People from over 120 countries checked in at the Olympics using Foursquare
When your service goes International, truly International, it’s a very good sign. It seems like those who were carrying around a smartphone at the Olympic games in London chose to use foursquare as their check-in app of choice.
Here’s what the foursquare team shared today:
People from over 120 countries checked in at the Olympics! Top 5: UK, US, Italy, France & Morocco. Start practicing your Bolt poses for Rio!
— foursquare (@foursquare) August 13, 2012
It goes without saying that Twitter and Instagram were hot apps of choice in London, with nearly every athlete who won a medal seeing a jump in followers, but this has to be a nice moment for foursquare.
It’s not a surprise that the UK and US weren the top 5, but I was personally intrigued by the foursquare adoption in Italy, France and Morocco.
Who knew?
Considering that the Olympics were held in multiple stadiums and buildings, foursquare probably snagged a ton of check-ins, especially from repeat users. This is exactly the type of event that caused the company to get hot in the first place, having launched at SXSW in Austin.
Link: People from over 120 countries checked in at the Olympics using Foursquare
London Olympics top 150 million tweets with Usain Bolt the most talked about athlete
As the London Olympics come to a close, over 150 million tweets have been sent about the games. Usain Bolt was the most talked about Olympian, but the UK’s own Spice Girls set a new Olympic record of their own by inspiring 116,000 tweets per minute during the London 2012 closing ceremony.
Twitter has broken out the stats on its blog, noting that the 150 million tweets went out over the past 16 days. During actual athletic competition, Jamaica’s Bolt was the hottest topic, garnering 80,000 tweets per minute (TPM) during his gold medal-winning 200m sprint and 74,000 TPM during his 100m run.
Andy Murray brought in the third-highest count during the actual games by attracting 57,000 TPM after winning the gold medal in men’s tennis singles.
Michael Phelps and Tom Daley came in behind Bolt as the next most discussed athletes at this year’s Olympics. A total of 10 Olympians inspired more than 1 million tweets each.
The most popular sport on Twitter was football with over 5 million tweets. Swimming, track and field, gymnastics and volleyball also generated plenty of discussion.
The London Olympics have been described as the first “Social Olympics,” and Twitter’s new records confirm the active influence of social media on the games. The opening ceremony inspired 9.66 million tweets, and the first 24 hours of the games saw more tweets than the entirety of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. London 2012 also had a tweet scandal when a journalist was suspended for tweeting the work email account of an NBC executive.
Twitter wasn’t the only social service that Olympic fans took to. Chinese fans were highly active on Sina Weibo’s microblog, posting 119 million messages about the Opening Ceremony alone. China also got its own tweet drama when a tech luminary posted the personal information of a US swimming coach in response to comments by the coach that a record-breaking Chinese swimmer may have used performance-enhancing drugs.
Read Twitter’s post for more interesting stats on Olympic tweet habits.
Photo: Kirsty Wigglesworth / AP Photo
Link: London Olympics top 150 million tweets with Usain Bolt the most talked about athlete
From the Olympics to Google’s covert blogger-payments…here’s the week’s media news in review
If you’ve missed out on all the happenings across the digital media space this week, we’ve pulled together some of the more notable events of these past seven days. Where else can you read about the Olympics, Google’s covert blogger-payments and NASA’s Mars landing?
Omnipresent Olympics
It has been a massive week for the Olympics, with records broken left, right and center. And with London hosting what has been touted as the first ever digital Olympics, more than a few notable tidbits from the world of digital media came to the fore this week.
Indeed, PaidContent reported this week that the Olympics has been a bigger media draw than the Super Bowl, with 8 out of 10 Americans following the London Games via TV, Internet streaming or social media. And with that in mind, some interesting numbers emerged courtesy of AnchorFree, a software provider that makes setting up a virtual private network (VPN) a cinch.
