High School Girl.. and a Governor

Weird title right? Well I am sure it is all too familiar for high school senior Emma Sullivan. The 18-year-old from the Kansas City suburb of Fairway was taking part in a Youth in Government program in Topeka, Kansas. The group she was with was listening to Republican Governor Sam Brownback. She tweeted from her cell phone: "Just made mean comments at gov. brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot." Brownback's office, which monitors social media for postings containing the governor's name, contacted the youth program. Sullivan said she was called to the principal's office for the first time ever and told to apologize in writing to the governor, after she said she was just joking with friends. 

Governor Brownback was forced last month to admit that his staff overreacted last month when they contacted the youth program. "My staff overreacted to this tweet, and for that I apologize," Brownback said, "Freedom of speech is among our most treasured freedoms." Brownback's office declined to discuss its social media monitoring in detail, but politicians and governmental offices across the county are increasingly keeping an eye on the Internet for mentions of their campaigns or policies. Many officials even maintain their own Facebook and Twitter accounts to inform constituents of events or policy announcements. Anyways, Sullivan's tweet caused her Twitter followers to rise to more than 21,000 people, from a mere 61. Many of these people voiced their support for her and came to her defense about not writing the apology letter. 


This post has a lot of similarities to the post from October, Rashard Mendenhall. In both tweets, the issue of freedom of speech was present. Was it alright for Sullivan to tweet that? It sure was. Just as Justin Hall did, she tweeted controversial things that some people could look at as derogatory. But, this country is modeled around freedom of speech, so I support people like Emma Sullivan, Rashard Mendenhall, and Justin Hall. These are the people that raise the true issues because they aren't scared to be reprimanded for what they say. Sullivan, I applaud you for making the headlines for something so simple, #tweeting.

Adrianne Curry

America's Next Top Model has become a very popular television show over the years. Talk-show host and model Tyra Banks launched the show in May of 2003 to have a number of women compete for the title of America's Next Top Model and a chance to start their career in the modeling industry. The shows first winner was Adrianne Curry, a girl from Illinois. Curry is known to be an avid fan of Star Wars, costume play, and World of Warcraft. She created some stir in 2010 when she tweeted about playing World of Warcraft, naked. Yes, I did say naked.

In 2010, Curry tweeted, "jumping into shower.going to spend my afternoon playing World Of Warcraft butt naked&stoned.Perfect Sunday!" Curry proceeded to upload this picture on her twitter while saying, "me...naked...playing World Of Warcraft" Many people thought she was lying about playing the game, so she silenced the non-believers when she tweeted "Level 34, bitches....level 34. ::dances the dance of a quickly leveling warrior whore::" and "I have done playboy twice.I have done terribly naughty bad things,but people made a big deal about my PG rated nekkid WoW pic? huh." This is just funny to me. Why would you post a picture like that on Twitter for everyone to see? Stupid if you ask me. 


As I stated, Curry is an avid fan of Star Wars, costume play, and World of Warcraft. World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. The game has a lot resemblance to another massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Second Life. Second Life is an online virtual world where you can make your own avatar. People often make these avatars to have a "second life" where they can be whoever they want to be. Its possible that the avatars people make in World of Warcraft and Second Life are the total opposite of who they really are. I wonder if Curry portrays herself on her WoW account. Either way, she was giving #tmi through her Twitter. 

Chris Brown

Chris Brown, what a man. This guy does it all. He sings, he dances, what's he bad at? Ironic question, because he screws up a lot, and its not just on Twitter. For starters, he was dating one of the hottest people on the planet, Rihanna, and was charged with domestic violence. Why would he ever do such a thing? There has been many more controversies involving Brown's anger and his past relations with Rihanna, but I am here to enlighten you about something different. In this screw up, Brown bashed Walmart for not carrying his newly dropped album Graffiti. 

(ironic, his phone at hand)

In 2009, Brown had a mini-meltdown on Twitter after he visited a Walmart in Wallingford, Connecticut and didn't find his new album, Graffiti, on the shelves. "But they had Alicia Keys album ready for release for this Tuesday," he tweeted. "BUT NO SIGN OF GRAFFITI. BS." He continued, "I'm tired of this s----. Major stores r blackballing my CD. Not stockin the shelves and lying to costumers. What the f--- do I gotta do." To the record business, he added: "The industry can kiss my a--." Walmart released a statement saying that all stores around the country had carried the CD since its release, including the Wallingford store mentioned in the post. The store had run out of its initial shipment of copies prior to Brown coming into the store. Brown basically freaked out for nothing. If he actually took a second to think about it, it could have been easy to realize this may have been the case. Brown later deleted his Twitter after these posts.

