So, what do we remember about 2009? Or more importantly, how did we "vote with our fingers" about what pop culture elements we'll remember about 2009?
According to the Facebook Memology (yes, it's a scientific study now, performed by the Facebook data research division) top 15 status trends of 2009, we think Farmville (and other Facebook applications) is more status-worthy than celebrity deaths, religion, family or even ourselves ("I" ranked at #15).
Moving over to YouTube, our idiocracy proves it's video-crazy, with the Top YouTube videos of 2009 including "OMG, We Can't Believe a Homely Woman Can Sing Beautifully" (Susan Boyle), "Some Parents Shouldn't Have Video Cameras" (David After Dentist), "Wedding Party Dances Non-Ironically to a Chris Brown Song," (JK Wedding Intro), "Hey That 17-Year-Old Actor Now Has Killer Abs" (the "New Moon" Trailer), and, of course, "Roller Skating Baby Gangs" (Evian Babies).
And on Twitter, a tool that I'm still explaining to most of the people I meet, they did Trending Topics top ten lists in seven categories, including People, News Stories, Sports, Technology, Movies, TV Shows and Hashtags. To sum up the year using the top two of each top ten list, 2009 looks approximately like this:
Iran Election, Swine Flu, Michael Jackson, Susan Boyle, Google Wave, Snow Leopard, SuperBowl, Lakers, Harry Potter, New Moon, American Idol, Glee, #musicmonday and, to round out the list, #iranelection.
If you add the #3 position on all those charts, you get:
Gaza, Adam Lambert, District 9, Teen Choice Awards, Tweetdeck, Wimbledon, and #sxsw.
What do you think? Does this list reveal more about what actually happened or more about our fears and anxieties? Should there be a 3-day waiting period for parents applying for videocamera ownership? And will 2010 be more of the same?
This reads like a new verse to Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire."
Posted by: Shawn | December 27, 2009 at 01:16 AM