Tag: Twitter

Social Commentary in The Forever Purge

Bradley FarlessLeave a comment
A promotional movie image for "The Forever Purge". The name of the movie is shown in big block letters in the top right. A heavily armed man wearing face paint and a cowboy hat with attached bull horns sits astride a horse wearing a horse skull as a mask and painted with the US flag.

We watched “The Forever Purge” a few days ago and I felt like it was the weakest in the series so far. The acting was good. The sets and costumes were amazing, though there were quite a few instances where scenes and shots were lined up and slowed down as if in anticipation of screenshots, Wonder Woman style, which is a trend that is starting to get tiresome.

The main problem I had with the film is that social commentary was just too heavy-handed and clumsy. At some points, I expected all of the action to stop, the character to turn and look full into the camera, and for a “So kids…” monologue to ensue. It was too preachy.

This movie was a deviation from the rest of the series, which focused on human nature and what people would do in severe circumstances. It was obvious that this movie was about Trump and Trump’s perceived cultural legacy, and it’s a shame to see how much Trump affected the minds of so many people.

I enjoy social commentary in movies, but make it a part of the movie itself instead of being explicitly stated. Make it complex and provoking, but let us figure it out as we digest the story and relate it to our own lives.

I’m tired of this idea that specific narratives and ideologies need to be shoved in people’s faces all of the time, baldly and without nuance. I’m reminded of the actions of certain groups who migrated from Twitter to Mastodon (Fediverse) after Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter. They had an explicitly stated desire to politicize everything on Mastodon as much as possible with current and former US political issues. One user commented that Mastodon users wanted to have a quiet space to discuss hobbies and interests and they had to specifically disrupt that to amplify their message. How vulgar. How perverse. How ironic!

Twitter Banner on New York Stock Exchange on IPO Day

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My wife took these photos this morning. She said it was ok for me to try to take credit for them. 😉

Twitter Banner on NYSE for IPO
Twitter Banner on NYSE for IPO

Twitter Banner on NYSE for IPO
Twitter banner close-up.

NYSE with Twitter Banner
Around 4:30 PM.

I’ve seen a lot of people saying they think Twitter’s stock is overpriced, but didn’t a lot of people say the same thing about Facebook? I was under the impression that turned out ok. Maybe the difference is that Twitter hasn’t found a very effective monetization method, yet. But, I think they’ll do ok. I wasn’t really keeping up with this until my wife sent me these photos. Now I wish I’d planned ahead and jumped on the bandwagon early. Maybe next time around.

Cool Twitter Error Page

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“Something is technically wrong.”

Got this page when I clicked on a ‘We’re on Twitter’ link from a web page. I’d never seen it before and thought it was really cool. I love all of the characters that new web services are coming out with. Case in point is Brizzly’s mascot, as well as the various iconic mascots from Twitter, like its bird and fail whale.

Usually, getting an error page irritates me, but when I get error pages and see cool stuff like this I can’t help but be entertained.

A Twitter Anniversary Card

Bradley Farless9 Comments

My wife and I recently had an anniversary and we got a card in the mail from my dad.  When I pulled it out of the envelope, the first thing I thought of was Twitter.  Maybe I’m using Twitter too much, but this card looks oddly similar to the Twitter bird, and to one of the default background designs you can choose for your Twitter home page.

If you’re curious, the card is made by Hallmark, but I wasn’t able to find the design on the Hallmark website.

How Real Are Friends On Social Networks?

Bradley Farless7 Comments

I remember asking myself this question a few times, but not any time recently.

When the internet first became popular, and I was delving into the world of AOL chat rooms, the people on the other end of the screen names popping up on my monitor seemed… well, impersonal.  It was always like talking to a group of random strangers, and the idea of making friends with people I’d never met in person was ridiculous.

Well, that was 13 years ago. The times, and my opinion, have both changed.  I’m sure that most people who have grown up with internet access would find it odd to not make and keep online friends.  It seems only natural nowadays to stumble across an interesting person, strike up a conversation, and create a lasting relationship.

I have plenty of friends that I’ve never seen in person, but have known for a long time through various methods of internet communication.  In fact, one of my oldest friends is a friend I made through an online game called Dark Age of Camelot.  We’ve been chatting off and on for about 7 years.  I’ve never know anyone else outside of my family for that long.  I also still communicate with the people I played World of Warcraft with two years ago.

I suppose you could say, “Well how well do you really know these people?”  Sure, that’s a good point.  How well can you know someone who you only communicate with via the internet?  A person can tell you one thing but actually do another, and you’d never know since you weren’t there.  But, I suppose that takes a leap of faith initially, and a little trust.  Also, with the more recent explosion of “real time” social networks (think Twitter) it’s becoming easier to get to know a person you’ve never met.

People Tweet about all kinds of things, from what they have in the morning, to what they do at work, to the last time they were able to successfully take a crap.  That’s pretty personal.  On top of that, people Tweet photos and videos.  I think there are even geo-tagged Tweets now?  Also, programs like Google Latitude are becoming popular.  It’s becoming more and more simple to connect and get to know your online friends.

So, I would have to say that I know plenty of people that I would think of as friends, that I’ve only chatted with online.  What’s your take on it?  Have any interesting stories to share about meeting people online?  Or do you think it’s bad or dangerous?

(Image Source: Kikolani.com)

Twitter Social Games Are Annoying

Bradley Farless1 Comment

Recently I heard of a new social game called Spymaster.  Well, not so much heard of, as much as suffered from.  The game is currently in beta right now, and is something that has been cooked up for Twitter.  I can understand social games on Facebook.  They make sense, because they’re separate and they don’t interfere (too much) with other people’s home pages.  If someone’s updates are annoying you, you can hide the updates from that particular application, to keep your stream from being cluttered.

Spymaster, on the other hand, seems to manage its notifications by posting everything a player does to their Twitter stream.  Yes, everything.  The problem with that is that on Twitter, you either follow someone or you don’t.  There’s no way to hide particular Tweets.  So, if you start putting out a lot of spam you give people two choices, put up with it or un-follow you.  I’m leaning towards the latter.  It’s hard enough to sort through all of the Tweets I get already, without having to scan through crap like “I just did damage to @XXXXX in an attempted assassination attempt!”

Twitter is all about providing useful information to your friends, either in the form of status updates, witty sayings, links, images, video… well you get the picture.  In other words, no one is following you on Twitter to read your spam messages from a social game.  I mean, who really cares?  Other than yourself of course?

I don’t see Twitter games that spam people’s streams becoming overly popular, but if they do, I hope to God that people are smart enough to create a separate account for it.  One last thing I’d like to say is, isn’t Twitter already suffering under the current load?  Is it really smart to try to build a social game that sends a lot of Tweets when the platform is already regularly overloaded?