New York City comedian Lynn Bixenspan has recently been hailed as ‘one of the funniest feminists on Twitter.’ Social media has become an increasingly huge landscape of posts and opinions by comedians, artists, and celebrities that try to claim a place with the internet audience. To stand out amidst this huge crowd is definitely an…
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Perhaps some Americans had a bit too much turkey and stuffing last week, or maybe the Republican Party just needs to hire an intern to check spelling and grammar mistakes on social media. Nonetheless, Sunday proved to be an interesting day on Twitter with the GOP tweeting a photo of Rosa Parks with the…
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Russian parliament debate law to strip gay parents of their children. In February the Russian parliament will debate a bill that could cause same sex parents to lose custody of their children. The potential law would allow the state to strip parents of custody if they practise ‘non-traditional sexual relations.’ Currently in Russia children can…
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‘Wow, this user got the equality of retweeting almost down to an art,’ says Twee-Q, a website that analyses your retweets on Twitter based on the gender of the original tweeter. Boy, am I relieved! It definitely ranked high on my list of concerns. In fact, it comes in third, just after the price of…
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Before Twitter was as omnipresent as it is now, the concept was regular fodder for the writing of op-ed columnists. Experts, journalists and technophobes started philosophising about what this latest social networking site meant for privacy, intimacy, and communication. Globe and Mail writer Ian Brown even theorised that Twitter’s appeal had something to do with…
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The whimsical image of a writer brings to mind thoughts of troubled souls shut away in dark rooms, with a piece of paper and a pencil, or a typewriter, pouring their creations onto the page in deep isolation. When the writing isn’t going, that doesn’t matter, the writer can take a walk, or indulge in…
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Minding one’s lovely lady lumps isn’t usually the kind of advice stored under the heading “Safety Tips for Ladies”. But that’s exactly what the latest Twitter trend is. #safetytipsforladies was trending on Twitter on Tuesday 26 March, attracting a variety of hilarious, attention-grabbing tips strung together in less than 140 characters. The hashtag, coined by…
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With the twenty-first century came the rise of the celebrity. We live in a society obsessed by the concept of “celebrity”. We lap up and crave stories and rumours and gossip about people placed firmly in the public eye, and don’t we just love it all the more if their lives turn to trash in…
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I don’t think I could handle being a teenager today. And something I never thought I would say when I was a teenager – I would hate to be a celebrity. My reasons for both come down to social media. Don’t get me wrong, I love social media and it’s a large part of my…
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Where do we draw the line when it comes to social media? In the past few years, I don’t think I’ve ever come across a person under the age of 30 who doesn’t have at least one social media account. Tales of these bizarre creatures seem to circulate amongst my friends in hushed voices: ‘…and…
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Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest…the list goes on! So many social media and blogging pages, millions of people using them each day along with the thousands of dating websites around, are we just living in a fantasy world and losing the ability to interact with actual human beings? I think back to when I was growing…
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If the concept of two weeks of Olympic coverage sends you hurtling towards your hard drive ready to demolish five seasons of HBO drama programming, don’t fret – the soap opera that is the lives of professional athletes could entertain you yet. Pop media interviews with young female sports stars have been problematic in the…
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Saturday night sees housemates communicating virtually through their latest favourite app, ‘Draw Something’. It involves drawing a misshapen picture on your smart phone before sending it into cyberspace for a person who is similarly engaged to decipher. Is that portly figure Bert Newton’s head or an eggplant? How do you represent ‘navy’ to an absent…
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Chances are if you’re reading this, you’re a Gen Y (meaning you were born between 1980-2000, though these dates are not clearly defined). Gen Y are sometimes referred to as the Millennial Generation, Generation Me and the Net Generation. Gen Y is stereotyped as having Peter Pan syndrome, being disrespectful to authority figures, having a sense…
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