If anyone deserves a Nobel Peace Prize, it's the creators of the Internet Movie Database. Can you imagine how many arguments have been settled because of that site? And would you believe that it's been around 19 years as of this past Saturday?
The National Basketball Association established new guidelines restricting the use of social media sites like Twitter by its players and banning the use of such sites during games.
So why did Fox give Glee such a fantastic running start rather than a show like, say, Dollhouse, which had a built-in following of Whedonites to help a similar campaign go viral? Furthermore, why doesn't Fox give similar promotional backing to other new and returning shows in its lineup? This is pure speculation, but I'm willing to bet it has a lot to do with the Big Fours' simultaneous fear and dismissal of web entertainment and the internet in general, and its out-of-touch perception that only tweens and teens are actually paying any attention to the internet.
You all know about Google Reader, right? It's a handy way to compile all of the sites that you read in one spot, via the sites' RSS feeds. I'm completely obsessed with mine, especially since Google keeps adding new and amazing features to it. One of my favorite features is the ability to share interesting items with people in your Gmail contacts. Your shared items are also compiled on their own webpage. Here's mine.
With the premiere of the third season of Mad Men right around the corner, more and more items are popping up about the show...and I've been sharing all of them with my Gmail contacts because I. JUST. CAN'T. WAIT. FOR. AUGUST. 16TH. DRAPER DRAPER DRAPER JOAN BOBBY SALLY GIRDLES ADVERTISING OH MY GOD I NEED SOME SCOTCH AND SOME LUCKY STRIKES AND SOME SAMMITCHES FROM THE DELI.
We were driving to the beach on Thursday, along with half of the Washington D.C. area, and my husband was reading this story to me on his Blackberry, and I'm all huh? What? This is over, done. I learned about "judgment not withstanding the verdict" in law school but that like, never happens.
Ahem. I guess it does.
For those of you who I have no idea what I am talking about, Lori Drew was convicted last November of three misdemeanor charges having to do with violating MySpace's terms of agreement. She essentially lied about her age in order to cyber bully then 13 year old Megan Meier, who killed herself. Last week the judge threw out the jury's verdict. Kind of.
Let's face it: things right now are...not great. The situation in Iran gets more and more intense every day. The economy is still utter poo. Psychos are out in full force and heavily armed. Personally, I often find myself feeling pretty crappy about being a member of the human race. And sometimes, when I'm that kind of mood, I just really need somebody to look down on. I'm not saying it's good or healthy, but sometimes I just need help getting out of bed with the knowledge that I'm not the biggest idiot around.
Enter Ugliest Tattoos.
"Twilight" author Stephenie Meyer has decided to take a break from social media. I guess she couldn't handle the MySpace.
Word on the street (and by the street, I mean the internet. Neither Stephenie Meyer nor I spend much time on actual streets with real people) is that once upon a time Ms. Meyer made great use of MySpace and spent a lot of time responding to fans.
Of course, at some point the whole Twilight went supernova. It exploded into four novels and movies and a religion.
Listen, Steph, it isn't that I don't understand social media burnout. I have learned to not even open up Facebook or Tweetdeck if I am trying to work on a deadline. Here is the thing:
First, I want to draw your attention to the MamaPop Blingee to the left that I took waaaay too long to create. Considering how relatively shoddy the writing for this post is going to be because I put all of my creative efforts into creating that monstrosity, it would really mean a lot to me if you just drank that in in all of its animated .gif glory. If you don't check it out now, don't worry. I'm going to post it again at the end of this post just for good measure.
Anyway, the Blingee was inspired by the news that Facebook is going to pull a very MySpace-like move and allow users to create distinctive user names as of June 13.
So I guess Twitter is developing a television show?
"WTF," you say? Yeah, I don't know, dude. All I really know is that Twitter is making a TV show about people competing and chasing celebrities or something. I don't think there's an actual concept, to be honest.
Look, please stop sputtering at me — I'm just the messenger. I don't really understand it either. My brain is actually crashing right now thinking about it. Syntax Error. Abort, Retry, Fail? Yeah, definitely FAIL.
In a perfect world, Kanye West would follow MamaPop closely, fuming or laughing with us whenever we give him a hard time. In reality, we can only imagine that the image to the left is what Kanye might see if he was a loyal MamaPop reader.
A little brainteaser for all the geeks in our audience. Okay, fine, we're all geeks. Make that "for our audience."
"President Obama reportedly gave an iPod, loaded with 40 show tunes, to England's Queen Elizabeth II as a gift. Did he violate the law when he did so?
You know your copyright laws are broken when there is no easy answer to this question."
For real. Read the full article at Electronic Frontier Foundation's website. It's weirdly interesting.
(Personally, I lost all faith in our copyright laws thanks to the continued existence of Coldplay.)
MAMAPOP IS SMART POP CULTURE ANALYSIS, COMMENTARY, MERCILESS FUN-MAKING AND OTHER SUNDRY AWESOME, DISHED UP DAILY BY PARENTS, FOR PARENTS, AND ANYONE ELSE WHO UNDERSTANDS THAT PLAYTIME IS BETTER WITH VODKA. PLEASE TO ENJOY. READ MORE...