It seems that its Expat Shield product, which gives international users a UK IP address, saw a sizable increase in downloads in the wake of the Olympics kicking off – the company said that by comparing five days before the Olympics started, to 5 days after the Olympics, installations jumped by 212% a day globally, and a whopping 1,849% a day in the USA alone.
In real terms, the company says its notching up as many as 6,500 installations a day, with actual use growing by 23% around the world, and 262% in the US.
No specific information was available regarding what spurred this downloads surge, but it’s more than likely that the BBC’s impressive online Olympics offering, which includes 24 simultaneous live streams, has had at least something to do with it.
Indeed, the BBC has had a pretty good Olympics, something that could safeguard the UK TV licence fee for at least another generation, but this has been juxtaposed against NBC’s coverage on the other side of the Atlantic. While broadcasts were made available online for paying subscribers, TV coverage of Usain Bolt’s 100-meter victory was aired hours after the actual race took place – during prime time.
As The Huffington Post reported, when prompted for a reaction International Olympic (IOC) Committee spokesman Mark Adams opted to sidestep the debate. “It’s certainly not for us to tell them how to reach their audience,” Adams said. “If you wanted live, you could get it live.”
The biggest criticism aimed at NBC is the way it has pandered to advertisers, refusing to broadcast many key events live over-the-air to maximize ad revenue. As NPR reported, this was good business but wasn’t tantamount to good quality for viewers, thus meaning that NBC was both right and wrong with its coverage.
Finally, the BBC hasn’t been entirely without its critics, and this week the UK broadcaster’s Director General Mark Thompson came under scrutiny for apparently requesting domestic coverage be far less UK-centric. As the Guardian reported, a memo sent from BBC News director Helen Boaden to staff, titled “An order from the DG”, said.
“Mark Thompson is increasingly unhappy that we are focusing far too much on Team GB’s performance to the exclusion of all else. This is also becoming a theme within the press. As editor-in-chief, he has issued a directive that this needs to change from today. So you need to get cracking on making that shift.”
Thompson is stepping down shortly anyway, but he has often been unfairly criticized. Was it really that bad to request more focus on the achievements of other nationalities? One thinks that it was likely a well-meaning directive, which was easily twisted in the hands of mischievous journalists.
Ebooks may trump hard copies, but Amazon now offers physical textbooks to rent
Amazon revealed this week that UK readers are now buying more Kindle eBooks than printed books for the first time, with British Kindle owners buying up to four times more books than before they owned the popular Amazon e-reader devices.
“Amazon describes the shift as a renaissance of reading, but the company has already seen digital downloads surpass print sales in its biggest market — the US — since the beginning of 2011,” wrote TNW’s Matt Brian.
So this means that Amazon will be looking to phase out printed texts then, right? Well, no.
As VentureBeat reported, Amazon is now offering physical textbook rentals for college students, as it looks to stay at the forefront of the textbooks market. It’s a cheaper alternative, basically.
“While Amazon has offered digital rentals of textbooks for more than a year, this new initiative will cater to students who feel more comfortable with old-fashioned paper books for studying,” wrote VB’s Sean Ludwig. “It also increases Amazon’s rental selection substantially because many tomes are not yet available as e-books.”
Elsewhere in the digital media realm, All Things D reported that Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting unit had acquired Bleacher Report, a popular sports’ site. “I’m told the deal, which we told you about in June, closed Friday, and is scheduled to be announced today,” wrote Peter Kafka. And yes, this was made official later that day.
“Picking up Bleacher fills a hole for Turner’s digital operations, which lost control of SI.com and Golf.com to corporate cousin Time Inc. last quarter”, added Kafka.
Later in the week, Kafka also revealed that Answers.com had signed a letter of intent to acquire About.com from The New York Times, having initially bought the glorified content farm for more than $400m in 2005. The sale is not yet finalized, but it seems it’s almost certainly going to happen, with a figure of $270m bandied about.
Finally, a judge this week ordered Google and Oracle to reveal the journalists and bloggers they’re paying to ‘cover’ the ongoing patent trial between them.
