too. Also, people tell their friends to go on their page to view something they found interesting. If they aren't part of Facebook, they can feel obligated to make one in order to keep up with what is going on so they don't miss out.

Publicity

I find the amount of publicity social media offers individuals fascinating. Any name has the ability to become a well-known name if the right (or wrong) posts are made to a social media site. People become internet sensations through social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. These sites also help promote events, up and coming stars, businesses, and more. Recently, New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin went from being a no-name bench player to the next big thing. He had a breakout game against the New Jersey Nets and "Linsanity" began to sweep the world. Social media has played a huge role in this because of the amount of people posting and Tweeting about Jeremy Lin and the New York Knicks. Pictures of Lin have been all over Facebook, so more and more people know what he looks like, what team he plays for, and what he has been doing to opposing team. On the other hand, social media sites have the ability to wreck an individual’s image. During the Penn State scandal, social media escalated the events taking place when people voiced their opinions. Some of these posts were harsh and not true. All the negative publicity about Penn State gave it a bad image, causing them to lose recruits, money, and fans.