Chris Brown always feels the need to be connected to the online world. It can be said that Brown definitely lives a tethered life, a life where he is always connected. Brown always has to tell the Twitter world what he thinks and has to feel "connected" to everyone else. Brown is definitely tied to the internet, which Sherry Turkle describes as living a tethered life. Without the internet and sites like Twitter, Brown would feel empty with nothing to turn to. But if you think about it, maybe it would be best for Brown if he wasn't connected, because it only causes him problems. #controlyourself

Kim Kardashian

Now this is ironic. Today, I decided I was going to blog about Kim Kardashian and I just found out, via Twitter, that Kim's new season of Kourtney and Kim Take New York was airing tonight. Just thought i'd share that. Anyways, Kim has been the root of a lot of controversy lately. She made a reported $18 million of her fairytale wedding this year. Turns out, she only stayed married for 72 days to her now ex-husband Kris Humphries. But as you know, this blog is about Twitter. So as you may have guessed, Kim dropped some tweets that ended up causing a lot of controversy. 

Most of us are unaware that there could possibly a federal air marshal on our flight. Air marshals are assigned to flights as a last resort to stopping terrorist attacks, being able to make arrests and carry a gun. These air marshals are supposed to blend in with the passengers to not be identified. But when you run into Kim Kardashian, your chances of being identified as an air marshal apparently go way up. Kardashian was on a flight to Los Angeles and became intrigued by her neighbor. So she logged on to Twitter while in the air to share her impressions. "I'm on the airplane...love wifi! I am sitting next to an Air Marshall [sic]! Jim the air marshall [sic] makes me feel safe!" Kardashian wrote. Kardashian has 3 million followers on Twitter, think of how many people saw that tweet. They're supposed to keep their identities concealed so by her doing that, she could have gotten in a lot of trouble. Kardashian later apologized for her mistake.


It can be said that Kardashian's text was very spontaneous. She quickly decided to tweet and thought nothing about it before hitting send. This is the opposite of what is called euplastic text. Euplastic text, as described by behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner, is carefully designed and edited text. Euplastic text is usually used in blogs and any e-text because the text can be edited and changed whenever you want. Even if in social networking sites euplastic text isnt used, Kardashian should definitely think about what she is going to say next time before she hits send, because that kind of stuff could have gotten her in a lot of trouble. #Keepyoursecretstoyourself

Jim Carrey

We all know him, we all love him. Jim Carrey is one of the funnier actors around these days. Whether he's playing Carl Allen in Yes Man or Bruce Nolan in Bruce Almighty, he always knows how to make his fans laugh. But sometimes funny can cross the line. Carrey definitely crossed the line in 2010 when he posted several tweets that defended Tiger Woods and criticized his then wife, Elin Nordegren. These tweets came several days after he announced his split from model Jenny McCarthy. Carrey made it seem like he condones infidelity. What were you thinking Carrey?

Carrey wrote, “Tiger Woods owes nothing 2 anyone but himself. 2 please his father he gave up his childhood and his freedom in the world. That’s enough!” Then the actor continued, “No wife is blind enough to miss that much infidelity. Elin had 2 b a willing participant on the ride 4 whatever reason” and “No woman just stays at home with the kids anymore. Tiger was wrong and Elin was ignoring the obvious.” He also commented on how he felt society has been treating Woods unfair the past few months when he tweeted, “Whenever we form a consensus about some1 we envy, who’s stumbling, our collective ego LOVES to flex its unified muscle! S’ugly!” Carrey, you cant just go around saying that kind of stuff. Infidelity is a sensitive topic and if you talk about it like he did, theres gonna be controversy. 


