Amid the destruction that Hurricane Sandy has unleashed on the East Coast, it’s also responsible for a lot of misinformation being passed around the Internet by people rubber-necking the storm via social media.
Here in Fresno, we go outside and see sunny skies and 80-degree temperatures. So when your mom shares something on Facebook that she got from someone she knew 20 years ago, it’s easy to believe it’s legit. We can’t just look out the window and know better. Besides, when did Mom ever lie to you?
However, many of the pictures getting passed most frequently are, at worst, totally Photoshopped or, at best, being used in the wrong context. This includes the original version of the now meme-ized pic above. The original, with a sky from Nebraska looking down ominously at Lady Liberty, is still the first thing that comes up in a Google Images search for “Hurricane Sandy.”
The pic of guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier? Also not entirely true. That photo was taken in September — but soldiers are guarding it. The Atlantic and Mashable both have good photo-fact-checking collections, if you want sort the real from the fake.
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Justin Timberlake, having successfully brought sexy back, has now set his sights much higher. He wants to revive that clunky dinosaur MySpace. Or Myspace. I guess that capital S is sooooooo 2004.
Yesterday a video promoting the NEW Myspace started to circulate and, well, it looks kinda cool. Maybe. Potentially. There’s an obvious Pinterest influence and an emphasis on music and entertainment. Reviews have been mixed. TechCrunch loathes it. Perez Hilton loves it.
The question, though, is what regular people think. Will anybody take Myspace back? Is it capable of a comeback? Or is it, in Timberlake/boy band terms, more like 98 Degrees. It had its time and now it’s better for all of us if we don’t try to fake it and just move on.
For what it’s worth: I requested an invite.
Imad Naffa — a local businessman who gained an international following on Twitter in recent years — passed away unexpectedly earlier this week at age 49.
Naffa, a civil engineer, had amassed more than 50,000 Twitter followers, making him one of the most-followed people in Fresno. Recently, he had been asked to speak overseas about his social media following, which connected him with like-minded engineers and social media enthusiasts around the world. You can read more about Naffa and plans for his funeral, scheduled for this weekend, in his Bee obituary:
In an odd twist: Naffa’s Twitter account — @imadnaffa — is still active, as some of his Tweets are automated.
“I follow you on Twitter. You don’t follow me though.”
How many times has someone said this, or something similar, to you lately? It feels like I hear this at least once a week, and it’s almost as guilt-inducing as hearing my grandmother tell me I never visit.
I have 400 followers on Twitter. And I follow maybe 70 or so. One look at the lopsidedness of the numbers proves that, no, I am not returning the favor of following those who follow me. So the question is: is this fair? I’ve thought often about this, and I think I’ve finally come up with the answer that works for me: No. And I don’t care.
The rules of social media can be tricky. While I do want to practice good Twitter etiquette (I don’t retweet anyone with a private account, I give credit to those whose links I retweet, etc.), I draw the line at following someone simply because they follow me. It’s like that thing where you have to invite someone to your wedding because they invited you to theirs, even though you’re only distantly acquainted. Pretty soon you end up with 300 people, most of whom you don’t know, eating salmon and doing the chicken dance on what’s supposed to be your special day.
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