“Should journalists have to disclose when they take money from companies to ‘report’ on issues?”, asked PaidContent’s Jeff John Roberts. “As this type of fake journalism becomes more common, one judge appears to have had enough.”
This is noteworthy primarily because it raises serious questions around why so-called journalists weren’t voluntarily offering this information up-front as a disclosure. If you’re being paid by Company X, to write about Company X, you surely cannot pretend to be an impartial commentator.
Media musings: Facebook, football and Spotify
It emerged this week that Budweiser was set to stream an FA Cup English football match live on its Facebook page yesterday (August 11), making it the first time an FA game was broadcast dual screen, as it was also beamed out on ESPN.
Last year, the opening match of the FA Cup was streamed live on Facebook, and helped establish Facebook’s ambitions as a media player. We can likely expect many more media collaborations in the future.
Good news for Arrested Development emerged this week too – filming for the Netflix-exclusive reboot of the hit comedy show was slated to begin this week. “The entire cast of the show, which includes Jason Bateman, Portia de Rossi, Will Arnett and Michael Cera, will reportedly return to the new season, though some of the cast members are still finalizing negotiations,” wrote TNW’s Josh Ong.
It’s expected to broadcast some time next year, with all ten episodes being made available at once, rather than serialized.
Finally, with so much being written about Spotify’s subscription success, you’d think that the music-streaming service ‘has won’. But as Rhapsody President Jon Irwin noted this week, there’s still a lot to play for. “Spotify may be the leading service globally in terms of paid subscribers, but not in the U.S.–that title still goes to us,” Fast Company reported Irwin as saying this week.
And finally…
NASA made history this week as its Curiosity Rover landed on Mars, taking the November 2011-launched mission to its next, crucial stage.
However, NASA’s official video of the epic ‘land’ was removed from YouTube after fictitious copyright claim from Scripps. 9 to 5 Google reported:
“NASA posted the landing on YouTube. It showed engineers gleefully cheering and celebrating years of hard work. Of course, NASA wanted to share the event on YouTube in a 13-minute excerpt of the livestream that could have been viewed on Ustream, but not to be stopped by a fictitious copyright claim.”
Thankfully, the video is now live online again for your viewing pleasure:
See the rest here: From the Olympics to Google’s covert blogger-payments…here’s the week’s media news in review
The Olympics could safeguard the BBC for another generation of UK TV viewers
It has been a phenomenally successful Olympics for Great Britain & Northern Ireland, securing third place in the gold medal table behind the might of the USA and China.
But rowers, cyclists, runners and boxers aside, it has been a massive event for broadcasters too, in what the BBC was touting as the first digital Olympics. And its success on this front couldn’t have come at a better time.
BBC vs. NBC
One of the unlikely winners of the BBC’s coverage was VPN providers, in particular AnchorFree, which saw its VPN software downloads grow by 1,849% in the US alone since the Olympics started. Were viewers really clambering to get access to the BBC’s online coverage?
24 simultaneous live streams online via a browser, and across a slew of mobile and set-top box (STB) apps. This was in addition to the four channels through digital TV. If you didn’t want to miss a minute of the action, well, you didn’t have to.
This was juxtaposed against the much-criticized NBC coverage over in the States, which let viewers watch live online through MSNBC and CNBC if they were a paying subscriber, or they could watch on TV…at the mercy of NBC’s tape-delays. The broadcaster often didn’t transmit the action as it happened due to time-zone differences, opting to keep it for prime-time instead – more viewers means more advertising revenue.
It’s also worth mentioning its ringside coverage of the boxing – having gained the privilege of being the only media company allowed to broadcast from so close to the action, this ended in farce, after being asked to leave their position for disrupting the judges. The commentary team apparently then stormed off, refusing to take their position in the main media booths alongside everyone else.