I'm sure Jim Carrey knows a lot of people and has connections. These kind of statements is what lowers his social capital, as Putnam calls it. According to Putnam, social capital refers to "the collective value of all 'social networks' and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other." Social capital is basically what others can do for you, and I'm sure people would be less willing to do something for Carrey after those out of line tweets. Carrey, you're a great actor and hilarious, just next time dont #crosstheline

Scott Baio

"Joanie loves Chachi." I'm sure we've all heard it. But, where did it come from? Most people aren't aware that it is from the popular American Sitcom Happy Days, which was broadcasted in the 1970's and 80's. Joanie Cunningham and Chachi Arcola were two of the more well known characters in the show, played by Erin Moran and Scott Baio. Baio is still an actor, but he's creating headlines a different way nowadays. You guessed it, he tweets. 

In 2010, Baio was stirring up some controversy when he tweeted about Michelle Obama. Baio is a vocal republican who tweeted "WOW He wakes up to this every morning," Along with the picture above. C'mon man, she's the first lady, you cant just go around tweeting stuff like this. Not surprisingly, his followers were not amused and began leaving him instructions to kill himself and calling him a racist idiot. Then he tweeted, "I'm NOT racist for posting a pic of M.O. My WIFE'S BEST FRD IS BLACK,HELLO" and "Do I look like I'm racist? This is Renee's BEST frd. STOP USING THE RACE CARD!!!" along with the picture below. What are you talking about? That is the most ridiculous set of tweets i've ever heard. Baio later tweeted that he was up to 5000 because people "love to hate".

"People love to hate" bears a lot of similarities to the Iranian "Twitter Revolution" in 2009. Maio was saying, about his increase in followers, that people only followed him because of what he was saying and what was going on. In Iran, the protesters could all used Twitter to communicate with each other. The people were only following what each other was saying just because something exciting was going on. Its not surprising nowadays that when something like the Iran Protests and Maio's comments happens, people pay attention. Why, cause its exciting? The stuff like Maio's comments is what makes me love the stupid stuff people post on twitter. So Maio, #Cheers to you. 

The Cube

Mark Cuban, what a guy, right? The man has done it all. As the owner of the NBA's Dallas Maverick's, Landmark Theatre, Magnolia Pictures, and part time investor on the television series Shark Tank, would you ever think this man would screw up? Well think again, because he does A LOT. As Forbes' 459th richest person in the world at an estimated net worth of $2.5 billion, the man creates a lot of controversy, especially in regards to his ownership of the Dallas Mavericks. Cuban is recognized as one of the most outspoken and intense owners in all of professional sports (SportsIllustrated.com actually rated him at #4, check it out here) 

In 2009, Cuban was fined $25,000 by the NBA for some comments he made on Twitter. Cuban used the social networking tool to voice his anger at league officiating after a loss to the Denver Nuggets. Cuban's tweets referred to an altercation between Nuggets player J. R. Smith and Mavs player Antoine Wright. He first tweeted, "how do they not call a tech on JR Smith for coming off the bench to taunt our player on the ground ?" and ten minutes later tweeted, "scary part of that play: Same crew chief from game in Denver where they missed call - last play of the game & 1st JRSmith/Wright issue." The next day Cuban was handed the fine, and continued to tweet about how the NBA looks to make money off of the social networking site. 

Cuban is like a little kid when it comes to social networking, he always has to voice his opinions and feel connected. Sherry Turkle's book, Alone Together, talks about how people "live in a state of waiting for connection. And they are willing to take risks, to put themselves on the line." The Cube does just this, put himself at risk to feel connected. A man in his position (with $2.5 Billion in his pocket) should not care at all about one measly call in a basketball game, even if he owns the team. According to Turkle, people like Cuban need to be connected in order to feel like themselves. I love the fact that Cuban does this kind of stuff, it makes for interesting material. Cuban, #youretheman

D.J. Gardner

Some people say some really stupid stuff. When your riding a contract that virtually sends you free to an above average four year university, why would you do anything to screw that up? That seems like the perfect question nowadays to ask all the highly recruited kids going to big time division 1 colleges. Take freshman D.J. Gardner for example, a guard on the basketball team of Mississippi State University. Gardner was permanently booted from the team this summer due to several controversial tweets he posted about being red-shirted at MSU this year.

