#notmyorgans

For lunch on Sunday I went to ECV dining hall with a few of my friends and we got onto some pretty strange topics as a group.  One in particular was organ harvesting and how extremely terrifying the concept is.  We also began to talk about how Facebook has had its fair share of hoaxes.  We then decided it would be hilarious if we combined the two in our words then posted it and spread it.  After some brainstorming and "wordsmithing" we came up with a seemingly real Facebook hoax.  The following is what we posted as our status around 1:30 pm on Sunday: 

"It's official. It has been published in the media. Facebook is changing their policies. Facebook is now legally authorized to harvest your organs if you do not set your page to private and release a personal statement of discord like the following:

'I do not give Facebook or any associated entity permission to harvest my organs in any way, shape, or form- before, after or during my death. Due to the changes in Facebook's social interaction policies I am posting this statement to LEGALLY DENY the harvesting of organs from my body.'

PLEASE COPY AND PASTE THIS POST.
Protect yourself and spread awareness to your loved ones about Facebook's new policy.

‪#‎notmyorgans‬ ‪#‎Zuckerburglar‬"

We came up with some pretty hilarious content as well- trying to apply our current campaigns/projects/conditions to highlight #notmyorgans and convince more people to post it to their Facebook.  One of my friends used his current Instagram campaign #threewisewords to display the movement (as seen below).

We were obviously curious as to how our hoax was traveling so we had noticed that those hashtags had maybe a few posts but not any more than ten or fifteen posts.  We checked the hashtag every so often and by about 2:45pm the Facebook search of the hashtag produced the number "1000+ posts."  Unfortunately we could not see exactly where the posts were made, but we were getting texts from old high school friends all around the country saying they had posted it and thought it was hilarious.  It spread like wildfire for about 48 hours and we were even seeing parents post it to their Facebook.  This idea was just a funny joke to us, and we expected a good laugh in our community but after only a couple hours it was very clear that people all around the country were getting to have a nice laugh at this "new Facebook policy."

'Thank Your Lucky Stars'

(See title) that another new Beach House album is coming out!  This album is being released just under two months after their recent album release: Depression Cherry (Aug, 28th 2015).  Any passionate Beach House fan is excited out of their mind for another full dose of velvety space tones so soon after the release of Depression Cherry.  Beach House handled the Depression Cherry release with a relatively classic approach in that they released a single and announced the album kind of early on, but the way that Thank Your Lucky Stars is being handled is way out of the ordinary.  Just a few days ago the official twitter account for the band (@BeaccchHoussse) tweeted out some exciting news to its fans and followers.  The tweet read as follows: "We are releasing our 6th full length LP on October 16th!!! It's called Thank Your Lucky Stars. More info soon....." and caused a great deal of confusion because of how soon the band was releasing another full length LP after the recently released Depression Cherry.  That confusion did not last but a second and was followed immediately with a great deal of excitement- I'll let you read the twitter responses on your own to see just how explicitly excited the fans of Beach House were when this tweet went out.  I do not fully understand the band's tactics in this release; the only possible strategy is that they are taking advantage of the small wave of popularity that was created with DC and hoping to increase the diversity of their fan base with a quick boost of variety.  Whether I understand it or not: I am an excited fan and I can't wait for the release of Thank Your Lucky Stars on October 16th (see tracklist and album art below)  

Thank Your Lucky Stars Tracklist:
1. Majorette
2. She's So Lovely
3. All Your Yeahs
4. One Thing
5. Common Girl
6. The Traveller
7. Elegy to the Void
8. Rough Song
9. Somewhere Tonight

(Fetty) Wap Wap Wap Waaaaaap

If you're confused as to what the title is referencing check out this link: (Wah wah wahhhhh)

Willie Maxwell is the new(ish) face on the scene of hip-hop, you probably know him as Fetty Wap.  His first hit song "Trap Queen" was released in 2014 and gained instant popularity overnight.  The evolution of social media has allowed for hits like "Trap Queen" to surface overnight, but more importantly social media has given us a window into the personal lives of celebrities like Fetty Wap.  Seemingly simultaneous with the release of Fetty's self-titled debut album was the news on Twitter that Fetty Wap had been hospitalized after a bike crash (see title video) near his hometown in New Jersey.  Luckily the singer was not seriously hurt and was stable soon after the incident.  And the accident did not stall or slow Fetty Wap's album sales with 129,000 unit total earned from the popularity of the albums' singles and the album as a whole.  Without social media forms like Twitter, fans of Fetty Wap would not know the play by play of how their favorite artist is doing during or after a serious incident.

That brings up an important feature of social media: how quickly relevant and current information can be communicated and broadcasted to millions.  Obviously the status of your favorite artist is not that important in the grand scheme of things, but this feature of social media allows it to be used in situations like natural disasters or mass terror acts to keep the public informed.  When hurricane Sandy came through people used Facebook, Twitter and other forms of social media to seek aid, check on the status of certain rescue areas, and communicate with loved ones about their current status.  Updates were constantly being sent out to keep the public informed about the progress of the hurricane.  Another example is the Boston Marathon bombings that occurred in 2013; the public used social media to identify potential culprits and find them as well (Boston Marathon Article).

Social media is connecting the world more and more each day, and now its beginning to save peoples lives and help people stay safe in dire situations.