In February, we'll be celebrating the 10-year anniversary of Facebook. Celebrating, you say? Well, whether or not you haul out the Dom Perignon, it's time to take stock.
Less than a decade and a half into the new millennium, we have already witnessed the birth of some game-changing social phenomena. Consider these common terms that would have made little or no sense in 2000: "We're on Orange alert." "What a cool tweet." "I'm defriending you."
But perhaps the most confounding trend in our wired age is the emerging insistence by public figures on destroying themselves - in 140 characters or less. "As someone who covers politics," writes a columnist for the Santa Fe New Mexican, "I implore politicians from the local to the national levels to keep tweeting and Facebooking to your hearts’ content... you’re making my job easier."