Gardner was booted from the team by Coach Rick Stansbury a day after he tweeted, "These b***es tried to f**k me over.. That's y I red shirted .. But i wish my homies a great as* season.. I don't even know y I'm still here" Gardner was told during his recruitment that he would see significant playing time, but apon arrival to MSU, he was told he would be a part of a three man rotation (He should have known this would happen, obviously the coach is going to tell you that you will play. How else is he supposed to get you to come to his school?). He asked to be redshirted for his freshman season after learning this. Gardner also fired off several other tweets, including "Call em and tell more... I can't stand liars and that's all they did since I started being recruited.. R.I.p. To that contract I signed."Last year, Coach Stansbury banned the use of Twitter from his team after player Ravern Johnson tweeted controversial thoughts on the MSU coaching staff. The ban was lifted at the end of last season. 

You would think that after Ravern Johnson got kicked off the team, the rest of the players would somewhat censor what they had to say from there on out. Psychologist B.F. Skinner emphasized that reinforcement and punishment always strengthens learned behavior, which should have been the case with Gardner. Johnson was negatively punished when he was kicked off the team for his tweets. Gardner should have learned from his mistakes and kept his thoughts to himself, because he knew what would happen. In the book Blogging America, author Aaron K. Barlow talks about how Skinner's ideas of reinforcement apply to the blogosphere; the fact that blogs offer an instant gratification, positive or negative, on what you write. Well, it seems to me that Gardner definitely got some negative instant gratification after his tweets by being kicked off the team. Next time, keep your opinions to yourself man and you won't have to spend the time trying to find a new school to go to because you got kicked off your basketball team. #learnfromothersmistakes

Rashard Mendenhall

Is there really freedom of speech? Can people, especially people that their every word is scrutinized, actually say whatever they want without any implications? Ask Rashard Mendenhall this question and I'm sure he will have a different answer than most. The Pittsburgh Steelers running back filed a $1 million lawsuit against Hanesbrands, Inc. after they terminated his contract after the star tweeted controversial opinions. 

One of Mendenhall's more controversial tweets was about his opinion's on Osama Bin Laden's death , "What kind of person celebrates death? It's amazing how people can HATE a man they have never even heard speak. We've only heard one side." Soon after this tweet, his amount of followers nearly doubled to 37,000. Though, within 48 hours of the tweet, Hanesbrands, Inc. told Mendenhall that he was no longer able to endorse their products. They told him that his tweet went again their agreement. 

Mendenhall is definitely not scared to voice his opinions. He bares a lot of resemblance to Justin Hall, a pioneer blogger that caused a lot of controversy for not leaving out any intimate material of his personal life. Hall would post things on his blog such as stories of his sexual life, pictures of him naked, and stories about illegal drug use. Hall had to shut down his blog after several years of posting due to a disagreement between his new girlfriend who he ended up marrying. Hall and Mendenhall both are good examples of controversial bloggers, which is why they might say that they really can't say whatever they want without any implications. 

My Boy John

Twitter is such an up and coming thing these days. Millions of things are posted for the world to see each day. Some of these things are good, some bad. I am here to show you the latter of the two. 

I have this friend who happens to have a twitter, lets say his name is John. John is one of those people who tweets like it’s their job, like they are getting paid to do it. In my eyes, as well as some others who have noticed the same, John complains A LOT over Twitter. It's weird though because in person, he is not like this at all. It is kind of like he is running two lives, one as an easy going guy that we all love to be around, another as a complainer that is tough to hear from. Most commonly, people portray two lives when they create an online avatar of themselves. These avatars can be created on websites such as Second Life where you can be anything you ever imagined. Anyways... either way, he is still a great friend of mine.

A few of John’s recent tweets consisted of how he's been so homesick recently and how he is always behind on his schoolwork. Really John? You're in college; everyone is always behind on their work. And as for being homesick? It's that time of the year where it seems as if everyone is homesick, so you are not alone. Everyone just got to school and are now realizing they are starting to miss their life back at home. It wouldn't be as bad if he just mentioned these two things say, once a day. But no, he has to keep reminding the Twitter world of how tough his life is. C'mon, we all feel your pain.

There is always so much going on with Twitter. People are always posting things that stir up conversation on a national level basis. Why would people do something like this?  For me, it seems as if they are looking for attention. Why else would someone want to be put in the middle of thousands of conversations, not always good? Next time I am going to try to find a celebrity who tweeted something controversial. But until then, keep those tweets coming.