The Year In Culture

Forget The Social Network, it's all about keeping mom off Twitter

I tab over to Facebook, and I see a new chat from my mom.
Jesse Einsberg and Justin Timberlake starred in Aaron Sorkin’s criticallyacclaimed film "The Social Network," which tells the story of Facebook and itsfounder, Mark Zuckerberg.
Last month, when I job shadowed at CultureMap, I spent got to spend some timewith the lovely social media editor, Fayza. She taught me the ins and outs ofsocial media as it relates to CultureMap; naturally, I was inspired to starttweeting again.
Photo by Karen Walrond
Now, everyone is Tweeting and Facebooking everything from their thoughts onJustin Bieber to where they are having dinner.

I’m a student, so I like to think that I am pretty up to date on the latest and greatest trends in media and technology. A few nights ago, I’m sitting in my room, checking out the latest and greatest offerings from Context Clothing, jamming to some Sufjan Stevens, when all of the sudden, I hear a noise that we all know and love – the sound of a new Facebook chat. I tab over to Facebook, and I see a new chat from .... my mom.

She got an account several years ago at the insistence of one of her friends, but I didn’t think she actually used it. And I definitely didn’t expect her to Facebook chat me from downstairs.

“Hi Dill…” she wrote.
“Hi mom…” I responded.
“Aren’t I funny?
“No.”

This entire episode only lasted a minute or so. Nevertheless, it made me realize something: in 2010, social networking transformed from a trend to an integral part of our everyday lives.

I joined Twitter on October 28, 2008. At the time, I was an avid fan of the podcast Diggnation, starring Digg.com founder Kevin Rose and former TechTV star Alex Albrecht. The two would always talk about the things that they saw on Twitter; so I decided that I would make a Twitter account to keep up with both of them. At the time, Twitter was reserved the true techies and hipsters. No one at my school had ever heard of it.

Everyone had Facebook, but Twitter? Psh.

I tweeted away for a number of months, before deciding that my life was not interesting enough for others to read about. So, I took a Twitter hiatus, and checked it irregularly for a number of months. Last month, when I job shadowed at CultureMap, I got to spend some time with the lovely social media editor Fayza Elmostehi. She taught me the ins and outs of social media as it relates to CultureMap; naturally, I was inspired to start tweeting again.

When I logged back on, I was shocked to find that, in my absence, Twitter had become mainstream. All of my high school friends were on Twitter now, posting things like “I hate school” and “Obama is going to steal my AK-47 and my BMW.” In addition, major companies in industries ranging from finance to food service now had Twitter accounts.

Twitter was not the only social network to grow in 2010: On multiple occasions, Americans visited, and spent more time on, Facebook than they did Google. Jesse Eisenberg and Justin Timberlake starred in Aaron Sorkin’s critically acclaimed film The Social Network, which told the story of Facebook and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg.

On Nov. 2, the business-minded social networking site LinkedIn reached the 80-million member mark.

The reality is that social networking is no longer reserved for techies and teenagers. Not only does my mom Facebook chat me, but my friend’s aunt spends at least three hours per day playing Farmville. In fact, according to iStrategyLabs, the number of Facebook users in the 55-plus demographic grew by 922.7 percent this year.

What does all this mean? 2010 was the year of the social network, and now, everyone is Tweeting and Facebooking everything from their thoughts on Justin Bieber to where they are having dinner. Our phones are rarely used for actually calling people — they are devices for texting, tweeting and e-mailing.

I think that, in 2011, we will see social networking continue to assert its position as a significant part of our lives. Regardless, I refuse to let my mom get a Twitter.

Editor's note: This is the fourth in a series of articles CultureMap will be running this last week of 2010 on The Year in Culture. The stories in this series will focus on a few key points, things that struck our reporting team about the year rather than rote Top 10 lists or bests of.

Movie Review

Heartfelt animal adventure Hoppers is another Pixar classic

Photo courtesy of Disney/Pixar

Mabel (Piper Kurda) and King George (Bobby Moynihan) in Hoppers.

For the first 15 years of their history, animation studio Pixar delivered one classic film after another, an astonishing streak that included their first 11 movies. Things got bumpy starting with Cars 2 in 2011, and even though the majority of their output has been good-to-great ever since, their releases are no longer considered slam dunks like they once were.

They’re back with an original film, Hoppers, trying to return to form by going back to the animal world. The film centers on Mabel (Piper Kurda), a 19-year-old environmentalist who’s trying to stop a new highway being built by Mayor Jerry (Jon Hamm) in the fictional city of Beaverton. Her activism has as much to do with helping displaced local animals as it does with being nostalgic for her youth, in which she spent years observing nature with her Grandma Tanaka (Karen Huie).

She finds an unlikely possible solution when she discovers that her college professors have created a system that allows them to transfer — or hop — their consciousness into animal-like robots. Hijacking a beaver robot, Mabel joins up with the local wildlife, including beaver King George (Bobby Moynihan) to try to convince them to help her execute her plan. But with the highway almost complete and Mayor Jerry willing to do anything to make it happen, Mabel might be too late.

Directed by Daniel Chong and written by Jesse Andrews from a story by Chong, the film cycles through a variety of genres in its 105-minute running time, including comedy, drama, thriller, and even a touch of Pixar-style horror. When Pixar has been at its best, it seamlessly goes back and forth between genres, trusting that audiences will go along with them for the ride, and Hoppers feels like a return to form in that respect.

Humor rules the day as Mabel adjusts to being part of the animal world while her professors desperately try to get her and their robot back. Mabel encounters not only wildly confusing things like “pond rules” (if a predator catches you, you don’t fight it), but also the existence of a hierarchy within the world that involves kings or queens from various animal classes like reptiles, birds, amphibians, fish, and insects. Her one-track mind and the way of the world she is invading clash in a variety of funny ways.

As the film goes along, Chong, Andrews, and the rest of the filmmaking team also find a way to burrow into the audience’s heart. There are many elements that threaten to tip into eye-rolling territory, but the filmmakers consistently pull back before that happens. The number of fun characters on both the human and animal side helps in that regard, as does the simple yet profound message they’re trying to convey.

Pixar has assembled one of the best voice casts in recent memory for this film, including such big names as Meryl Streep, Dave Franco, Melissa Villaseñor, Vanessa Bayer, and the late Isiah Whitlock, Jr. However, due to the sheer number of characters, only Kurda, Moynihan, and Hamm truly stand out. Still, they all fit together well and give the always-stellar animation even more life.

Since the pandemic, Pixar has only released one truly great film (Inside Out 2), but with Hoppers and the seemingly bulletproof Toy Story 5 coming within a few months of each other, they might go back-to-back on that front. Like the classic films from the studio, it has goofy, heartfelt, and exciting parts, mixing together for an enthralling time at the theater.

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Hoppers opens in theaters on March 6.

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The Year In Culture

Forget The Social Network, it's all about keeping mom off Twitter

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Heartfelt animal adventure Hoppers is another Pixar classic

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