Oh, and in related news, the Independent’s LA correspondent Guy Adams was kicked off Twitter temporarily after he tweeted an NBC Exec’s email address, encouraging the public to contact him to vent their spleen. This followed a barrage of criticism from the journalist directed squarely at NBC’s door.
To summarize, in the UK the BBC generally received warm praise for its holistic, cross-platform (free) coverage, and over on the other side of the pond NBC has been heavily criticized for its coverage, despite the network trying to spin a different yarn.
This is all old news now though, and we don’t want to dwell on well-worn arguments. But what is really worth considering here is the impact the BBC’s coverage will have on its future as a broadcaster. More specifically, will it help it ingratiate itself to the next generation of TV-watching licence-fee payers?
UK TV: A Crossroads
We’re approaching a crossroads for TV in the UK. BSkyB has launched a major game-changer in the form of Now TV, a pay-per-view offering that’s currently service up movies to the masses, though will eventually open its doors to Sky Sports (football). This is in addition to the existing optional subscriptions through BSkyB, Virgin and BT.
The BBC, if you didn’t know, is funded through the TV licence fee – an annual tax (for want of a better word) that everyone must pay if they wish to watch television. Regardless of whether they actively consume BBC content.
I’ve long argued that the TV licence fee must be preserved in the UK. Among many other arguments, I previously wrote:
“The BBC TV licence costs buttons – it’s only £145.50 a year. That’s £2.80 a week per UK household, which is less than the cost of a pint of beer (where I live, at least…). It’s a minor tax, and surely you can forget about that for the greater good? But over and above all this, the BBC offers everyone a little respite from the commercially-driven media that permeates every nook and cranny around the world. In the UK, the BBC is an ad-free zone, and it must remain so.”
The gist of the argument was that you get a lot of bang for your buck. And as with National Insurance, everyone pays for it regardless of how much they use the services their money pays for. We shouldn’t underestimate the value of ad-free TV.
Money, money, money
When money rules the roost, the best interests of viewers are often not at the forefront of decision-making. We saw that with NBC – they could’ve broadcast the key Olympic events live, and also shown them during prime-time. Everyone would’ve been happy then, right? Well, with less people watching during prime-time, advertising suddenly doesn’t cost so much, so this wasn’t a priority.
With the BBC, this isn’t an issue because advertisers don’t enter the fray.
There’s little question that if the BBC ‘model’ was introduced as an idea today, it would be blocked at every hurdle. It is very much a remnant from a bygone age, and there probably is a little bit of nostalgia involved for its defenders. But the Olympics have shown that there is still a lot of life left in the BBC, so long as it can continue to provide value for money.
There are other challenges too, ones that must be addressed. It would be remiss of us not to mention the impact the Olympics has had on other UK broadcasters, including BSkyB. Unlike other sporting tournaments, for example the UEFA Champions’ League and the FIFA World Cup, the Olympics was the sole property of the BBC in the UK. As Adage notes, “TV advertisers are suffering in the UK, because commercial broadcasters’ audience share is tumbling during the games.”
Perhaps some of the coverage should’ve been spread around broadcasters, given their respective audiences will likely have plummeted during some of the bigger events. The way things stand, the BBC is likely to fall under increasing scrutiny and pressure from the other big guns, for holding an unfair advantage over them. The BBC has guaranteed income and doesn’t have to worry about pleasing advertisers, while the rest of the pack do.
However, as we’ve seen over this past fortnight, the BBC is doing a pretty good job of evolving – bridging the halcyon days of yore, with the digital delights of the 21st century.
We’ve previously reported that the BBC’s Perceptive Media experiments could transform TV forever, something it unveiled for the first time last month. And just last week The Next Web was privy to some of the current developments with Super Hi-Vision, trialed by the BBC for the Olympic Games. Here’s roughly what it looks like:
Just to recap, Super Hi-Vision is ridiculously hi-res televisual entertainment that should be hitting our livingrooms some time around 2020.
There will still be many detractors, but with its Olympics coverage, I can’t help but think the BBC has gone some way towards ensuring that the licence fee remains in place for at least another generation.
