Twitter: Enabling a Generation of Lazy Researchers
In the age of technology where hundreds of millions of people use twitter in the form of business, news, comedy, politics, and personal use.
We live in an era where the technology that we have created has made our society into having access to quick, easy information at the touch of a button that gives us the immediate answers that we “need.” Our growing greed may even be willing to accept ill-informed sources or content lacking in research.
These 140 characters or less of concise information have no merit to them, I have found, after researching them myself. Here are a few examples of tweets that I have come across on my twitter feed:
From the mistake of a simple photo, where History in Pictures twitter account tweeted a photo of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet behind the scene of Titanic. The caption along the top of the photo stated, “Snoop’s senior photo, 1989.” Although this is a small, obvious mistake, the tweet has not yet been deleted.
Another example is shown in a case of misappropriation through a tweet by the twitter account Regina George, which had been favorited by over one thousand people within two days of posting the tweet. The way the picture is conceived, the tweet shows photos of a girl visibly upset with her supposed prom date who was taking prom pictures with another girl. The caption above the photo says, “Prom was over for him before it even started." However, this situation is misconceived. When I first saw this photo, I had to do a double take. The girl’s actual prom date is the guy right behind her in the second photo. I know this because the guy behind the girl is my cousin and his girlfriend.
"College tuition in France costs $400,” was tweeted a few months ago by the twitter account Common White Girl. The account has often displayed behavior of copying content and posts from other accounts under its own twitter name. This tweet popped up after someone I followed retweeted this post. Although the tweet from this account has since been deleted, there is still evidence of the statement's remains around the twitterverse. This statement isn't completely untrue, there are extenuating circumstances to this situation. While the tuition cost is much lower according to www.studyineurope.eu, showing that first cycle degrees or bachelors degrees only cost 189 euros per year at public universities, this case is not always the same. Pricing is dependent on both the choice of school as well as the major and program you decide to follow. Tuition in France, between their offered private and public schools, can range between 500 and 10,000 euros. While much cheaper than the cost of a bachelors degree or even masters and doctorate program in America, it is not completely accurate to say that college tuition in France is $400.
History in Pictures also released a tweet involving Shigeki Tanaka winning the Boston Marathon in 1951. In one tweet released by History in Pictures, it is said that “Shigeki Tanaka lived just outside Hiroshima at the time of the bombing. Here he is winning the Boston Marathon, 1951.” Yet, 4 days later, History in Pictures tweeted the same picture with the caption, “Survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, Shigeki Tanaka won the Boston Marathon in 1951. The crowd were silent.” After going through several websites where this tweet seemed to come from the tumblr and imgur trackless rabbit holes, one Wordpress website included this photo along with other vintage photos and captions. Yet, this the author of the website also pointed out that a commenter, Peter, found that Tanaka lived over 20 miles away from the Hiroshima bombing site. It is also noted that Tanaka was at home when the bomb dropped. Therefore Shigeki Tanaka is not technically a survivor from the bombing. These are just a small few examples that I have found over the past few months while scrolling through my personal twitter account on my own time.
These sites such as History in Pictures may already be preconceived as playful, small accounts that occasionally post information on historical or current events. Although these twitter pages are by no means near the same vector in quality of research from official news outlets like CNN, AP, and BBC. Yet, even the twitter accounts of these hard-hitting news publications are subject to mistakes. One major example of falsely reported information by supposedly accredited resources is shown through a tweet by BBC journalist Ahmen Khawaja in early June of last year. Khawaja tweeted, “Queen Elizabeth has died.” While the tweet was quoted by Khawaja who tagged BBC World’s twitter account, suggesting that BBC World was the original source. The fault was nonetheless that of the reporter Ahmen Khawaja releasing such information preemptively where twitter followers of these accounts may have only retweeted the claimed death of the Queen. The focus was on the Queen's alleged "death," rather than the tweet posted before about Queen Elizabeth being treated at a hospital, or the tweet that came after claiming that Queen Elizabeth’s death was a false alarm.
Although some of these tweets have been deleted since their posting, it doesn’t retract the tweets that have been viewed by thousands, even millions, of followers who have seen this information and have shared it with others via the online rumor mill of retweets or copying and tweeting these false posts. Screenshots can be very powerful, and once these short messages are released to the public to mass amounts of people, it isn't as easy as simply deleted what you said. Like the saying think before you speak, it is just as important to think before you write.
Azealia Banks responds to Twitter suspension
Azealia Banks is arguably hip-hop’s queen of online shade. She has made a name for herself not only for her innovative, genre-bending music but also her long list of beefs with fellow celebrities. But now it seems like Banks’ fiery online temper has finally caught up with her, as earlier this week Twitter banned Banks over her most recent celebrity feud.
The drama all began earlier this week when Banks blasted former One Direction singer Zayn Malik, accusing him of stealing her style for his new “Like I Would” video.
After Malik fired subtle responses at Banks, the rapper went into shade overdrive and hurled a series of bigoted, homophobic tweets at Malik.
“@zaynmalik lol u a b—- n—- for even responding like that. Keep sucking this yung rapunxel d— u hairy curry scented b—-,” Banks wrote in one tweet, while in another she wrote, “Token sand n—- pout: “I was the least celebrated in the white boy group because I’m brown.”
During Banks’ shade fest, 14-year-old Disney channel actress Skai Jackson chimed in and advised Banks to “simmer down.” That’s when Banks turned her attention to Jackson and scolded her for jumping in the beef.
