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Author Archive for Carter Breazeale – Page 39

Reactions are Here

Find yourself feeling a bit heated at the political articles your buddy incessantly pollutes your Facebook newsfeed with? Maybe that meme making the rounds deserves a little more than a mere “like.” Well you’re in luck, because Facebook finally unveiled its revamped “like” features—now designated as “reactions.”

Back in September I wrote about the long-rumored “dislike” button reportedly headed to a timeline near you, and Facebook’s new “reactions” appears to be the result. The new feature allows users to display a wider variety of responses to posts in the form of emojis—“love,” “wow,” “haha,” “sad” and “angry” now accompany the ubiquitous “like” button. It’s not a sweeping representation of the range of human emotion, but hey: it’s a start.

One of the more clever aspects of the reaction buttons is that they act like GIFs once you hover over them, providing an animated reaction. It’s a neat addition to the Facebook interface.

As with most of the new features that Facebook puts in place, the new reaction buttons came without warning. One morning you’re liking posts per usual, the next you’re clicking the “love” button on John Oliver’s latest segment.

Facebook does not sit still. There are new features constantly in the works or in the pipeline, and reactions is a unique extension to a platform that refuses to be complacent.

Don’t Kill the Messenger

In the brilliant film The Social Network, the curious mentor/mentee relationship between Mark Zuckerberg and Napster cofounder Sean Parker is explored. Seeking advice on the direction and trajectory of the still fledgling website, the pair—along with partner Eduardo Saverin—discusses the pros and cons of advertisements on Facebook during a lunch meeting.

“A million dollars isn’t cool; you know what’s cool?” Parker quipped.

“…A billion dollars.”

We all know how much heavier Zuckerberg’s pockets have gotten since that meeting. We also know how the company’s view of advertising has evolved, as well.

Facebook avoided advertising altogether in its infancy—but it’s become an ad-machine in recent years. There’s advertising on the website’s sidebars. There’s auto-populated sponsored content. And now it looks like Facebook is considering adding advertising functionality into its messaging client.

This is a big leap for Facebook—but don’t immediately jump to delete messenger or get paranoid that some unseen developer is lurking your private conversations. Per leaked internal documents, it appears that Facebook’s first step for in-message ads will be limited to conversations directly with businesses. What this seems to entail is that the new message you receive may be from a corporate bot trying to sell you loofahs.

Facebook’s relationship with advertisers has changed rapidly over the years, and this is yet another domino to fall toward enhanced and increased ads. Is this where it stops? We shall see—but when there’s billions to be made, there’s always a new avenue to deepening ones’ pockets.

Grammys Roundup

Ah, the Grammys, where Kanye West is always a risk to storm the stage and Steely Dan can beat out Radiohead for Album of the Year. The music industry’s premiere awards show always leaves us with a handful of can’t-miss moments—here’s my top 3

1. Kendrick Lamar Crushes It

Whatever Kanye tells you, nobody is bigger in rap right now than Kendrick Lamar. He was famously snubbed two years ago for Best Rap Album (Macklemore? Really?), but last night was an ode to his dominance. Kendrick brought home five pieces of Grammy hardware and then brought it all home with his performances of “Blacker the Berry” and “Alright” off of his heralded record To Pimp a Butterfly. Although he lost to Taylor Swift for Album of the Year, his victory on the stage was unequivocal.

2. Lionel Richie Tribute

Who doesn’t love Lionel? And who doesn’t love Lionel crashing his own tribute section to treat the crowd to “All Night Long”? It was a loaded section of musicians from all genres paying homage to the Man Himself. John Legend performed the Commodores’ “Easy” and Luke Bryan tried his hand at Richie’s “Penny Lover.”

This is all a prelude to Lionel jumping up from his seat, grabbing the microphone and singing one of his greatest hits to a theatre entirely on its feet. Musician mashups are typical fare for the Grammys, but this one definitely stands out as one of the best

3. Gaga Goes Ziggy

Lady Gaga is popular on the PR/PR blog of late, and her tribute to the late David Bowie is earning her another mention here. Gaga is a natural fit to assume the role of Ziggy Stardust, and her effects-laden, futuristic performance would have gained the approval of the Starman himself.

She touched on many hits from Bowie’s expansive catalogue, such as “Changes” and “Rebel Rebel,” with the visual component being nothing less than stellar. It was a fitting tribute for a man that warped everyone’s understanding of music.

 

 

 

Lady Gaga Dominates the Super Bowl

Social media has become an intrinsic component to any major event. Twitter activity, Facebook mentions and Google searches give you an immediate look into the pulse of the public. The Super Bowl was no different.

Google Trends released its visualized data for search results during the game, and while it should come as no surprise to her fans, Lady Gaga clocked in at number one by a large margin. Her stunning rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner had viewers scouring Google for the first upload. It certainly warranted a re-watch. Or Two. Or Five.

It’s no secret that Gaga has been struggling to regain the level of success she enjoyed a few years ago. As with any act that deems itself “artsy” but seems to be communicated by a level of shock-value, people tend to stop paying attention (see: Miley Cyrus). Gaga’s orchestrated comeback began in 2015, and with Sunday’s performance she may have completely sealed it.

What was lost underneath the steak suits and over-the-top theatrics is that she can flat-out sing. Her vocal chops were on full display for one of the most watched events in television history, reintroducing her abilities to millions—and giving pause to those who would have previously reached for the “mute” button. Her Google domination during the Big Game shows an interested and engaged public, and it may have been the final domino to fall in her comeback campaign.

Pharma Bro vs. Wu-Tang

Martin Shkreli is never going to win any public popularity contests. “Pharma Bro”—as he’s mockingly known online—became infamous when, as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, purchased the AIDS medication Daraprim and jacked the cost up 5,500 %. From $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill.

Why? Because he could.

So while it’s safe to say Shkreli will not be in the good graces of many for the foreseeable future—and this is setting aside his indictment for securities fraud, yikes—he should be a bit concerned with one particular enemy he’s recently made.

After learning that Pharma Bro was the guy that purchased the only copy of Wu-Tang Clan’s latest record, “The Wu – Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,” member of the group Ghostface Killah had some choice remarks for him (warning: language.)

Now, it’s probably a wise move to just cover your ears and play the “la-la-la-la” game when Ghostface calls you out in the media, but being the comic book villain that he is, Shkreli couldn’t resist. Not only did he acknowledge the comments, but he responded in this awful, awful video (again: language.)

Foot firmly inserted in mouth, Shkreli proceeds to threaten the rapper and ask for a public apology. It went over about as well as you’d expect.

Fired from Turing Pharmaceuticals. Charged with fraud. Universally loathed. Beefing with a legendary rap artist. Not a good few months for Mr. Shkreli. With this series of events, the only next logical development is a reality show.

We’ll keep you posted.