Read this article: The Olympics could safeguard the BBC for another generation of UK TV viewers
The First Truly Social Olympics: Tell Me How You Really Feel
It’s a brave new world my friends.
There were more tweets sent in a single day during the Olympics last week than there were during the entire 17-day competition in Beijing in 2008. In 2010, during the Vancouver Winter Olympics, there were around 307,000 mentions of the term Olympics during the opening weekend of the event, as opposed to 3.5 million this time around. And we may not even be prepared for just how social the 2012 games have been — spectators during a cycling event were asked to halt all tweets unless they were “urgent” as the data hungry onlookers were interfering with GPS equipment.
It’s a truly social Olympics, the first of its kind, so where else would we turn but to the same the real-time social network that toppled a dictatorship, powered a massive American protest, and brought down the likes of Anthony Weiner. It’s Twitter’s time to shine. The communication floodgates are open, and when the entire world congregates around one city, one competition, and (in the U.S.) one broadcast network, there is to be an expected amount of sewage pouring through our social channels.
It’s the first time we can peer directly into the internal world of the Olympics, the world’s most celebrated pop-culture event, and it would seem that it’s not too pretty. Let’s just take a look at what the combination of Twitter and the Olympic Games has yielded:
The Athletes
To be fair, most of our tweeting athletes are only thanking followers and friends for being supportive, or tweeting other mundane, Olympics-giddy type things. But as it’s the first opportunity these champions have had to publicly broadcast their opinion on the Games to the entire world (whenever they want, based on whatever emotions they’re feeling at the time — which are only expected to be particularly intense), we’ve also seen quite a bit of negativity.
Racists
There are, of course, the two Olympic champions who were banned from the games for being racist jerks, the first a Greek triple-jump champion and the second a Swiss footballer.
Even if we put the racism aside, these incredibly hateful “jokes” are very upsetting to the ordinary Olympics fan, and hugely disappointing to these athlete’s respective nations. I remember watching the past few Olympics and being so inspired, so hopeful about the fact that so many countries could come together (despite wars, natural disasters, etc.) and enjoy each other through the art of sports. That optimism is easily broken by talk like this. Sure, shit-talking (laced with racist hate) likely occurred in earlier Olympics, but viewers weren’t subjected to it. Good times.
A Big Brat
Possibly more pathetic, some of our champions are complaining about the quality of sports analysis on their games. Specifically, Hope Solo (the U.S. women’s soccer goalkeeper) went on a rant via Twitter, blasting former player (and hero — remember that shoot out in the 1999 World Cup) and commentator Brandi Chastain.
Lay off commentating about defending and gking until you get more educated
@brandichastain the game has changed from a decade ago.#fb— Hope Solo (@hopesolo) July 28, 2012
Why stoop so low, Hope Solo? Granted, Twitter is built to broadcast your opinions. Everyone should be able to say what they feel — it’s a free country. But this isn’t necessarily a morale-builder for the team or their following. I played team sports for 15 years, competitively from the age of 10, and one of the first things you’re taught is that the team comes first. This rant, even from one player, becomes a representation of the entire team. By complaining like a brat on Twitter, in the middle of the tournament no less, it becomes that much harder to be a supportive fan.
It makes me wonder, why is Hope Solo even listening to Chastain’s commentary? She should be watching the game tape and getting feedback from coaches and teammates. The fact that she’s Tivo-ing (or whatever) the NBC broadcasts to hear what commentators are saying about her is unattractive at best and downright egotistical at worst.
Brandi Chastain, classy as ever, did not rip off her shirt and beat her chest. She simply responded with the following:
My only comment is I am in London to cover women’s soccer for NBC in an honest and objective fashion, and that is what I have done, and will continue to do for the rest of the tournament.
At least we can be proud of our announcers.
Protests
Still disenchanting, but not at all unwarranted, athletes are also enjoying a bit of a protest on Twitter. The Olympics bans athletes from talking about their sponsors via social media until three days after the Games, unless of course they’re sponsored by one of the official partners.
