According to a recent technology study by National Public Radio’s Elise Hu in All Tech Considered, three of the top 20 most tweeted-about events ever occurred on February 3, 2013—Super Bowl Sunday. Ironically, only one of those events actually involved the football game itself, the 108-yard kickoff-return by the Baltimore Ravens’ Jacoby Jones, who set a post-season NFL record with the play. Jones’ touchdown, however, was only the third most tweeted-about event, recording 185,000 tweets per minute. Hu’s study uses statistics found publicly on Twitter’s blog page, calculating tweets per minute, and categorizing them according to tags or topics. Now, Twitter can measure just what all the hype was about while it is still happening. Even though it occurred at the Superbowl, the most tweeted event of all-time, however, had nothing to do with football. Beyonce’s jaw-dropping half-time performance, which included surprise appearances by former group members Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams of Destiny’s Child, became the most tweeted-about event of all-time netting a record 268,000 tweets per minute. In fact, the show was so electrifying that the 22-minute power outage which followed Beyonce’s performance at the Superdome in New Orleans, La., became the second most tweeted-about event ever, receiving 231,500 tweets per minute. When asked her opinion of Twitter and social media in general, Hayley Bleazard, a junior biology major from Cedar City, Utah, said, “I have a twitter. I don’t use it very often though… usually out of boredom.” Bleazard sometimes uses her twitter account to tweet about personal thoughts and comments but also enjoys social media for its interactive approach to life’s daily routines. “The show ‘Pretty Little Liars’ has hashtags that pop up on the screen for you to comment about. it makes watching the show more interesting for me. But that’s about it. I do think social media can be useful but [it] can also be a big downfall for a lot of people.” Hu notes that only two of the top 10 events were not related to sports or entertainment, but instead were political events–presidential debates. The first debate of the campaign season held in Denver, Colo., showed a well-prepared Republican candidate Gov. Mitt Romney taking a powerful stance against President Obama back on Oct. 3, 2012. This highly-anticipated debate shocked the public and gave possible indications of the likelihood of the election outcome. It became the fourth most tweeted-about event at 158,690 tweets per minute. Other notable events in the Top 20 included; the Miami Heat winning the NBA finals in Game 7 over the San Antonio Spurs— it ranked a fifth all-time with 150,00 tweets per minute, The Spice Girls’ performance at the London Olympics 2012 ranked 7th with 110,000 tweets per minute, and the release of “Sharknado”, a Sci-Fi horror film that became an instant cult-classic basically overnight, landed the final spot at #20 on the chart with just over 5,000 tweets per minute. Twitter, and other forms of social media like Facebook and Vine, are transcending the bounds of public communication. Now, with the millions of users worldwide, events can be detailed and compared to one another to determine just how much buzz is circulating about the blogosphere. Twitter and other social medias can do things TV rating cannot provide- immediate responses. While the statistics regarding these events seem rather meaningless, they help paint a picture as to what really attracts to the public. “Numbers become more meaningful when you can compare two similar events,” said Simon Rogers, Data editor for Twitter on the company’s blog. Sporting events, award ceremonies, even tragedies like the Boston Marathon Bombings, can be instantly documented and shared from the insider perspective. Social media can now see just how significant events really are to the pop-culture hungry, mainstream demographics of the world. People even turn to social media as their source for information, often hearing of breaking news through Twitter before any other news source. And it makes perfect sense—millions and millions of people are active twitter users. “Every two and a half days, a billion Tweets are sent. Put another way, that’s three for every man, woman and child in the United States — or five for everyone in Brazil,” reported Rogers.Top 15 events people tweeted about in the last year:1. Beyonce’s 2013 Super Bowl performance2. 22-minute long Superbowl blackout3. Jacoby Jones 108-yard Kickoff return in Superbowl4. The Denver Presidential Debate in October 20125. 2013 NBA final game between Miami & San Antonio6. 2013 Grammy Awards 7. 2012 Olympics closing ceremonies8. Town Hall Debate October 20129. “Argo” wins best picture at 2013 Oscars10. Usain Bolt wins 200m Gold at 2012 Olympics11. Vice presidential debate October 201212. Democratic National 2012 Convention 13. Golden Globes 201314. Republican National 2012 Convention15. 2012 State of the Union Address
Writer: Austin Meldrum~Multimedia Journalist