“And you need to grow some hips and start ur menses. stay in a child’s place,” Banks wrote to Jackson.
That’s when Jackson fired back with a now infamous response to Banks.
Photo credit: Instagram – @skaijackson
“@AZEALIABANKS a meme with 2.3 million Instagram followers. My memes are more relevant than you now that’s sad. Now bye Twitter troll,” Jackson said in one of her responses to Banks.
Never one to be silenced, Banks continued her rants against Malik and Jackson. But it looks like Twitter had enough of Banks’ controversial comments because yesterday it was revealed that the social media site had suspended Banks' account.
Well, Banks didn’t seem too hurt by the news of her Twitter suspension because she went straight to Instagram and shared how she felt about the news, as well as her latest thoughts on Malik and Jackson. Read what she had to say after the cut.
Article Originally Published by our friends at Rolling Out.
[Mixtape] Tree: "@MCTREE_G EP"
Chicago's own MC Tree decided to christen 2014 with some fresh Soul Trap by surprise today, releasing the seven song @MCTREE_G EP earlier today on the Internet. The 29-year-old artist continues to carve his own niche within the ever-more dense local scene with his crafty sample chops and raspy spitting that reflects Tree's everyman spirit. @MCTREE_G EP, aside from being one of the best Twitter promotions in recent memory, is the latest release from Tree since 2013's Sunday School 2. It's not everyday that someone comes along with a uniquely different sound that can be appreciated from so many angles. With a Pitchfork performance and co-signs from MTV, among others, expect plenty more to come from Tree throughout this year.
Tweetbot is a good alternative to the Twitter app
If you need something new from the standard Twitter app on your iPhone you might want to check out the updated Tweetbot app. Coming in at $3.00, the app comes with an updated design look that blends in very well with the new iOS7. They also made it very simple to tweet about what you had for lunch or what you're doing at the present moment. With the new update, it takes fewer swipes to check people's profiles and conversations, as well as keeping some of the older features like customization and muting functionality. If you are in need for a new Twitter app and want to tell the world what you're thinking, go ahead a check out Tweetbot.
[Via Uncrate]
[Sunday Coffee Sipper] Kanye West: "Everything I Am Made Me Everything I'm Not"
Just as sure as September brings a chill to the air in Chicago, another Kanye West-induced pop culture drama has played out in the media, this one in the wake of his Twitter rant pointed at Jimmy Kimmel. He doubled his Twitter output in ten minutes, coming off childish and innocuous. It's become the norm for West, who has had a double major in music and media relations in the years since his dropout made him famous.
Since the passing of his mother Donda in 2008 and break up of his longtime relationship with fiancée Alexis Phifer soon after West has been strikingly different in his actions and music, beginning with his pilgrimage to Honolulu for three weeks while recuperating and crafting 808s and Heartbreaks. He left the mainland with a heavy heart and arrived back with an attitude and auto-tune. What followed was a cacophony of public relations missiles that would have derailed most any other career. In a story for Pitchfork this week, Ernest Baker noted that Kanye has been in the game, at the top of the game, for just nearly a decade. In that time his career has intertwined itself into our daily lexicon. Hurricane Katrina, Taylor Swift, the Kardashians: it all feels like a big charade. But, as West displayed this week, it's a charade he's willing to throw anyone under the bus for.
He named his first album College Dropout and used soul samples and clever hooks and bars to capture America and an entire generation that would grow up with seminal Kanye records every few years. College Dropout came out in 2004 as I was entering high school, figuring out what music was after binging on 2pac and Biggie for my middle school years. Graduation was released in September of 2007 as I was preparing for exactly what the title inferred. Standing in Union Park on Sunday at Pitchfork festival this year watching R. Kelly do what seemed like his entire discography, I felt as though each song represented a different grade, life experience, etc. West is certainly in the same rarefied air, although I'm still not sure I connect to Yeezus the same way as the rest of his body of work.
"Lock yourself in a room doin' 5 beats a day for 3 summers, that'sA Different World like Cree Summer's, I deserve to do these numbers/the kid that made that, deserves that Maybach." Listening to "Spaceship" now it's obvious that a young Kanye is predicting the future. He has had his eye on the throne on which he is currently perched for a long time. To him it was and is deserved and perhaps helps explain some of his erratic behavior over the years, a sense of entitlement that existed since the early days of 'Ye.
To be sure, it was the car accident that inspired the now-iconic "Through the Wire" track that gave the artist the kind of passion and drive that only near death experiences seem to provide. It's maybe why he feels the need to go bigger, feeling as though he cheated death. In his phone conversation with Kimmel the other day he allegedly referred to himself as 'Pac. 2pac, West is not, but a parallel can certainly be drawn between both artists actions after near-fatal experiences. Pac's surviving being shot five times, lead to the East/West rap feud and, ultimately, two caskets for the artists involved. In West's case the ability to cheat death has served as a launching board for everything that has come after. Where 'Pac pushed an agenda, talked militant, and ran with Suge Knight; Kanye rants at listening parties, fights paparazzi and dates a reality-TV star. In Ye's tweets to Kimmel he mentioned that Kimmel doesn't have to worry about people jumping over fences to take pictures of his daughter. Maybe not, but it's also a simple fact that those intrusions are a product of the life West has chosen for himself.
At the end of the day, none of this really matters to the subject of this article. Because, as he told us on Graduation, "Everything I'm not made me everything I am," the inverse may also prove to be true.