Plenty of athletes, especially track and field stars, are using Twitter to vent their frustration with Rule 40.
I am honored to be an Olympian, but
#WeDemandChange2012#Rule40@nbcolympics— Sanya Richards-Ross (@SanyaRichiRoss) July 29, 2012
Dozens of other athletes tweeted the same exact message during the course of these games. Dawn Harper took it a step further:
Goodnight World… Can anyone guess what’ll be in my dreams.
#Rule40 twitter.com/DHarp100mH/sta…— Dawn Harper (@DHarp100mH) July 30, 2012
Both sides have a point. As much as we’d all like this to be a Kumbaya, World Peace, love-fest, the fact the of the matter is that the Olympic Games are a cash cow for a lot of advertisers. When you pay a great deal of money for exclusive advertising rights, as Adidas, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Visa, and Ralph Lauren have done, it would seem unfair if other brands were promoted directly by the athletes for free.
At the same time, these athletes are not only fed and housed by their sponsors, they actually believe that their brand helps them perform at their best. As role models to many aspiring athletes, they want to share their wisdom and expertise when it comes to gear. And on their personal Twitter, it makes sense that they should be able to.
In either case, it’s not exactly magical to watch the business of this play out during the Games, as much as I believe that this is an issue that needs to be hammered out.
The Viewers
The Games have also drastically changed for many viewers. Yes, the key demographic of soccer moms is unaffected by Twitter (aside from the Twitter fails that were publicly televised and reported). But this is only the beginning of a massive shift. Look how many moms are on Facebook; as time goes on the younger generations carry this technology further and further into the future.
Guy Adams
Let’s start with Mr. Adams. You likely all know the story by now, so I won’t get too in-depth. But a journalist, Guy Adams, had his Twitter account suspended after joining multitudes of other Spectweeters in criticizing NBC for saving popular events for prime time hours. Drama commenced as Twitter first disclosed that NBC had sent in a complaint about Adams “publicizing” an exec’s email address, and then NBC mentioned that Twitter actually notified NBC of the “offense” before any complaint was filed.
Of course, the inevitable backlash ensued: Free speech! Twitter sucks! You get the gist. (No worries, by the way, Guy Adams is alive and well on Twitter once again.)
There are two sides of the argument, both understanding what Twitter did and abhorring it, but there’s no reason to delve into that. The point is that, no matter how delightfully dramatic, it was equally disheartening (if not moreso).
#NBCFail
The Olympics are about moments. Incredible moments: Michael Phelps winning by 1/100th of a second in 2008, or him becoming the most decorated Olympian of all time, or Jordyn Weiber nailing her floor routine in the women’s all-around, securing a gold for the U.S. We join Visa’s “global cheer” in these moments, and live in them together.
But for the first time, we’re aware of the fact that these magic moments aren’t live. We aren’t in the moment, just watching them. NBC tweets out the results of events before airing them, or we hear about it from other tweeters. And sometimes, NBC blatantly tells you who won the event just before airing it, on the TV, as if this won’t ruin it for us. The network has done this since forever, but only now, with real-time social networking, do we hate it so much.
Combine that with the inability to share anything via social networks, flawlessly streamed ads via the app with mediocre streaming of events, and generally non-existent coverage of some of this Olympics’ biggest moments, and you get one of the most popular hashtags of the whole event, #NBCFail:
Watching Olympics.Commentator:”it’s all upper and lower body”. What else is there?
#nbcfail— Kathy Reichs (@KathyReichs) August 3, 2012
Al Roker just spoiled today’s weather for me! DOES NBC HAVE NO SHAME???
#NBCFail— Jeremy Bingaman (@iowaradioguy) August 1, 2012
Ryan Seacrest is the high fructose corn syrup of TV journalism.Ubiquitous and without any apparent benefit.
#NbcFail— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) August 1, 2012
.
