Twitter and the Election

https://vimeo.com/54318581

The Twitter Diet

I didn't think much of twitter as an aid for dieting until recently when i actually saw it in action. One of my friends started training for a marathon and had a goal to lose 30 pounds before he did it. He was not a runner and he was overweight. I was happy for him and proud of his decision to get fit. After he told the world he was dieting he started tweeting his running times. As an outsider looking in, i dont know how he did it. If i were in his shoes i wouldn't have been able to share things like that with complete strangers. The article about the Twitter diet goes into the same kind of detail. Brian Stetler talks about how he didnt want to put his weight on twitter. This is completely rational to me. Anyway, my friend ended up losing the weight and running the marathon. He even ran the race in a great time. I do admire people with the gumption to go out and share details like that with people. My friend, and Brian alike, used twitter as a support system. They both had people that would encourage them along the way, give them advice, and help them when they needed it. I think the twitter diet is a cool idea and a legitimate way to lose weight or meet any type of goal you may have.

Food + Social Media

Food and social media have become intertwined very closely. It seems like every time i check my instagram feed i see pictures of someones dinner, or a dessert they ate. So is the web changing they way we eat, or is it just putting our food under a microscope. According to the article, How the web is changing the way we eat, restaurants are shrinking their portions to appeal to social networks. People like, tweet, and take pictures of their food so it would only make sense that restaurant owners take advantage of this. If i owned a restaurant i would use social media to advertise my business but i would also use twitter, instagram, and facebook as tools to promote my restaurant for free. By taking pictures of your food and having a lot of people like it, you're appealing to people who may have never tried it. If people see something is popular they're more inclined to try it for themselves. The article says restaurant trends are being guided less by lovers of food and more by lovers of interaction. It's almost as if people are more interested with interacting with others, and more interested in being on the internet than they are when it comes to what they eat. If the trend continues, i wouldn't be surprised if we saw a new social media site based completely around food, if it doesn't exist already.

Sports and the Military

The movie we watched in class today was very interesting to me. I agree with some points made about how sports and war have become very closely knit, however i differ from the video on one aspect and that is patriotism. I don't think the author drew a fine enough line between sports being centered around military-like emblems and sports showing patriotism. Prior to a baseball game they play the national anthem, and in professional and semi-professional venues they play God Bless America in the 7th inning. I dont think this is an attempt to make the game more military or war based, i think it is a good way to show patriotism and pride for your country. On the other hand, it is very difficult to fight the facts when you see an NFL player talking about how the game is "war" or that other players want to kill him so he has to kill them first. Sometimes maybe the GAME is taken too seriously. Players aren't going out on the field for their country the way soldiers are going to the frontlines for it, so why do we have to relate words like battle, war, attack, enemy, and the like with an NFL game. On a somewhat different topic, i was shocked to hear that NFL players live on average 20 years less than other people. That's crazy to me.

#unnecessary

I got hit with a tweet this morning full of hashtags. the tweet read "#hiTyler #haveagoodday #doyoulikeitwhenihashtageverything #doesitmakeyouhappy #hashtag #hashtag #unnecessary". I got this tweet because last night i was explaining to my friends how much i disliked the fact that hashtags were everywhere i looked now, and also how angry i get when i see a tweet thats just full of them. Don't get me wrong, i think hashtags are a great idea. They make life 100 times easier when searching for a specific conversation topic or group on Twitter. However, when you see someone hashtagging a completely unnecessary word like #oh or #hiTyler it's just abusing the privilege. The article, Twitter's Secret Handshake, makes some very valid points about the use of hashtags. They show that people are hip to the twitter world or they provide a useful shorthand. I like when Matt Graves says his mom would say something like, "I'm number winning." hashtags do show that you are twitter savvy. When though does it become too much? You can't watch a football game without seeing a hashtag in the corner of the screen for people to discuss the game. If you turn on a television show you see a hashtag to send in comments about the characters. Even people like Daniel Tosh repeatedly say things like, "follow me on twitter so we can live chat during the show." Personally I think this is just too much. I even saw someone the other day with their twitter name on the front of a t-shirt and #followme on the back. #unnecessary

Gender Roles

Until recently i hadn't given much thought to the idea of gender and gender roles in society. However, it seems like every time i go somewhere this subject pops up. For example, yesterday i was watching the show 30 Rock, in case you haven't seen it, the main character Liz is very socially awkward. At one point in the show Liz sees a mother who is pushing her baby in a stroller. She goes up to the baby, leans over and says "Well aren't you adorable, you're going to grow up to be a big strong man." then she pauses and says, "or a beautiful woman, if thats what you decide." After she says this, the mom, like most people today probably would, looks at her strangely and storms away. At first this is a very funny scene but if you think about it, its pretty difficult. As talked about in class, gender roles in society are concrete and if you break them you're looked at as strange, weird, or different. The mom in this show obviously felt that way and may have even been offended at what Liz said. I just think this is a perfect example of how gender is looked at in society today. There is someone (Liz) who is completely open to the idea that the person can make a choice. On the other hand there is the mom who is offended at the idea that her baby boy may grow up to relate to being a woman more than a strong masculine man.