Yard work and self-loathing the trends for social networkers

Facebook Trends

Facebook users didn’t seem to have a great 2009 according to data the firm has just released. The biggest trends among status updates included celebrity deaths, swine flu, and general depression.

You’ll probably be seeing reports on the data in a variety of outlets today, but many of them are incorrect. The phrases and topics in the list are not the “most mentioned” words or phrases as is being widely reported.

For those of us who are geeky enough to read Facebook’s explanation of the data mining process, it emerges that simply looking at the most used terms (of one to four words) gives generic comments. For example, “just got back from” replaced “is looking forward to” as the most used four-word phrase. About the only thing this tells us is that Facebook users may have used the site more for reporting on events this year, rather than simply for arranging future ones.

The list instead comes from looking at which terms had the biggest proportional increase in use between last year and this year, hence “trends” rather than “popular phrases”. Facebook also categorized different phrases into single trends where appropriate.

Number one in the list was updates relating to Facebook applications, driven largely by the increase in use of games such as Farmville. And if you thought this was a passing fad, you might be wrong: the firm which produces the most popular of these games rakes in $100 million a year.

Things then get depressing (or more depressing depending on your view of the games) in slots two through four, which are held by FML, swine flu and celebrity deaths respectively. For those who don’t speak the lingo, and bearing in mind we are a family-friendly site, the acronym has a meaning along the lines of Forgoodnesssakeiamsomewhatdisappointedin My Life.

Most of the remaining phrases in the top 15 were generic topics (family, sports, movies, religion), while healthcare made the list thanks partly to a brief meme to update statuses to display a message beginning with “No one should have to die…” There were also a couple of statistical quirks on the list: mentions of the years 2008, 2009 and 2010 rose in popularity for obvious reasons, while a rise in the use of “I” was less to do with blossoming egos and more to do with the removal of a mandatory “is…” at the start of updates.

Facebook itself made the list, as did Twitter (probably through status updates along the lines of “…will no longer try linking his Twitter and Facebook updates. What a disaster that proved to be.”) And the only individual in the list was Lady Gaga: again, not because she was most mentioned, but because she showed a great increase in mentions having ascended to fame rapidly.

The site also provided timeline graphs for each of the top 15 phrases, throwing up some interesting stats and patterns. New Moon, Harry Potter and Star Trek were clearly the most popular movies of the year among Facebookers. Patrick Swayze’s death initially had around two-third the interest of Michael Jackson’s, but didn’t hold that interest for as long; Facebook suggests this is down to a lack of mystery about the cause.

And swine flu interest consistently peaks on a Wednesday. One theory is that people pick up the virus when returning to work on a Monday, with the symptoms showing two days later. A less charitable idea is that people are most likely to be looking for a reason to take time off in the middle of the work week.

And the biggest quirk of the entire list? Yard. At first glance this might appear to be down to some sort of fad for a piece of youthful slang. However, the stats show the phrase was most popular between May and September, suggesting it is literally referring to a yard, most likely because more middle-aged and elderly people are using the site and mentioning their outdoor activities in updates.

Five Ways to Geek it Up This Holiday Season

How to make your holiday parties more interestingYes, it really is that time of year again. For many of us the season means withdrawal: less game time, less computer time, less iPod time. And even though it’s getting harder and harder to get disconnected from the virtual world, still, geek-less living can be hard on any of us.

So why not Geekify the holiday season with your family? Here are a few ways that, with proper application, can add a certain joie de geek to the festivities around you.

  • Turn dinner into a science and/or history lesson. Thanks to the patron saint of all things kitchen geek, Alton Brown, and the fact that the Internet is everywhere, we now have access to the history and tradition behind many of our favorite holiday dishes. We take for granted the regular fare, but how about starting off dinner conversation by detailing the history of Christmas puddings, which have been commonly consumed in England since the early 15th century? Or how about a brief discussion about the mis-naming of the turkey by European settlers? Not a history buff? How about the little-known fact that cranberries are, in fact, evergreens. My personal favorite is informing my loving family about past recipes. The most effective is usually the live roast goose (not for the faint of heart, or PETA activists).
  • Indoctrinate, er, share your geeky interests with an unknowing—I mean, uninformed younger relative. A great deal of my own geekery comes from older cousins and relatives who wanted to share their own geeky interests with me when I was a kid. The first time I saw Star Wars, for instance, was right around the holidays. It’s safe to say I’ve never quite been the same. Instead of being forced to watch games or hackneyed old holiday films, see if you can’t arrange a showing of Blade Runner or the original Star Wars films; if you’ve got a lot of time on your hands, consider The Lord of the Rings or Battlestar Galactica. Portability plus: if you can’t get access to the main TV, there’s always streaming media to your laptop or smartphone.
  • Wow your family with new, exciting technology. Of course, this can always backfire, and you can end up trying desperately to explain WiFi to a group of glazed-eyed relatives astounded by your “magic.” However, I find things like the iPhone are surprisingly kind on new users. There really is an app for just about everything, and you might be surprised to see how good your Aunt Matilda is at Angry Birds. If all else fails, take a snapshot of the night sky and amaze and stun the masses.
  • Be a subtle geek. Being a geek is all about the details. Why make boring holiday cookies, when you can geekify them? How about sugar cookies in the shape of the Death Star? Or go with a wide-spread theme, and make gingerbread cookies to re-enact A Christmas Story: red rider guns, leg lamps, hound dogs. I mean really, the possibilities are endless. It’s easy enough to make a cookie template online (for a slightly easier approach, consider printing out a shape and laminating around it, then using a knife to cut it out). Other ideas: Grinch cookies, medieval cookies, Firefly and/or Buffy cookies, Mario Bros. Cookies…
  • Break out the console. I know, I know, you worry that someone might end up tossing the Wiimote at the plasma screen. But there’s something really different about the newest games and consoles on the market right now, in that it’s easy for people to play them. I mean, Skyrim might not be a good choice, but Wii Sports is always a hit. And it does work. My mother, for instance, is a pro at Guitar Hero. And my dad, who has severe arthritis, can actually use the Wii because it only requires a small amount of finger dexterity (other remotes he just can’t use). Instead of games taking you away from your family, it can actually bring you together. And really, regardless of what you celebrate—even if you don’t celebrate anything at all—there’s no price on togetherness.