@tivo asked if I’d like to add more time to recording@london2012, because it’s LIVE. (Silly TiVo, NBC olympics isn’t live!)#NBCfail— Brian Burch (@brianburch) August 1, 2012
Dear
@nbc: the ratings are good because you have monopolized our access to the#olympics.NOT because your coverage is good.#nbcfail— Michele (@SiMichele) August 8, 2012
Dear United Kingdom, You can be our colonial masters again if you bring
@bbc#Olympics coverage with you. Love, America#NBCfail— notLikeNormalPeople (@notlikenormal) August 2, 2012
Threats
Tom Daley is a British diver who got fourth in men’s synchronized diving. His father passed away last year, and he has said publicly that he’s competing for himself, his dad, and his country. @Rileyy_69 is some punk teenager in the UK who sent him this tweet after the loss:
After giving it my all…you get idiot’s sending me this…RT
@rileyy_69:@tomdaley1994 you let your dad down i hope you know that— Tom Daley (@TomDaley1994) July 30, 2012
But then it got worse:
@tomdaley1994 sit your ass back down tommy and don’t get on a diving board again my little brother could do better absolute waste of space— ЯIᄂΣY JЦПIӨЯ (@Rileyy_69) July 30, 2012
@tomdaley1994 hope your crying now you should be why can’t you evenproduce for your country your just a diver anyway a over hyped prick— ЯIᄂΣY JЦПIӨЯ (@Rileyy_69) July 30, 2012
Shortly thereafter, this Riley kid turned on the news, and realized everyone in the world hated him, so he started apologizing.
@tomdaley1994 I’m sorry mate i just wanted you to win cause its the olympics I’m just annoyed we didn’t win I’m sorry tom accept my apology— ЯIᄂΣY JЦПIӨЯ (@Rileyy_69) July 30, 2012
@tomdaley1994 please i don’t want to be hated I’m just sorry you didn’t win i was rooting for you pal to do britain all proud just so upset— ЯIᄂΣY JЦПIӨЯ (@Rileyy_69) July 30, 2012
@tomdaley1994 to be really honest tommy i wish i had a talent like you and that’s the reason why I’m jealous just sorry again#TeamDaley— ЯIᄂΣY JЦПIӨЯ (@Rileyy_69) July 30, 2012
And then, the kid lost it:
@tomdaley1994 i hope you lose on the individual event aswell because your shit— ЯIᄂΣY JЦПIӨЯ (@Rileyy_69) July 30, 2012
@theroycropper tell me where you live you cripple i’ll knock you out with norris and sniff emily’s gash all night long say something— ЯIᄂΣY JЦПIӨЯ (@Rileyy_69) July 30, 2012
@_ollyriley come on then you cunt i’ll stick a knife down your fuckin throat now comeback and stop hiding from me— ЯIᄂΣY JЦПIӨЯ (@Rileyy_69) July 30, 2012
While basking in the glow of his 15 minutes of fame:
how am i trending worldwide?
— ЯIᄂΣY JЦПIӨЯ (@Rileyy_69) July 30, 2012
I’ve got 34,000 followers retweet that and if you match it I’ll leave for good
— ЯIᄂΣY JЦПIӨЯ (@Rileyy_69) July 30, 2012
I’m in the fucking newspapers omfg
— ЯIᄂΣY JЦПIӨЯ (@Rileyy_69) July 30, 2012
Then he got arrested:
I’m going to the fucking police station now to sort this i will be back
— ЯIᄂΣY JЦПIӨЯ (@Rileyy_69) July 30, 2012
I’m all for Twitter and social networks and the general progression of humankind into the digital era. As I mentioned before, Twitter is far more of an asset to us than a problem. But during the Olympics, a time when we can forget what a pile of rubbish this world is and enjoy an international showcase of the world’s greatest athletic talent, 140 characters can really put a damper on things.
Originally posted here: The First Truly Social Olympics: Tell Me How You Really Feel