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Social Media Spoilers
So I just ruined an experience for my friend Keith when I posted a Facebook status update about who won the Carano vs Cyborg fight last night. That’s my fault, and I hate it when that happens to me… Except it brings up an interesting point about the real-time nature of the internet these days.
I already know to avoid *ALL* areas of Social Media between the time that something happens that I recorded on my DVR and the time that I watch it. For instance… If I intend to watch an episode of “24″ and it airs at 9pm EST and I don’t want to hear anyone spoil it for me, I’m not going to look at Google, eMail, Social Media sites, Instant Messenger programs, my own blog or ANYTHING ELSE until I watch the episode.
This is because this is 2009. People are LIVE-BLOGGING events at this point. I’m sure you could have hit Google ten minutes after the fight concluded and found the results, the exact time the fight ended, how it ended, who won and people’s opinions about the entire thing. By the next morning, you can see pictures of the event as well as video from the post-fight interviews.
So, I DVRed the fight just like Keith did… The difference is that the *FIRST* thing I did when I woke up was watch the fight, because I couldn’t possibly have started my Social Media day in good conscience without clearing my desk of things that I didn’t want to be prematurely made aware of.
Also, Keith asked me about a spoiler warning. Technically, he’s right about that. In reality, the Cyborg/Carano fight ended sometime before 1am EST. I posted about it at 10am EST, nine (9) hours later. In fact, that was THREE HOURS after I commented about it on my own blog post on my site. So, while I considered myself deliberately delaying discussing it on Facebook, Keith felt like I discussed it too early, and I understand why he feels that way.
Unfortunately, this very situation is why newspapers are going out of business. The time it takes them to report the news is too long. I found out via Twitter from a woman who speaks French and lives in NYC that there was an earthquake in Tokyo and emailed my homegirl Masami who lives over there to see if she was ok.
That’s how we’re livin’ now… In real-time. So, while *I* felt like I was sitting on information for AGES and AGES before posting about it to Facebook, Keith, who lives some kind of normal-person life, was counting on everybody that he follows on every Social Media site he’s a part of to not talk about Carano/Cyborg until he got around to watching it, OR to have the courtesy to put the word “spoiler” in media they create an entire 1/3 day after the event actually occurred.
So the question becomes.. How long until something’s no longer a “spoiler”?
How long after Chris Brown kicks his girlfriend’s ass are you supposed to wait before you discuss it on Twitter or Facebook without calling it a spoiler? How long do you wait after finding out that an EARTHQUAKE hit your homegirl’s city to check to see if she’s ok? How long do you wait to say “I told y’all this chick was going to kick this other chick’s ass” when the information had already been available on the internet for NINE HOURS before you no longer need to label it ***spoiler***?
~Bill | @BillCammack
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9 Responses to “Social Media Spoilers”
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the web and software is complicated to work with because things aren’t standardized. technology is a pain because plugs and adapters and peripherals all have their own proprietary jacks and cords, and are not standardized.
let’s do ourselves a favor and try and standardize web courtesy.
what do you say to calling it the first 24 hours after an event?
i’d also have to vote that it should only apply to things that were scheduled to happen. so in your example above chris brown would be classified under “breaking news” and so in this case, not a spoiler. the results of his pending court case however would be a different category and subjected to the spoiler alert policy, since “we” (not me) were waiting anxiously to hear the results we knew were coming on a specific day at a specific time. and _certainly_ catastrophic events are not subject to any sort of “spoiler” alert, because of both the breaking news component – and the fact that hopefully _no one_ is anticipating the arrival and/or results of such an event with any sort of baited excitement.
my two cents.
That’s a good idea, H.. Except for the fact that some people make their “living” on the net via up-to-the-minute punditry.
What I mean by that is that your day-to-day relevance is determined not only by the quality of the knowledge you have, but WHEN you have it. 24 hours is a nice idea, as a courtesy.. but entire internet scandals only last three days as it is. :D .. 72 hours, and it’s all over. So waiting a full day is essentially FOREVER.
I know you’re not saying to wait, but rather to label all media that’s output during that time as a spoiler. Unfortunately, even doing that would require EVERYONE that’s interested in a topic to agree to it.
The way things are at this point, you just can’t get away from information. If someone you know isn’t talking about it, they’re RTing or reblogging something that someone said that you don’t even know or follow. Of course, I’m more sensitive to this, being that I have literally THOUSANDS of Social Media contacts that are pulling information from countless sources, all day, every day.
What I learned for myself is that the only way to avoid it is to avoid it. If I want to be surprised by something, I need to see it in real-time, so NOBODY can tell me anything I’m not seeing with my own eyes, or I need to create a *COMPLETE* media blackout from the time the event starts until the time that I finish watching the tape of that event, sometime in the future.
