Spring Cleaning

Sometimes when relaxing at  home, you realize you're becoming quite cluttered and need to get rid of unimportant items. I'm when you're browsing Facebook you get the same feeling when Suzie Jenkins uploads a new photo album and you cannot recognize her one bit.

It's nothing out of the ordinary for us to have hundreds, or even thousands, of Facebook friends whom we could care less about. So if we don't care or want these peoples as Facebook friends why keep them? Well, Facebook makes removing friends a long, and annoying, process.

Luckily for us, there is a new App available to help with the friend removal process. Duster. To 'dust' a user is the apps way of saying 'defriending'

The app will either show users 'friends' who they haven't been interacting with lately to delete, or shows a list of 'friends' that allows users to select who to delete or who they ant to see less from. This app could make Facebook more enjoyable for some people for now on since they can easily get rid of people.

Can You Miss Something You Barely Remember?

Whether you paid attention to it or not, the Poke App created by Facebook is now gone.

Personally, I forgot the app existed, let alone the option of 'poking' someone on their mobile app or desktop site. Unlike the usual pokes we're used to seeing Facebook, the Poke App also allowed users to send pictures, text, and video for up to 10 seconds until they disappear. Sound familiar?

This app sounds like an identical twin to SnapChat, except the Poke App was created a year later a clearly not as popular as SnapChat.

The few who actually used this app I'm sure are devastated. As for me (and probably the rest of us) I'm unaffected. Don't worry though guys, the original, pointless Facebook Poke that has been around since it's birth in '04 is still around, just not publicly.

Beware of the Twitter Troll

Patton Oswalt (The King of Queens) has been sending out a slew of false apology tweets which has led to some controversy. 

All of the false apology tweets began with how he had just "deleted his last tweet". One tweet read:

Previous Tweet very hurtful. Already deleted. @KimKardashian & @JoeBiden are national treasures. As are our Native American friends.

Some people began to think he was making racist remarks, rape related jokes, and anything else that offended them when he never truly did.  

The point of his tweets was to prove becoming outraged over anything is so common today over the internet. He created the false apologies to get a reaction from people and since nobody ever saw the "tweets he deleted" they became outraged at his apologies. 

He had done this once before last summer. His tweets when read together said nothing politically incorrect, but he strategically separated them into two tweets to see who would become angry (and who isn't reading everything)

 Whatever opinion you may feel about Patton's Tweets, he is just trolling you. He wants to prove all we do is cause a reaction to anything we read online. Be careful of who's really being offensive versus the harmless trolls on the web. 

Seniors Mock the Freshmen Wherever You Are

Over the past couple of days, the video of Ariana Grande's performance at the iHeartRadio awards has been going viral. It isn't solely because of her performance though. The video can be found here.

About two minutes into the performance, the camera goes to Rihanna and she is seen giggling at Ariana's dancing, in a mocking manner. I have been seeing and hearing countless sites, radio stations, blogs, and more posting and discussing the video.

On Tumblr, I had seen GIF-sets created that were being reblogged like crazy.

Neither Rihanna or Ariana have spoken anything about the video.

I'm not a major fan of either performer personally, I feel indifferent towards them. But I do feel Rihanna should have been a better sport, I'm sure we all can think of occasions in which we mocked her and her artistic decisions.

Shame on Shaq

The other day, Shaquille O'Neal got himself into some trouble when posting an image on his Instagram account, mocking a fan who suffers from Ectodermal Dysplasias; a very rare condition which leaves the person with thin, sparse hair, missing teeth, and other abnormalities.

All over Twitter and other social media accounts, Shaq has received comments of criticism and disappointment. Since then, thankfully, the image has been removed from his Instagram.

Although the boy in the image, 23 year old Jahmel Binion, says he is used to being ridiculed, the post was still quite hurtful. Binion did find light to bring to the situation by creating the HUG DON'T JUDGE Facebook page.  He hopes to shine light on and reduce cyberbullying

Since the incident, Shaq has released a public apology on Twitter.

Does Olivia Benson Need to Travel to Westeros?

It is now Wednesday and I am still finding countless posts online in regards to Sunday evenings episode of Game of Thrones.  But people are only talking about one scene in particular that didn't even last 5 minutes of the hour long episode.

