MANILA, Philippines - While Twitter has long overtaken Facebook in the social media arena, the latter was able to regain the spotlight for a few days this week as it marked its 10th anniversary. Only it did so mainly through the help of Twitter, because how else can it be viral without the aid of the most contagion-spreading social media platform available? Even when Twitter takes a step back, it inevitably takes center stage, because that’s just the nature of the beast. Once you’re on Twitter, there’s no escaping it. Here were the top most inescapable trends of the week:
R.I.P. Philip Seymour Hoffman
Celebrity deaths, as “mourned†and commemorated on Twitter, have become increasingly dull with every obligatory “RIP†tweet that gets thrown into the pile. But every once in a while, an untimely death can still send shockwaves amid the numbness. Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was 46 when he died of a heroin overdose this week, but his relative youth isn’t what makes the tragedy jarring — it’s his ubiquity. Not only is he perhaps the greatest character actor of his generation, he’s also responsible for making “character actor†a household term by being in virtually every critically-acclaimed movie every year. Seeing him in any random movie during awards season is as certain as death and taxes, but the former — death — has won out, inevitability. We will no longer see a new movie with Philip Seymour Hoffman in it. And this is too weird to digest.
I’ve seen Hoffman play eccentrics, misfits, and perverts, but the performance that resonates with me the most is his portrayal of legendary rock critic Lester Bangs as a sympathetic loser in the movie Almost Famous. The way he says “We are uncool†to dejected tween rock journalist William Miller, with equal parts sadness and pride, has stayed with me. I have no idea if the real-life Bangs was really that comforting to talk with — all I know is that he was a passionate music writer who had substance abuse issues himself, and that Hoffman probably imagined him a certain way, so that it is his sadness and acceptance of life’s intrinsic tragedies that informs the role. “The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you’re uncool.†These are words that will never rest peacefully in my mind.
* * *
Which Twitter trends did you love and hate this week? Tweet us @PhilStarSUPREME!
Flappy Bird
When you see something trend on Twitter that sounds stupid, it’s often a safe bet that it actually is. The first time I saw “Flappy Bird†as a trending topic, I thought it sounded too dirty to be taken seriously. But then I decided it would be a huge oversight on my part, as some sort of chronicler of all things Twitter, to not even give it a try. So I downloaded the stupid game and all I can say is that it’s absolutely genius.
As a game app, Flappy Bird is counter-intuitive on two fronts. First, its graphics are as primitive as its gameplay is simple. Second, and most importantly, it’s ridiculously hard and borderline impossible. It’s basically the complete opposite of every popular game app that ever existed. It’s the punk rock Angry Birds. And everyone on Twitter is absolutely infuriated and addicted. Because it’s so hard and so maddening, you can’t stop playing it; and because you can’t stop playing it, it becomes increasingly maddening. In this regard, Flappy Bird is actually a very accurate simulation of life, or at least our romanticized view of how to approach it: it’s short and frustrating, but the thought of inevitable and repeated failure should not be the foil of persistence; it should be the fuel. You can now download existentialism via the App Store and Google Play.
Facebook celebrated its 10th birthday this week, which I thought would make me feel old until I realized that I only joined the site four years ago. Facebook itself reminded me of this, as they were sweet enough to do a retrospective video of those four years, set to pretty grandiose, your-life-flashing-right-before-your-eyes music. But since I’ve never been an active Facebook user, it was weird to see all those stupid posts and obsolete memes presented in heart-warming Super Bowl ad form.
I could only imagine what the experience was like for people whose entire life revolves around Facebook. I bet their “lookback†videos were moving and poignant — seeing their old friends, people they’ve broken up with, loved ones that have died. But like all of Facebook, the highlights were all chosen based on an algorithm, simplifying your last 10 or so years into number of likes and random calculations. It was a pretty apt way to celebrate a decade of quantifying the human experience.