Influences of Media & Pop Culture on Our Worldview.
Google still reigns the search world with 65% search share (data from comScore Oct). Yahoo currently holds shy of 19% search share though that figure is expected to rise once the Yahoo/ Microsoft deal is complete.
You’ll find the data quite revealing about what our culture truly cares about.
Note that these are searches on Yahoo & Bing. This does not include Google.
A new report for the Nielsen Company reported that in September 2009, the average U.S. Internet user spent approximately 68 hours online per month. The figure may not seem all that staggering, but consider this: The average American watches 153 hours of television per month (1Q 2009) [Nielsen’s A2M2 Three Screen Report].
One of the benefits (and detriments) of YouTube has been the proliferation of information. More than ever, it is easy to transmit and share information through a variety of mediums. In fact Social Networking has long surpassed email as the most popular medium of online communication.
One the more popular video genres on YouTube are the what I call the statistical videos. The “Did You Know” videos went viral as the eye popping statistics are always fun to share and read about. Though be aware that some of the newer videos are spoofs and contain fake data (though to their credit they acknowledge it in the end).
The video below is a similar statistical video covering the growth and impact of social media. It asks the question, is social media a fad? This message probably targets business and companies that often debate whether allocating money to social media is worth the costs. Then it follows by bombarding you with the incredible growth and impact of social media on our every day lives. I’ve also compiled some social media statistics from other sources below.
Sorry – The video was made “private” due to copyright issues socialnomics is having. But please do check out the LATEST socialnomics video here!
To be clear, Social Media isn’t just Facebook and Twitter. It includes a whole network of sites where users can interact with one another whether it is by sharing information or discussing various topics. Some of the more popular social media sites that you may not at first consider to be part of this group are sites like Digg (Share Links & News), Stumbleupon (Share & Discover Websites), Delicious (Share Favorites), Wikipedia (Share Information), Flickr (Share Pictures), Blogging (Share Anything), YouTube (Share Videos), Linkedin (Professional Social Network) and so on. As you can imagine, social media has grown tremendously and has changed the landscape of information exchange and communication.
“Technology is shifting the power away from the editors, the publishers, the establishment, the media elite. Now it’s people who are in control” Rubert Murdock, Global Media Entrepreneur”
“The word blog is irrelevant. What’s important is that it is now common, and will soon be expected, that every intelligent person (and quite a few unintelligent ones) will have a media platform where they share what they care about with the world.” Seth Godin, Author
Hope you enjoy the social media statistics video! Please share your thoughts below.
[poll id=”13″]
Arbor Networks recently released a large scale study on internet usage utilizing the data from 110 geographically diverse Internet service providers and tens of millions of subscribers. One of the more fascinating points of this study is when internet usage peaks for US internet users.
There was once a point where Internet usage peaked at 8AM in the morning when most US visitors get into work. However this new study showed that Internet usage now peaks at 11PM Eastern time and stays high until 3AM in the morning. This is unique to the United States as Europe was found to peak around 7PM then drop sharply for the rest of the night. Other than a slight dip during dinner hours, US users continue to use the Internet at a high rate during the late hours of the day.
This graph on the right displays the traffic cycle of North American internet users. The blue line marks internet usage through the day showing the most usage in the late afternoon, a slight drip during dinner and a significant spike at 11PM in the evening. The yellow segment is cable / dsl traffic which signifies consumer usage and attempts to exclude business traffic. The graph clearly shows that consumers play a huge role in the late night peak.
The study showed that the rise in usage was not necessarily due to higher number of users surfing the web. In fact Arbor’s analysis suggested that web surfing was constant throughout the day. The data revealed that video watching and online gaming contributed greatly to the late night peak. Though instant messaging and video watching is done throughout the day, video watching starts to rise in the evenings while online gaming jumps as soon as work is over. It skyrockets right after dinner time, peaks around 11PM and carries for the next few hours. We do have to consider the three hour difference between the east and west coasts to account for usage from 12PM to 3AM.
[poll id=”12″]
Please comment below!
Since we highlighted the Part I of this video series called “United Breaks Guitars” by Dave Carroll, we felt it necessary to highlight the next part of the series.
For those of you may not know of “United Breaks Guitars”, an aspiring musician named Dave Carroll wrote and produced a music video after his Taylor 714 CE (A $3000+ guitar) was broken by United Airline’s Baggage crew and United refused to replace his instrument.
This video immediately went viral, now with over 5 million views. It was a hit because many were able to identify with his travel woes.
As Dave Carroll promised this to be a three part song series, everyone has been waiting in anticipation for his second song. See it below.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) technically allows you to carry one musical instrument in addition to one carry-on and one personal item through the screening checkpoint. This is a TSA Screening Policy. Although it is at the airlines discretion whether to allow additional carry-on items on their aircraft. The Security officers will x-ray or physically screen your instrument.
