A funny thing happened to Twitter in 2010: It became essential. In 2009, the social media service saw some remarkable moments: the Twitter storm during Michael Jackson’s death, Ashton Kutcher and Oprah gaining a million followers. But it still couldn’t shake the perception that it was a joke and a waste of time. Who wants to know when you’re sipping orange juice or how good your lunch was? Well, if you’re a celebrity, a lot of people do. You can see it in the over-the-top posturing of Kanye West or the maddening online presence of Justin Bieber fans.
This year, Twitter became a key part of the pop culture landscape and played a part in some of the defining pop culture trends of 2010.
Twitter didn’t push Kanye West or Lady Gaga into celebrity, but it did help cement reputations built on exhibitionism, posturing and
eyebrow-raising statements and gestures. Twitter put an interesting spin on a very old phenomenon: the teen idol. In September, a Twitter employee admitted that, at any given time, Bieber occupied around 3% of the site’s not-insignificant resources. It’s not surprising, considering searches related to the Stratford, Ont., heartthrob commonly dominate the service’s “trending topics.”
What’s more heartening is seeing how Twitter could also be a force for good in pop culture. Roger Ebert, the dean of movie criticism, turned to Twitter after he lost the use of his voice after cancer surgery. Those 140-character missives have turned Ebert into more than a film critic. He’s grown comfortable weighing in on politics and the media. It’s also allowed him to respond to his critics and his fans alike. Twitter, in short, has turned Roger Ebert into a rare thing in pop culture: a public intellectual.
The social media service also helped craft one of the best nerd revenge tales of 2010 when it helped rally supporters of late-night talk show host Conan O’Brien. Online fan efforts to save a show or a popular figure are nothing new but few of them have reached the ferocity and visibility of Team Coco, the grassroots effort to get Conan O’Brien his job back after he was ousted from The Tonight Show back in January. In the end, O’Brien would move his show to TBS, bringing some of that loyal fan base with him. Rival Jay Leno’s late entry on Twitter still haunts him today, with his Twitter account just having a bit more than 100,000 followers, 5% of Conan’s two million followers.
And it’s in TV that Twitter is having its biggest impact. The most entertaining part of this year’s Oscar broadcast might have been the stream of tweets from smartphone wielding celebrities in the audience and the millions tweeting along from home. For TV series and reality TV, Twitter has been a godsend. It’s given audiences a way to add live commentary, and plenty of snark, to everything from So You Think You Can Dance to AMC’s zombie series The Walking Dead. Spoilers be damned, Twitter is bringing back appointment television and the day-after water cooler chat, albeit in a slightly different, more immediate form.
Twitter’s future isn’t certain. Few things on the Internet are. And in a few years time it might go the way of companies like Friendster or Real Audio. But for now, if you want to make a splash in pop culture, one way to do it is 140 characters at a time.
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