Twitter's Year in Review 2011
a tiny bit early. but fascinating, rather unexpected (at least for me).
is it more funny or sad? or simply thought-provoking?
Here is a link to a very interesting article in a series of them about France’s attempts to stop their tv and radio media from using the terms “Facebook” and “Twitter” unless making relevant reference to the businesses specifically. In other words, no more ending news stories by saying “for more information on this, check me out on Twitter…” apparently France is justifying themselves in this by reference to a two-decade-old law that prohibits “covert advertising” in public media - as in, Facebook and Twitter are benefitting from the ubiquitous references to them on tv and on the radio.
You think so???
In its basic intention, this effort actually strikes quite a chord with me, someone who has long complained about the pervasiveness (and invasiveness) of the ‘book in our everyday lives. That being said, however, as the article linked above points out, it is really in vain to try to pretend that these social media mammoths are not already so entrenched in our lives that they can realistically be ignored to any extent. Which is sort of sad. But also, as I like to say, it is what it is. And that Facebook and Twitter, at least for now, are what it is. Period. I like to think that there will be a time in the foreseeable future that other services will rise to their level and maybe take up some of the space that these two services occupy, but I don’t think that it is immanent. And France just looks a little silly for pretending that this reality isn’t as concrete as it is. With Facebook-centered marketing strategies (aimed at “f-commerce” … ugh) exploding in popularity and celebrities being paid thousands of dollars to tweet about their “favorite handbags” etc etc etc, these companies have found methods of staying-power that won’t permit them to fall by the wayside, à la Myspace (sorry, My_____).
Ironically enough, the NYTimes encourages readers to continue exploring the sides of the debate by joining the “Room for Debate” group… on Facebook. Oh boy.
UPDATE: news about the apple iOS5 hints that there might be Twitter integration with apple software! Take.Over.
