The Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton

One week before the the royal wedding, I am curious about what this wedding will do with the (social) media on the 29^th of April. This is what I think: the trending topics on that day on Twitter will be: wedding, Prince William, Kate Middleton and off course, the wedding dress of Kate. For months, the media are speculating about the wedding dress of Kate Middleton, and finally she will show her dress to Prince William and the rest of the world. Furthermore, the newspapers around the world will be completely under the spell of this wedding. Search engines such as Google and Yahoo will be overwhelmed by interested people from all over the world who are searching for pictures of the wedding, the wedding dress of Kate and off course Prince William. And let’s be honest, I can’t blame them because I will do the same thing on April the 29^th.

Who is the Mole?

The Netherlands the popular television program” Who is the Mole?” (Wie is de Mol?) is almost over. After weeks of exciting assignments, the winner will be announced and also the mole will reveal her/himself. For weeks, the mole has been trying to deceive the other participants and to ensure that assignments fail making sure as little money as possible is won. It is incredible that the mole is now also Twittering. Each week the mole Tweets something so that conspiracy theories are made by many Dutch people. In addition, conspiracy theories about who the mole could be can be shared on the forum of “Who is the Mole”? with other forum users. Everyone thinks they know who the mole is, one is 100% sure it's Art, another one had doubts between Soundos and Karin and another is convinced that Patrick is the mole. One thing is clear, the mole keeps us entirely under a spell, on television, Twitter, and the forum.

Be careful with what you tweet! It’s not smart to share everything!

Apparently, it is still difficult for many people to not use Twitter for writing about stupid things. That’s hard if you want to be as fun and interesting as possible on Twitter. Jose Enrique of Newcastle United could not keep his mouth and let people on Twitter know that he would not play against rival opponent Tottenham Hotspur. Not a smart move by Mr. Jose because the coach wanted to keep the news from the public for as long as possible. Thanks to this smart action, each Newcastle player got a free Twitter course: “what can I do and say on Twitter”.

In the Netherlands there were also a few things with Twitter which did not make people happy. Following the Tweet of a senior police officer from the southwest of Drenthe (in the Netherlands) which stated some negative things about the PVV (political party), this time the head of another police force in the Netherlands crossed the line. He could not restrain himself to be out negative about the PVV on Twitter. That was the drop that spilled the bucket and all police officers now get a free course: “what I can and cannot say on Twitter”. Maybe they can ask for the signatures of the Newcastle squad.

But if that wasn’t even bad enough, there is a Dutch teenager who was apparently looking for some attention on the Internet. She thought it was fun to Twitter about committing a bombing at her high school. She thought she would be so funny. But afterwards, she was arrested and interrogated by the police. It’s a lesson to learn for her because she is also temporary suspended from school. Now she has plenty of time to think about what is funny and what is not…. 

One positive thing though, is that a new industry is born thanks to these people: courses in Twittering!


Telegraaf - Newcastle

Telegraaf - Police 

Telegraaf - Student 
 

We Dutch people still live in the Stone Age when it comes to Social Media

How can it be that that the Dutch are so far behind with other countries on so many things? Hyves, we thought, was the next big thing and Facebook was not really interesting. It was more than enough to interact with your close friends or their friends through the use of Social Media. But now, while we were sitting here doing close to nothing for a few years, numbers tell us that suddenly we are all registering with Facebook. Facebook gives us the opportunity to be in touch with the world, instead of only our native country. In the past half year only, one million Dutch people have made a new Facebook account and by the looks of it, this rise will not give out yet!

But now; Twitter. While we are speaking, there are an estimated 200 million active Twitter accounts and of those only 191 thousand originate from the Netherlands. I hear you thinking; that is a small amount! But it is true! It gets even worse. We have 191 thousand accounts and only 9550 of them are owned by companies or other organizations. Yes you just read it in the right way; NINETHOUSANDFIVEHUNDREDANDFIFTY of the 884 thousand companies and organizations in our country use Twitter. All we do is cling to our safe little world. Please, do not ask us to be innovative on the area of Social Media. But I ask you, my dear fellow Dutchmen and women, do not behave so conservatively! When Social Media is used in the right way, it has a lot of opportunities. In the following little movie you can see 10 reasons why Social Media is not a choice but an absolute NECESSITY! 

Sources: 

Twirus

Webwereld

The vicious circle of finding your ultra-perfect partner

Yes, a new semester! Of course this means exciting new courses. During one of them, I learned that love relationships via the internet are a vicious circle. How? I will explain.

The first step is finding a suitable partner. There is an infinite amount of ways to find your perfect partner using so-called “dating sites”. On these sites, you can search for someone who suites to all of your personal desires, brown or blond hair, green or blue eyes, smoker or non-smoker, casual or retro clothing. And if this is not enough, you can filter your search even more by choosing education level, and if you do not want to hook up with a dwarf, choosing height is also a possibility. Oh, while we’re at it, the least we can do is tightening our packet of even further. It would be a pity to hook up with a construction worker instead of a doctor. Even when you have found the “perfect” partner, you can sign in for a new dating site, this time for people with a perfect partner. 

Did you find the right partner on this site to talk about relationships? Now you can chat and exchange your pictures with your new “perfect” partner. After more and more chatting, Facebooking, twittering and exchanging other information, intimacy will grow. The more they interact, the more they will realize that their current partner is less perfect than their newly found one. Of course, such an “ultra-perfect” couple will arrange a date. After a wild night together they decide to continue with each other because who does not want the ultra-perfect partner? But then after a short while, when both of them are getting bored, they break up their relation using a Tweet on Twitter. Now they have arrived at the “I’m a bachelor phase”. And for people who have arrived at that phase, numerous internet sites exist on which they can show their ubercool I’msohappywithoutapartner-life to the rest of the world. And when their inspiration for Tweets about the bachelorlife has dried out, of course that life has to be changed. How to do that? You guessed it, datingsites!
Renate Geven