[Picture source: Flickr | (CC)]

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Living Inside a Full-Sized Lego House

Remember James May’s Toy Stories show we told you about back in November? Well, at the time of the post, 2 episodes remained to be aired, including one where the show’s crew built a full-sized lego house. That episode was recently shown on UK’s BBC Two, and some clips appeared online shortly after, showing Mr. May actually living inside the house. Check it out:

“Avatar” Grosses $242.5 Million on Opening Weekend!

By Jimmy Rogers (@me)
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

Avatar Movie StatisticsThe title really says it all, but there are some other interesting details to share. Avatar, the big hit movie that has everyone talking, really scored big time as opening weekends go.  According to the latest numbers by 20th Century Fox, Avatar earned $77.0 million in America and $165.5 million in the rest of the world (106 countries).  This all adds up to $242.5 million across the world in its first weekend.

These numbers blow away several records, causing Fox to refer to claim Avatar’s first three days as the “highest original content (non-sequel, non-franchise) opening weekend ever.” It now hold the record for:

  • Best Ever Debut for James Cameron (the film’s director)
  • Widest Release of a 3D Film
  • Best Ever Debut of a 3D Film
  • A Record Sale of $9.5 Million in IMAX Theaters (US Domestic)
  • Very High Ratings on Several Demographic Polling Resources

For more complete (but somewhat jumbled) numbers, check out this article on Deadline Hollywood.

Personally I saw Avatar 3D the night it came out (braving heavily falling snow, I might add!) and was stunned by the quality of the 3D, the fantastic CGI, and the moving story.

Did every everybody else love it like I did?  What format did you see?  Do you think it will stand the test of time or will it turn out to be a quickly-forgotten spectacle?

[via Digg]

Monday Evening Humor: King Leonidas vs. Chuck Norris

Some interesting facts about Chuck Norris:

  • When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.
  • Chuck Norris doesn’t read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.
  • There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live.
  • Outer space exists because it’s afraid to be on the same planet with Chuck Norris.
  • Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.
  • Chuck Norris counted to infinity – twice.
  • There is no chin behind Chuck Norris’ beard. There is only another fist.
  • When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn’t lifting himself up, he’s pushing the Earth down.

Facebookers rage against the musical machine

Killing In The Name of

The 1992 release Killing In The Name of by Rage Against The Machine was the best selling song in the UK last week. Why that came to be is an example of several ways in which the internet affects cultural life in 2009.

For many years there was a long-standing tradition in the UK of the “race” to be the number one single in the charts announced on the Sunday before Christmas Day. While rarely an example of musical excellence, the “battle” was something of a cultural icon which attracted media attention and even had bookmakers offering odds.

However, for the past four years, the race has been won by the relevant winner of X Factor, a reality show along the lines of American Idol, complete with Simon Cowell as judge. The show is always timed so that the winner releases a song in the week of the Christmas charts and taking the top slot has become an inevitability. That’s what three months of relentless prime time TV promotion will do.

Until this year.

In the past couple of years there have been unsuccessful campaigns to get another song to the number one slot. Most failed miserably and even the most likely (Jeff Buckley’s cover of Hallelujah, doing battle with the X Factor winner releasing the same song) only made it to a fairly distant number two.

This year a couple named Jon and Tracy Morter, who’d carried out similar attempts in the past, started a Facebook group to get Killing In The Name Of to the number one slot. And it went viral. And by viral I don’t mean that a few ad execs sent joking links to one another, but rather than it attracted just short of one million members.

The question was how many people would follow up on their pledge to buy the single. The answer was a stunning proportion: more than 500,000 did so, giving it an approximate 10% lead over X Factor winner Joe McElderry.

This isn’t just a case of social media allowing people to come together for a cause. It’s also an example of how digital music formats have changed the music charts. Since 2005, downloads have been included alongside CD sales in the UK charts. While several songs have reached the number one slot solely through downloads, this is only the second to do so without a subsequent physical release. It’s also the first time the inclusion of downloads has allowed a back catalog song to hit number one without a formal re-release.

While this isn’t exactly a case of Facebook changing the world, there has been some positive effects (beyond subjective views on musical tastes): the organizers of the campaign also asked people buying the song to donate to Shelter, a charity which helps homeless people. At the time of writing the appeal had raised £81,954 ($130,000), while it’s reported Rage Against The Machine will be donating their royalties from the week’s sales.