Twitter gaffe lands holidaying Murdoch in warm water
Rupert Murdoch’s foray into the world of social media has provided its first car crash, with the global media mogul stating the British have too many holidays for what he termed a ”broke country”. Mr Murdoch, who joined Twitter on December 31, quickly deleted the message, but not before it was read by many of his 40,000 followers, who helped spread it around the website.
”Maybe Brits have too many holidays for broke country!” Mr Murdoch, who is holidaying on the Caribbean island of Saint Barthelemy, wrote early yesterday.
It was first thought that his wife, Wendi Deng, replied straight away with: ”RUPERT!! delete tweet!!”, after which the tweet vanished within a minute. Her account has since been revealed as a spoof.
The decision of the octogenarian billionaire to embrace Twitter has been greeted with surprise by many, given his previous view of the internet as the home of ”porn, thievery and hackers”.
Charities report increase in junk dumped
Every festive season the St Vincent De Paul society i s swamped with useless household items and unwanted gifts as people clear out their garages and cupboards. Instead of helping the charities, the annual dump costs the society $1.5 million a year as up to 50 to 60 per cent has to be taken to the tip.
Figures show 500,000kg of non-resaleable items in NSW are dumped on charities each month. Some of it is recycled but much of it “unfortunately ends up as landfill”. Donations to the Vinnies store in Surry Hills have included sex toys, dirty underwear, bottles of alcohol and knives. Staff members yesterday filled five rubbish bags with junk.
Tech-savvy Aussies are anything but close friends
Facebook habits have exposed us as unsocial with about a third seeing fewer than five of our online friends in the past year, research reveals.
The research also found just more than a third of us do not consider our Facebook friends’ list a “true friends” list. More than a quarter admit they do not know all their friends on Facebook.
How many of your Facebook friends do you consider to be ‘real’ friends?
Drag queen tampon ad ‘transphobic’ claim
Tampon maker Libra has apologised after its new ad was branded “outrageously transphobic” and caused a storm of controversy on social media websites. In a statement issued tonight, Libra said it regrets any offence taken to the New Zealand television commercial, which implied transgender people are not real women because they don’t menstruate.
The ad, which wrapped with the catch phrase “Libra gets girls”, faced strong criticism, with dozens posting harsh comments on the company’s Facebook page.
Watch the ad below: do you find it offensive?
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Top Comments
I never really got facebook until a few close friends moved overseas. Now with time differences making phone calls too hard its the best way to keep in touch. I can see how it can get out of hand though. I have had friend requests from people I have never met and from people I havent seen in years. I dont accept ones from people I dont know. I keep my security settings at the higest level because it is a way I communicate with my real friends and dont want strangers being able to view that.
One of the reasons I left Facebook was that I felt there was no "social" aspect to my "friends" on Facebook...
I feel much "closer" to the people I chat to on Twitter...
I don't really get the difference - surely it's about how you use it? I only recently started to use facebook to keep up with mostly younger friends - some of these friends I see rarely, but it's nice to keep up with their lives (with 20+ years age difference, we're not going to be socialising every weekend); others are OS family members who I can keep up with or contact easily; others are people I also see in real everyday life, but facebook is convenient for arranging things or sharing interests that I wouldn't want to waste their time with a specific email. So, to me, Facebook is like an animated address book - keep in touch with some people I rarely see, chat often with some I see more often, use it for arrangements with groups of other friends I also see everyday (but don't want to make 10 phone calls to arrange something).
The weirdest thing about Facebook is the general public statements people make about themselves without any specific audience from their "friends" in mind, or any specific choice by friends to consider or discuss some issue. This still seems weird to me, and I just can't/don't do it, but I think that's age. There's no real difference to putting down an opinion there that people can engage with or not, and making a comment here. But I don't mind if my "friends" do it - those who are too obsessed with self-revelation can just be turned off, and with others I quite like being told something trivial that might never come up in general conversation.
Twitter is weird in this way - how can people possibly monitor/care about more than a few twitter feeds? But maybe this is just unfamiliarity with it. The accounts I've had a look at don't seem worthwhile to me. opinion-swapping at it's most memory-less.