A Student and her Laptop Walk into a Blog…

The Tweet Hereafter is a website I became aware of after listening to an interview between Jian Ghomeshi and the site’s creator. It has a fascinating, albeit slightly morbid premise: collecting the last tweets of people who have died. Although this is not, of course, a website intended for light reading anyway, some of the tweets are downright chilling.

On February 13th, 2013, Reeva Steenkamp, the late girlfriend of Oscar Pistorius, tweeted “What do you have up your sleeve for your love tomorrow??? #getexcited #ValentinesDay.” The next day, on Valentine’s Day, Pistorius fatally shot Steenkamp, proving her light-hearted message to be cruelly ironic.

Many other tweets show their authors to be equally oblivious of their imminent passing on. Elizabeth Taylor, for example, excitedly bubbled “My interview in Bazaar with Kim Kardashian came out!!! http://j.mp/eqQsGa.” I’ve been meditating on these two examples, one of which is eerie in its unconscious foreshadowing, the second which is bittersweet in its excited ignorance.

I don’t necessarily have a clearly developed analysis of this practice.  Really, I just thought it was an interesting and unprecedented way of looking at one’s Twitter history. I think it speaks to our culture’s preoccupation with final words and trying to assign significance to them. For some, like Steenkamp, this proves to be all too easy, while others inevitably have and inevitably will wind up with their final message as a broadcast of what they ate for lunch that day.

It’s not exactly clear what the desired result of this project is, or even if there is one. It seems that the compilers of the tweets are merely interested in chronicling the unconscious goodbyes of the dead.

I must confess that I have very limited experience using tools for aggregation on the internet. I never really felt that I needed such a tool; aggregators just didn’t address a need I felt I had. Part of what I enjoyed about using the internet was the experience of browsing, and I felt that I already did a good job of keeping up with everything that was of interest to me. My theory on the matter could be summarized using the old adage, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’

This was before I had used Twitter obsessively extensively. My fascination with Twitter began about a year ago, when I stepped into a job with an existing Twitter account. When I began work, we were already following around 1,500 people. It was impossible to keep up with everything, of course, but when I had free time at work I thoroughly enjoyed browsing our Twitted feed. News stories, quotes, pictures, and random thoughts from an interesting and diverse group of people, all delivered right to my (metaphorical internet) doorstep!

Inevitably, there were a few accounts I enjoyed more than others, but of course I couldn’t go around unfollowing people indiscriminately (I figured I could keep up with a maximum of about 100 ‘Twits’ at a time). This is really why I decided to create a personal Twitter account. For one, I wanted to curate my own list of people to follow, and two, I wanted to have this list already in place when I ultimately leave my job. So I selected my absolute favourite news sources, entertainment sources, bloggers, etc., followed them on my newly created personal Twitter, and voilà! My very own, personally curated Twitter feed. And it wasn’t until we began Module V (Aggregation) of my social media class that I began to understand this practice for what it really is: aggregation.

Today is Valentine’s Day, and it seems like a particularly fitting day to discuss social media and the changing dynamics of modern romantic relationships. Specifically, I’d like to discuss the Facebook relationship status change (or, making it “Facebook Official,” if you’d prefer). Whether you think a change in relationship status is a positive and healthy indication of commitment, or whether you think it’s a load of sentimental…something…you have a point. I haven’t quite made up my mind on this one yet, as there are interesting points to be made for each side.  Evidently, the evolution of technology and its predicted effect on relationships is no new talking point.

Gretchen Kelmer, a couples therapist and researcher at the University of Denver makes a compelling argument for the value of the modern declaration of commitment and affection, AKA the Facebook relationship status. She writes, “One of its [Facebook’s] most important functions in the modern dating landscape is to provide the opportunity for a bit of clarity and structure in a process that is increasingly ambiguous” (Kelmer). And, I have to say, this is a very fair point. She points out that the days of swapping varsity jackets and class rings to publicly state “We’re here, we’re together, and we’re proud of it” are no more.  In the absence of such traditions, the definitive declaration of a public relationship status does have value for couples.

However (very big however), there are also those couples (you know the ones) who use the relationship status change to passive-aggressively indicate discord in the relationship. For example, one member of the couple changing the status to “it’s complicated” every time they’re in a fight. And I do not appreciate being forcibly complicit to their romantic troubles, whether I asked for the update or not.

So, I am sill debating. Is the ubiquity of social media, and the specifics that go along with it (like the Facebook relationship status change), good or bad for romantic relationships? In this instance, I am inclined to say that if you are in a happy and stable relationship, go ahead and broadcast it. Power to you! But if you have ever defriended and refriended your significant other (especially in the same day), you probably shouldn’t waste your time making it “Facebook Official.”

References:

Kelmer, Gretchen. “Should We Make it Facebook Official?” The New York Times. Web. 14 February 2013.

West, Lindy. “How Technology is Changing Romance: A Reverse Chronological History of Hand-Wringing.” Jezebel. Gawker Media. Web. 12 February 2013.

It has been almost a full year since I began running the social media output for Plum Clothing. For the most part, this has been a very interesting and instructive experience. When I first stepped in to the role, my boss and I talked a lot about what our over-arching strategy would be. I had a lot of ideas, and these were mostly based on what I wanted to see from any other brand’s social media presence. It should have entertaining and informational content, and not just be used as a tool to promote sales. Let’s face it, that’s boring.

I advocated for a more personal approach to social media; a kind of fun and entertaining brand management through a online persona with a name and a face . I envisioned building an online persona for “myself” that would reflect the values of the brand, but also seem more like a friend’s online presence, something a customer would actually be interested in. I use quotation marks around “myself” because it isn’t exactly my voice. Plum Rebekah is slightly more enthusiastic and seems to care more about fashion and trends than I actually do. However, I do use my real first name and there is a real photo of myself on the company blog.

The reason I’m meditating on this process again is because I am in the very early stages of a new social media project. I’m going to be helping draft social media strategy and policy for a very different organization, and I’m having some trouble envisioning exactly what this will look like. The degree of (almost, though I hesitate to use this word) flippancy I adopted for the clothing company, to seem fun and like the ‘every girl’ will certainly not be appropriate in this new capacity. However, I am still rather attached to the idea of social media output coming from a “real person” and not a nameless, faceless corporate entity. This is proving to be a narrow line to walk, but I am interested to see where it will end up. How does one retain likeability and familiarity while exuding a very high degree of professionalism?

This will continue to be an issue at the forefront of my mind, particularly as it relates to social media practices.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Rebekah blogging.

I’m no stranger to social media…by which I mean I have been an enthusiastic user of Facebook since the tender age of sixteen. However, in the past year, my social media habits have matured somewhat. I somehow finagled myself a job as the person in charge of the social media offerings of Plum Clothing. It has been a very good relationship so far; I’ve learned a lot. I credit this job with opening up the world of social media to me – what it’s really capable of, or rather, what effective use of social media is capable of achieving for the user.

I got interested in what libraries had been up to in this realm while I was busy tweeting about #sales and #trends. Vancouver Public Library has been a great source of frustration for me since I started paying attention to their social media practices. I am certain this topic will be revisited at some point on this blog, but that is a rant for another day.

Until next time!

Rebekah