Five things worth sharing from the last week or so, brought to you by a different member of the Browser Media team every Friday.
This week’s My Five is by Ali.
1. #RoastYourselfChallenge
Many will be familiar with the very weird (IMO) Roast Me thread on Reddit where individuals take a selfie, post the picture on social media and ask people to effectively cyber bully them. The insults are pretty intense.
In a lighter hearted take on the above, the #RoastYourselfChallenge has emerged from prominent US YouTuber Ryan Higa (17m subscribers) and evolved after other YouTubers had been feuding. Rather than point out the flaws of others, the idea is that you do exactly what the title says and roast yourself.
Higa’s own Roast Yourself rap contains references to his once-bleached hair, the fact that he dropped out of college, and other embarrassing shortcomings, including the fact that he cried in a video about his mum on Mother’s Day.
The trend is currently still within the confines of the US YouTube community but it’s quite likely to spread and may catch on in the UK as us Brits are usually pretty good at the art of self deprecation.
2. Taking photographs enhances our experience
A new study from the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business and published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology shows that contrary to popular belief, far from spoiling the moment, taking and sharing photographs on social media actually enhances our experience of it.
The university sent 2,000 people on a variety of activities, including museums, bus tours and restaurants. Half of the participants were told not to take any photographs and the other half were told to snap away. The results were conclusive that those who were allowed to take photographs always ended up having a better time.
Apparently it’s not the actual act of the taking the picture itself but by doing so, the photographer is making a mental note that this event or experience is significant enough in their lives to capture and share with others. This is particularly true for food: participants who photographed their meals were more immersed in the dining experience that those who did not.
It’s also shows a movement towards people using social media as a back catalogue for their lives – a reverse digital diary where they can retrospectively enjoy their favourite memories.
3. Tech obsessed
The Quality of Working Life 2016 report from the Chartered Management Institute shows just how distracted we’ve become with emails and social media. Forty per cent of adults admit that checking emails is the first thing they do when they wake up and the last thing they do before they go to sleep.
Some companies have started taking steps to reduce and in some cases remove this stress by allowing employees to literally shut off their email accounts when they are not on shift and others are allowing staff to delete all the emails they receive whilst on holiday. In fact, France passed new labour laws very recently that makes it illegal for companies to send emails to employees after office hours. The theory is good but it will be interesting to see how this works in practise and how it can be enforced in multi-national organisations.
4. Will Google acquire Twitter?
Microsoft is buying LinkedIn so it follows that Google will buy Twitter, right? Well yes according to analysts and share prices.
Some think that the Microsoft deal will pave the way for Google and the reasoning does seem to add up. Twitter has a massive user base but is failing to turn that into profit and Google has had a number of fairly mediocre attempts at creating a widely adopted social media platform. Google has reintroduced live tweets in to SERPS and Twitter advertisers can now use Google’s DoubleClick Bid Manager and DoubleClick Campaign Manager to buy and measure campaigns on Twitter.
Sounds like just a matter of time.
And finally…
5. Politest googling granny
A grandson who looked back through his grandma’s google history, was surprised to see her using her best manners in search queries. Apparently she thought that there is an individual at Google who replies to searches.
The story soon went viral and she became an overnight sensation. And she even got a very personal reply from Google HQ. Sweet!
Omg opened my Nan’s laptop and when she’s googled something she’s put ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. I can’t ??? pic.twitter.com/hiy2tecBjU
— Ben Eckersley (@Push10Ben) June 9, 2016
