Has social media made us all stupid? During the Boston manhunt for the marathon bombers, the #tweeters, the Facebookers, and Reddit users spread all kinds of erroneous rumors, provided tons of false leads, and misidentified several individuals as the bombers. If that wasn’t bad enough, several mainstream media outlets ran with stories that weren’t true.

First, during the Boston manhunt, CNN’s John King breathlessly reported the bomber was a dark-skinned male who had just been arrested. Of course, that went viral immediately. U... More

The presidential debate wasn’t even half way over when the Facebook page for “We have women in binders” reached 80,000 likes. Just as quickly, countless silly images could be seen on Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, and on blogs across the political spectrum. In case you missed it, here are a few of them.

If you have ever read the Bible you figure out pretty quickly that if you want to get anywhere in life you pretty much have to devote yourself to either God or the Devil. For example, Robert Johnson became a famous guitar legend by making a deal with the Devil at a lonely crossroads in Mississippi. Faust sold his soul to Mephistopheles for the lov... More

Rule number one for BART cops: DON’T SHOOT THE PASSENGERS. Hell, you have my permission to beat the BART riders with billy clubs, handcuff them, arrest them, tase them, pepper spray them, but for God’s sake, DON’T SHOOT THEM! Everyone knows that when cops shoot you they aim at your head or your chest. Cops don’t shoot to wound or disarm, they shoot to kill. If I am wrong please enlighten me. And whatever happened to rubber bullets? If BART cops have the green light to shoot at riders, can’t they at least use rubber... More

Note to self: Drunk dialing is not a good idea.  Note to self: Whenever it seems like a good idea to send a sexy/funny picture of myself without a shirt – don’t do it. Note to self: When I feel angry don’t post the angry message on Facebook because, duh, people can read it. Note to self: Even if I am at the gym working out and I... More

After noticing, on Facebook, natch, that Jerry and Roberta were out demonstrating in New York, I cruised down Geary on Sunday afternoon looking for the chair-themed Ai Weiwei protest to witness the determination of SF art folks. I ran late — though not that late — and by the time I got there, the only crowds I saw nearby seemed to have taken their seating to the Cherry Blossom Festival across the road. Perhaps the the concurrent events were ill-timed, there being crowd control officials already in the neighborhood who chased them away beca... More

No one ever thinks they will get killed for using Twitter. Or beaten for taking a photograph. Or arrested for making a video. Or for making a sign critical of the government. But apparently such things have been happening in Egypt. According to Human Rights Watch, about 300 people have been killed since the anti-government uprising began two weeks ago. It’s hard to say for sure how many have been arrested or “disappeared.” One thing is for certain, it’s an all-out technology war with one side using internet tools as a means of expressio... More

Twitter began as a revolutionary social networking tool for the over-caffeinated, but now it can genuinely claim to have started a real revolution. Over the weekend numerous accounts have emerged detailing how the text-based microblogging service allowed Egyptian protesters to connect with one another and organize. Their goal was ambitious by any standard: to challenge a 30-year-old dictatorship by orchestrating massive nonviolent demonstrations. It also must have been quite a shock to Americans who are constantly bombarded with images of Musli... More

Sometimes during my tenure as blogger, I will go see Hollywood blockbusters with people and document, in impressionistic fashion, our experience.

I went to go see The Social Network (2010, dir. David Fincher) with the poet and SFMOMA Community Producer Suzanne Stein. We saw the film at the Metreon and then talked about the movie. We talked about it on BART, and then over a beer at Doc’s Clock.

We both thought The Social Network was a really good movie, and we both thought it was funny that we thought it was so good. We talked about the narr... More

It may only a few weeks into the new decade but I’m a-gonna hop on the “top 10″ list trend and do so for the front part instead of at the end. Who knew there would be so much going on already? I know, I know, some of these aren’t exactly “new” or necessarily “news.” But hey. It’s MY column.

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