However it is recommended you call the airline ahead of time as a precaution. Also be sure to check the size of your instrument and verify with the airline whether it is within the limits to be considered a carry-on. It is also wise to print out the airline’s policies in case the baggage handlers and security officers are not familiar with the airline policy with instruments.
United Breaks Guitars Part I by Dave Carroll
Most people I speak to think social network sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter are new, trendy and hip, but that does not mean it is popular among the youth.
In a study of 250,000 US internet users, Nielsen has released statistics showing that though 25% of internet users are under the age of 25, only 16% of twitter users in the same range.
The 18-24 year old demographic who are normally the early adopters of social networks were the least likely to visit Twitter while the 45-54 year olds were the most likely, followed closely by the 25-34 year old age group.
If you have not already heard, a young musician named Dave Carroll wrote and produced a music video called “United Breaks Guitars” after his Taylor 714 CE ($3000+ guitar), was broken by the United Airlines Baggage crew and United refused to pay or replace his instrument. Dave Carroll had saved money to purchase this guitar for three years with the hope that once he graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa he could pursue his pro music aspirations.
His video immediately went viral as millions of viewers shared and viewed his music video. He has become a citizen hero to all travelers. When Dave Carroll called in, he kept being transferred to different people unable to get his issue addressed. Then finally when he did reach someone who could have helped, United refused to pay for the instrument. This is despite the fact that another witness on the plane clearly saw the baggage crew literally tossing the guitar and is quoted as saying “My God, they’re throwing guitars around out there!”
Carroll had heard that remark but didn’t connect the dots as he was tired from already traveling for 12 hours. He had carefully protected his guitar in placing his hardshell guitar case into a foam bag. The next day when he opened the guitar case he found it caved in. “I put my hand around the back of the guitar, around the tail pin, and felt that it had just caved in. I probably swore… and what do you say when your guitar caves in like that? There was a silence, and I just put it back in the case.”
He called United but kept getting routed to different employees. He took it to a guitar shop hoping to get it fixed. It cost him $1,200 to fix the guitar but for those who know guitars, the guitar clearly was never the same again.
With the video going viral (currently at 4.1 million YouTube views), United did finally relent and offered to pay for the guitar. They issued this statement: “While we mutually agree that this should have been fixed much sooner, [Dave Carroll’s] excellent video provides us with a unique learning opportunity that we would like to use for training purposes to ensure all customers receive better service from us.”
Dave Carroll has said that when the incident occurred he was angry, but the song he created wasn’t meant for revenge, but is a “light-hearted song, and the idea is to find humor in a situation that is to tragic and happens too often”. Dave Carroll did not accept the offer from United, neither from Taylor which kindly offered to provide him a brand new instrument. He has benefited personally from the attention as he was able to sell a few hundred CDs. His mom helps pack the discs into envelopes to ship them out at home. He has also been offered to do gigs in different locations.
Dave Carroll has said that United should find “someone who is a musician, and might not have the money to fly for medical reasons, and just give them the money to give them a lift — no pun intended. I thought that would be a fantastic idea”.
United ended up choosing to give $3000 to the Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz, an educational organization which among its board of trustees is the United managing director Sonya Jackson. Well, at least they gave it to someone.
As the “United Breaks Guitar” was originally announced as a 3 part series everyone is waiting in anticipation for part two and three. With the extra publicity, there has been more volunteers to help him shoot the videos. Here at Clean Cut Media, we’ll post the other two once they go public.
A story like this is not uncommon. There are numerous stories where a consumer who was upset, utilized the web to let the world know how they were treated. When these stories pick up enough steam the accused company has to step in for public relation reasons. This puts a lot of pressure on companies to keep their consumers happy and treat them well. However it also puts a lot of influence and power on the shoulders of the consumer, forcing companies to allocate resources just to make sure an incident like this does not happen. It is a fascinating dynamic that has spawned from the social networking power of the web. With the ability to share one’s story with millions both in the medium of postings or in this case, a well made video, it makes it very easy for a consumer to heavily damage the reputation of a company. It is easy to side with the consumer since the consumer is indeed the little guy, but let’s also remember that many are unlike the kind-hearted Dave Carroll. Out of anger or a personal vendetta, a single consumer can embellish stories and fabricate rumors that even if they are discovered to be unfounded could put a heavy dent into a companies reputation or image resulting in drops in sales and ultimately loss of jobs. The power of the internet as a medium of communication is powerful, but as they say, with great power comes great responsibility. Unfortunately when anyone can access that power (especially those motivated by anger), the outcome becomes unpredictable.
Powerful Influence of Images in MediaWhen I say Tiananmen Square Massacre, what is the first thought or image that comes to your mind? For the vast majority of people it is the image of the young man making a stand in front of the rolling tank.
