Nappy changing, drink driving, and David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’

Bad parenting, or the way of the future? This story really caught our attention – it’s a bit of a stinker! The latest social media technological advancement allows parents to be alerted via Twitter when a nappy needs changing. TweetPee monitors the moisture levels in a nappy – when there’s an increase, it sends an alert to Mum or Dad. We think this might have just taken social media that one step too far…

One small step for man…one giant leap for social media. A video of astronaut, Chris Hadfield, singing his own version of David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ over 200 miles above the earth, has gone viral after it was launched onto the World Wide Web at the weekend. The clip had already received over 1.8 million views on Youtube by Monday afternoon and has been shared thousands of times on social networking sites, as well as receiving worldwide media interest. Those wanting to find out more about life in space can check out the Canadian Space Agency Youtube channel for videos of Chris explaining about being sick in space and how to cook spinach in zero gravity.

Earlier this week it was announced that the Minnesota police force plan to Twitter-shame drunk drivers as it embarks on a citywide crackdown. Twitter-shaming, whilst not uncommon amongst the more opinionated online users, after a Los Angeles restaurant tweeted the full names of reservation no-shows, has been growing in popularity amongst businesses and organisations looking to hit back at unfair reviews, perceived injustices or, in the Twin Cities case, outright felonies. On Friday night more than 150 law enforcement squads roamed St. Paul and Minneapolis conducting the area’s largest one-night DWI patrol and tweeting all arrests made that night. With more drunk driving accidents occurring during warmer months, the Police Department has said it will continue its Twitter-shaming approach with every patrol and blitz it undertakes.

We have all heard of Facebook stalking and perhaps one or two of us are occasionally guilty of the self-indulgent pastime, but is it going too far when Facebook stalks you? Facebook has gone far beyond the realms of ordinary data analytics by simply analysing user profile data. When we set up our social media accounts Facebook inserts a ‘tracking cookie’ into our web browser so it can track us as we surf the net. Facebook then delivers this information to advertisers in a fully comprehensive advertisers dream package. In an echo of a haunting horror film the words ‘Facebook is watching you’ ring true!

This week Google announced its latest innovative search update. With the aim of making interaction more conversational, users will be able to ‘awaken’ Google with the hands-free prompt ‘OK Google’, followed by a question such as, "Will it be sunny in London tomorrow?" (unlikely) and receive a spoken answer. Continue the conversation with "How far is it from here?" and "How about the weather in Manchester?" So what does the future hold for offices up and down the country? Will we be chatting away to our computers or be sticking to the trusty keyboard? Watch this space…