Having said that, I’m going to pay attention to the timing of when I announce things and if I feel it’s a spoiler, I may very well label it as such, for the benefit of the people that don’t stay on top of the game as much as I do.
Cheers! :D
oh, oh, oh…
i need to clarify myself, i was only suggesting that 24hrs is the amount of time you need to observe the courtesy of inserting a ***spoiler alert*** NOT suggesting you wait that long to talk about something.
Gotcha. :D
Let’s say I was having friends over to watch it tonight, 24 hours is reasonable.. that said.. it ended late and I saw your msg during sunday brunch after church…
Is it possible to talk about the fight without giving away the outcome? Maybe. Should I have avoided social media? Maybe. Am I gonna backhand you when i see you? Probably… 8-)
hahaha You got it, Keith. You got it! :D
Yeah, I mean I agree with your point, and it’s valid. I think it’s probably way more valid for systems that aggregate status updates from people than it is for personal blogs. I could have posted a generic update that said the conversation about the outcome was going on over here.
I’ll figure out something equitable for the future. As far as having friends over to watch something 24 hours later, good luck with not stumbling upon any spoilers for that long…
btw… Is your sister still FINE THAN A MUG? :D
[puff of smoke, as Bill breaks out, stage left]
hmmmmmm… Im big into sports, internet updates, and print media related stories. I have found that if i decided to view at a later time/date… its my responsibility to avoid being “told” how it ended. I accept resposibility for the spoiling of my event once i venture out of the comfy confines of my home and that includes still being in bed but logging on. I long ago accepted that the world keeps moving without me. If i log on, go to the store, say hi to my neighbor and start a convo… I have to accept what ever the consequences are. I APPRECIATE a spoiler alert but i mostly beat myself for even “looking” before I took the time to view my recording!
Actually, you bring up a REALLY good point that I wasn’t thinking about. I was just talking about making sure that my Social Media connections didn’t give something away that I wanted to find out about on my own…
I would NEEEEEEEEEEEEVER actually GO OUTSIDE and expect not to hear spoilers. :D That’s madness around here. As a matter of fact, if I still cared about boxing and a Puerto Rican was fighting that night, I would *HAVE* *TO* watch it live, because as soon as the win or loss is declared, people are going to be screaming about it in the streets!!! :D
So, yeah, going to church exposes you to people that saw the fight already. Going to brunch after that exposes you to MORE people that saw the fight already. You’re going to pass by newspapers, televisions, radios…..
To me, if you have knowledge before other people, be courteous and keep it to yourself. You saw a preview of yadda yadda movie, STFU and let other people enjoy it. Same thing goes for if you live on the East coast and the same show isn’t being simulcast on the West coast. If they have to wait three hours to get it, it’s only right that you keep it under the hat until the entire USA (if that’s where you live) saw the event.
At this point, in 2009, there are people that live-blog events. They microblog information as it’s happening from conferences, concerts, fights… As a matter of fact, I just reminded myself about a spoiler I got.
This Brazilian dude was going to fight Mirko Cro Cop and it was going to be televised later that day. I was looking forward to watching it when I got home. At the time, I was watching a BJJ competition, live, in a school’s sports arena.
I hadn’t noticed these dudes huddled around together, like 15 dudes, until one of them received a call on his cell phone, got some information and then they started jumping around, screaming and falling on the floor. It turned out that they were Brazilian, and their homeboy had just knocked Cro Cop out… like HAD JUST knocked him out, IRL, and someone called from the fight to give them the report.
So, of course they’re going to rejoice and whoop it up! :D Fortunately, I was too far away from them to hear what they were yelling about, so I wasn’t 100% sure how that fight was going to turn out. The point is the same, though. Those are the hazards of being around people that don’t have any reason not to act naturally and discuss things they have knowledge of. If you happen to hear it, that’s just your lousy luck… and in some cases, your lack of self-insulation until you can experience the event yourself.
But, Yeah, Basically.. Newspapers are over. The 6pm and 11pm news is over. Waiting for information until companies get around to publishing it is over. If someone you know isn’t Twittering it, they’re RTing something someone else posted or it’s in the sidebar for “Trending Topics”. In the near future, it’s only going to become *tougher* to hide from information you don’t want to hear, not easier.
It is absolutely upto the oerson who didn’t watch the episode, game,fight etc to avoid all social websites until they have watched said material. Just because you didn’t see the game dosen’t mean i am not going to talk about that bull*ish call that gave the fourth down conversion with 30 something other dudes that actually saw it.