Following King Joffery's death, his immediate family met around his body to mourn. Once the room was emptied out with the exception of his mother, Cersei, and his uncle/ father, Jamie, the controversy begun. Right next to their son's body, Jamie kept pushing himself onto his twin sister,  as she kept declaring "no".  All in all, that is rape, even if they have had past consensual experiences.

But wait, hasn't rape and many other countless horrific things happened alright on Game on Thrones? Yes, there totally has been.  But what separates this scene from the others is that director Alex Graves essential denies it was "rape" being portrayed since it became consensual later on.  I can't help but disagree with the director since me, along with all the other viewers, witnessed Cersei begging and crying for Jamie to stop more than once

The directors could have done a better job portraying Cersei willing to have sex with her brother. Apparently in the book she dismissed his actions at first but soon after changes her mind and does explicitly consent. On screen, her consent was not heard or known to viewers who have not read the book.

Additionally, it occurred next to their son's corpse and aired on Easter Sunday which definitely led to further unsettling reactions.

From Twitter, to Facebook, to countless blogs, viewers have poured their emotions out about this one scene but never have made such a buzz when we saw a pregnant women being stabbed in the womb or as Joffery forced prostitutes to torture one another for his pleasure.

Hopefully next Sunday night we are brought to some closure or better feelings towards what occcurred between Jamie and Cersei.

Sarah has Stayed Sassy

Not too long ago I wrote about how Sarah Michelle Gellar tweeted that she would cancel her Vogue subscription because of the Kim & Kanye cover. Well, Sarah tweeted to her followers once again but with another annoyance.

And once again myself, I can totally agree with her (and I swear it's not because I'm biased!).  You know that song, "Happy"? It's been played nonstop lately and the song almost sounds like it's just the same few lines looping forever and forever? Well Sarah, (and myself!), has had enough of it so she shared this silly meme with her followers

With 892 retweets and 1,028 likes, Sarah is clearly not alone. Pharrell we all love you, that's not the issue. But jeez, this song has gotten out of control. A professor of mine even founds a 24 hour looping video of it, pure torture.

I always thought the sass Buffy (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Kathryn (Cruel Intentions) were just apart of their characters. They were probably done so well because Sarah has some natural sass in her.

She has no reason not to be happy with a new series and a gorgeous family. But, like I said, we've all clearly had enough of Pharrell's ridiculously upbeat song.

Facebook Ever-Growing Empire

If you thought the entire globe was signed up with Facebook already, you're surprisingly wrong. Today it has been announced India now has 100 million Facebook users on March 31st.

As of late August, the count was at 82 million, but these last few months brought 18 million more in- which I find outstanding. More than three-quarters of the 100 million use Facebook through the mobil app. Will Facebook eventually become app-exclusive in India?

Even more impressive is Facebook only had 8 million users when they opened their India office in 2010. These numbers won't stop either for India either. The nation expects to reach a quarter of a billion online users by the end of the year.

It is truly impressive to see how fast online technology is growing in India.

Winter Has Come

As I return from a break from this blog, Game of Thrones has finally returned, on Sunday, for it's fourth season since last Spring. Leading up to the premiere, almost every social site on the web has been creating posts relating to the series. Some of my favorite came from Mashable.com

One of my favorite posts of them all gives viewers a brief recap of Season 3 through the use of Emjois. It was hilariously adorable and accurate for me to recap what I needed to remember for the upcoming season.

Another interseting set of posts created by Mashable was "If Social Networks Were 'Game of Thrones' Houses" and a video of the opening sequence redone with social networks rather than the original family houses. 

Finally, outside of Mashable, BuzzFeed.com posted a series of pictures of the cast seen doing everyday activities or in normal clothes which I absolutely loved. For me, the majority of these actors and actresses I only know as their parts. So seeing Hodor at a dj booth rather than carrying around Bran made me smile.

The posts and lists related to Game of Thrones are countless all over the web. I have found, personally, that their fan base between seasons 3 and 4 have grown incredibly which is why I believe GoT has created such a buzz on the web. I am excited to see what season 4 will influence the online community to create. 

Growing at the Speed of Light

Yesterday it has been announced that Instagram has hit 200 million users, which is a huge milestone for the company. 

According to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook was merely hoping for Instagram to hit the 100 million mark, but doubling that is just phenomenal. Even more impressive, 50 million of these accounts signed up for the services within the last six months. 

The news became offical when Instagram posted the information onto their Tumblr, adding that there has been 20 billion photos uploaded to Instagram, which is still growing!