There are many such images or photographs out there that has forever influenced public perception. One can cry all you want about starving children, but nothing moves a person emotionally until they see a picture of precious young child starving without food.
This is the power of images. Whether an image of news, or the images we see on TV.
As you may or may not know, everyone has been following the news of the turmoil in Iran through the Internet. As journalists are not allowed (or more like afraid) to officially transmit news out of that country, all the recently events have been followed through YouTube videos and twitter updates. It has been one of the most interesting phenomenons of late.
Hundreds of Thousands of Iranians have been protesting the recent elections between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mir-Hossein Mousavi and 2 other candidates. The crowds are crying fraud due to multiple suspicious figures and the bias way the government conducted the elections. The following demonstrations are now being captured on YouTube videos and being twittered all around the globe. The Tehran’s leaders had taken down telephone systems, took down websites, confiscated tapes from journalists and dispatched police to beat and arrest anyone who dares to protest. The leaders have done everything they could to try to control the news coming out of Iran. Yet they completely underestimated the power of the citizen journalists and the use of social media. Iran, as a highly computer literate country, had citizen hackers working to keep media lines open while the government continually try to shut them down.
One example of Iranian Twittering about the Demonstration: Tehran Bureau
Recently a young woman named Neda Agha-Soltan (Neda means “voice” or “the calling” in Farsi) was shown on video being shot by a sniper’s bullet during a demonstration. As she fell to the ground, she instantly became the face of “freedom”, the symbol of the entire opposition. As this video, which was caught on a cell phone camera, spread quickly around the globe, it has strongly impacted the view of the world’s public opinion.
“[Neda] has become a global symbol of innocence destroyed by evil.” – Times Online
Below is an excerpt about the power of images by Breakpoint
Note: The Book referenced here called “How Now Shall We Live?
Other photos have moved entire nations. As I wrote in my book, How Now Shall We live?, I’ll never forget the first time I saw the famous 1972 photo of a little Vietnamese girl, Kim Phuc, running away after a bombing, her skin burned by napalm. That photo broke my heart and the hearts of countless others, and as I would later write, it “became an emblem for an entire nation questioning its reason for being in Vietnam.”
Another photograph from Vietnam had a similar effect: the photo of South Vietnamese General Nguyen executing a Viet Cong prisoner in February 1968. The picture has often been cited as the image that “as much as any, turned public opinion against the war”—even though the photographer, Eddie Adams, who saw both sides of the story, had not intended it that way.
Adams later wrote, “The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera. Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world.”
Adams was right. For better or for worse, images shape our thinking, our emotions, and our responses to the world around us. Context is always important, for sometimes images can mislead, as Eddie Adams discovered. But sometimes images can show us the truth about ordinary people, people just like us, fighting for the same rights that we so often take for granted.
Could the video of Neda’s lifeblood pouring out on the streets of Tehran be the image that changes everything for her country?
That I don’t know. But I do know this. No matter how hard the Iranian government tries to silence the calls for freedom, Neda has given her fellow Iranians a voice that the world can’t help but hear.
As everyone by now knows, Michael Jackson, one of the greatest pop icons in history died at the age of 50 due to undetermined causes. He was found unconscious by Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson’s personal doctor. Autopsies are underway to determine what may have caused this tragedy. The news so far from the coroner’s office is that there were no signs of foul play.
What followed was a wave of online attention never seen before. The spike in traffic was so abnormal that Google thought they were being attacked by a virus or spyware application. When people searched Google News for “Michael Jackson” they would receive an “we’re sorry” error page.
Some other social media statistics related to Michael Jackson’s Death:
AOL called it a “seminal moment in Internet History… we’ve never seen anything like it”.
Every major news station highlighted Michael Jackson’s Death with large images with multiple articles covering his history, his glorious career, his troubled past, suspicions about his death, about his family, his wealth, and more. It was the fastest and largest wave of information over one news in such a short period of time. The internet as a whole was “slow” as all the major news stations and websites were slowed by the sudden surge in traffic.
I appreciate Michael Jackson’s talents, his singing ability, his dancing ability, it all was fantastic and worth admiring for what it was. However the question I want to pose is…
What does this incredible level of attention towards a pop icon tell us about the culture we live in?
If a war broke out between two small countries, it wouldn’t attract this level of attention. Millions of starving children? Most people wouldn’t read that article, too depressing. How about the continual sex trafficking occurring all around the world? Most people are not even aware of it.
I don’t blame the news outlets, since honestly most of the articles written are just fillers about random things as journalist are trying to find something they could write about. News like this is a goldmine. However they definitely help feed the fire. See some headlines below.
I don’t need to read about the history of Michael Jackson’s face thank you. Every angle you can think of, they wrote it. But the world has never seen this kind of explosion in interest and activity over anything in such a short period of time.