Congratulations Instagram, I'm sure you will continuously expand and grow. Hopefully we see that 300 million milestone hit in the future!

Turkish Twitter Termination... Tentatively?

Friday, the 21st, Turkey had totally restricted it's nation from Twitter due to the leak of wire tapping recordings. This is an issue for the government at any time, but it is even more now with Turkey's local elections approaching. Many Twitter users in Turkey were notified by the nation's telecommunication's authority.

Twitter began their own investigation as to why they were having trouble reaching their Turkish users. But for the time being, the company's @policy account informed Turkish tweeters they can still send out tweets via SMS. 

I'm not sure if Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is, or was, aware of how involved his nation is when it comes to social media but he set himself up for a showdown with them, and even the company itself. Hours after the ban came into effect, more tweets were sent out in Turkey than an average day. According to Gonzo Insight, a data analysis company, 17,000 tweets were being sent out per minute. 2.5 million users raised their voices.

As of now Turkish tweeters and Twitter itself can only hope that access is restored as soon as possible. With Twitter being a major way many of us around the globe communicate, I too hope Twitter makes it's comeback after these elections and the tensions calm down. Not that I know much at all about Turkey, but they do call themselves The Republic of Turkey, so one would think this wouldn't be an issue, right?

Look Around Everywhere You Turn Is.... Kimye

It's no surprise to have Kim Kardashian and fiance Kanye West all over the news and trending on social media. But this past week, with the release of their Vogue cover, that have been dominating. 

The first trending topic I found, and thoroughly enjoyed, was the tweet sent out by Sarah Michelle Gellar regarding the issue. The tweet read, "Well......I guess I'm canceling my Vogue subscription. Who is with me???". As a major fan of Gellar, especially when it comes to her part in the Buffverse, I loved and retweeted this immediately.

Kim's sidekick, on the other hand, was no as excited about this tweet as I was. TV personality Jonathan Cheban retaliated by tweeting "Do u matter?" Well Jonathan, with true talent since she was 3 years old and did not gain her fame through being an heiress' sidekick, I would say she matters much more than you.

On a more amusing note regarding Kimye's Vogue cover, Seth Rogen only found it appropriate to create his own photoshopped parody featuring him and pal James Franco as Kanye (James) and Kim (Seth). Seth initially posted his work on his personal Twitter account. Many online users found this to be absolutely hilarious, especially since the pair also created a parody of Kanye's "Bound 2" video a few months earlier.

Photo via @Sethrogen

The Popular Kids of Twitter

In honor of Twitter's 8th birthday, Mashable has created a list of the top 10 most followed Twitter Accounts. Do you follow any of these accounts? What makes you follow them?

Me personally, I am only following Barack Obama on my Twitter account and that is because I feel his tweets can relate and should matter to any American. But that's just my opinion. If you are a fan of any of these accounts, surely they are a great source for their news.

May i present to you, the most popular account of Twitter

1. Katy Perry: 51.3 million followers
2. Justin Bieber: 50.2 million followers
3. Barack Obama: 41.9 million followers
4. Lady Gaga: 41.0 million followers
5. YouTube: 40.3 million followers
6. Taylor Swift: 39.7 million followers
7. Britney Spears: 36.3 million followers
8. Rihanna: 34.3 million followers
9. Instagram: 31.3 million followers
10. Justin Timberlake: 31.2 million followers

To see more information, and a wonderfully illustrated info graph, check it out here! on Mashable's site. 

Ukraine From 90,000 Points of View

Since it began, Social Media has played a major role in sharing the heart-wrenching struggles of Ukraine. Even more than news networks in the very beginning. But with words and images, there is only so much we can understand and try to feel for the Ukrainians.

But now we all can really feel and see their pains. Lately YouTube has been serving as a host for those documenting the crisis. Since February 1st, over 90,000 videos have been shared relating to the crisis. This is tremendous since that is 82% more than other videos that have been shared the past two months.

Between the videos, there have been over 25 million views of live protests and riots taking place in Kiev and throughout the nation. Meanwhile local news networks haven't broken 200,000 viewers.

Sharing this information with YouTube is a wonderful thing in my eyes. With television networks, any where in the world, information can be held back from us. With YouTube, it is easier to share that information the networks haven't. Plus, our generation isn't always tuned into the news, but YouTube is more prevalent in our lives.