Another Question:
How does one reconcile with the thought that Michael Jackson has a long history of being accused of molesting boys… yet is celebrated and admired on a level very few ever will achieve?
First of all let’s be clear, the question says “accused” not “convicted’. Michael Jackson was found not guilty of the accusations brought before him, though he still continued to allow boys to sleep in the same bed as he did. Yet with the plastic surgeries and the bleaching of skin, Michael Jackson’s was labeled “weird” and “perverse” and his reputation took a huge hit which he never recovered from. By the way Michael Jackson had a skin conditions that would create white blotches on his skin, thus the bleaching of his skin. In case you did not know.
This question is far broader than Michael Jackson. It is a question of how in many circumstances, a celebrity (or any person for that matter) could do the worst of things, yet it is often overshadowed or overlooked simply because of what they are able to accomplish. There are so many actors, singers, sports players who are involved in all sorts of scandals and shown to have very little morals or virtue, yet all it takes is another awesome acting performance, or the memory of some incredible song we all have grown fond of, to simply push all the “bad” aside. Is that right? What does that tell us about our culture and what does that teach our children? Just a thought.
“Michael Jackson proves, in a really sort of perverse way, that maybe we’re not as offended by behavior as we are entranced by music. And think about that. Think about what level of quality you must have to attain to have somebody say, “I know that you’re accused of having molested children, but I can’t hate you for that as much as I love you for your music.”
“There’s just one Michael Jackson now. We don’t have to reconcile the Michael Jackson we love with another Michael Jackson. In a way, he has returned to pristine condition in death. We can be free now for the rest of our lives to love the Michael Jackson we used to love.”
– John Mayer
Again, just a thought. What do you think?
A Web page labeled “Ana Boot Camp” recently offered its members a seemingly irresistible proposition: a 30-day regimen designed to help them drop some serious pounds, no exercise needed. The catch was that the group’s members were to vary their daily caloric intake from 500 (less than half the daily minimum requirement for women recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine) to zero. They were supposed to track their progress, fast to make up for the days they accidentally “overate” and support each other as they worked toward their common goal of radical weight loss.
Pro-anorexia, or sometimes called “pro-ana,” Web sites have been a common fixture in the internet world. The site quoted above was actually a page created in Facebook. These sites have users sharing dangerous diet tips and posting pictures of very skinny girls. The purpose of these sites is to give one another “thinspiration”. Users tend to comment and posting anonymously or with a secret aliases.
“These sites provided a setting where I could talk about the illness without people trying to fix me or tell me that what I’m doing is horrible, disgusting, maladaptive… For me, part of the illness was just about getting attention. You feel so lonely and you want someone to notice you, and I guess that’s kind of the way to do it, even with other sick people.” – Rose 17, Maryland High School Senior
We talk all the time about how bad emotionally driven advertising has had a detrimental influence in our society. Starting at a very young age, billions of dollars are spent to take advantageous of our inner desires for love, significance and our insecurities to sell us things we don’t need. It has changed our outlook about what would truly make us happy and has filled our minds with so much garbage that perhaps many of us feel immune to it. “What is the big deal… right?”.
Well that brings up the question – what can be done?
I wanted to highlight a small plugin for Firefox that will BLOCK ADS on all websites. How does that work? Any ads being served from advertising URLs are simply removed from the page.
See this quick 1.5 minute AdBlock Plus video below to see how it works.
Are you aware that Craigslist were making headlines among the internet sphere for their battle against South Carolina’s Attorney General for the controversial “erotic services” column.Craigslist has become an household name as the place to go to find jobs, to buy and sell items anything from a used DVD to cars to houses. The service boasts 40 million classified ads posted every month. Amidst all the different categories and millions of posting, what often goes unnoticed is the “erotic services” section that is unfortunately accessible to anyone. Adults, Children- anyone can access these classified section.
The Attorney Generals of several states demanded that Craigslist shut down this service as it promotes prostitution. Craigslist chose to implement changes in response to their concerns. It adopted screening measures that were recommended and removed the “erotic service” category… kinda.
To Craigslist credit, they did this despite technically being protected under federal law for content posted by users. Section 230 CDA protects free speech online and it is often used to protect sites like Youtube from being completely shut down to do user videos that violate copyright law. If a prostitute advertises illegal services and carries it out, the prostitute is guilty but Craigslist is free of any crime.
However the Attorney General of South Carolina, Henry McMaster, believed this wasn’t enough and threatened criminal charges if Craigslist did not comply. Craigslist had recently entered into South Carolina and was quickly adapted by it’s residence. McMaster sent Craigslist an ultimatum demanding ALL sexual postings be removed from Craigslist South Carolina. He first threatened legal action if Craigslist did not comply in 10 days.