Social Media

Reading her grandmother's diary descriptions on the way to Philadelphia, Susan Gibbs imagined the great ship in its heyday: ladies in their mink stoles, ballroom dancing, indoor pool, champagne, luxurious spa, and pleasant sea breezes. Her grandfather, William Francis Gibbs of Rittenhouse Square, had designed the world's fastest, safest, and most technologically advanced ocean liner - the SS United States - and saw its launch in 1951. His "queen of the seas" represented, for many, America's optimism and can-do spirit after World War II. The 2,000-passenger ship still holds the transatlantic speed record.

After months of hard work and planning, I took my seat on a Tuesday morning in the Rio+Social audience, plugged in my computer, my phone, and my other phone, opened up all of my social-media channels, and waited anxiously for the program to begin.   As others took their seats and plugged in, I witnessed firsthand a connection between those in the room and the thousands of tweets that began to stream in with the hashtag #RioPlusSocial. From prominent figures such as Leonardo DiCaprio to concerned global citizens, tweets poured in, creating a global conversation.

It was the stock market event of the year, sure to make millions of dollars for venture capitalists, investment banks and other financiers, and billions for Facebook's founders and earliest backers. It was a cultural benchmark - the day when the phenomenon of "social media," a term many consider synonymous with the company Mark Zuckerberg created, finally cashed in on years of massive and growing buzz. But Thursday's initial public offering for Facebook shares - the most ballyhooed IPO since Google, and successful enough to value Facebook at $104 billion - arrived with some large question marks posted on its wall.

Now that Rick Santorum has suspended his campaign and the race is on between President Obama and Mitt Romney, an unprecedented media war has begun. We've seen big media battles before. But in money, in woman- and man-hours, and in technical and strategic sophistication, this will be the biggest ever. Especially in Pennsylvania and other swing states, you'll see television ads from both camps, and from the semianonymous political action committees that have become the coin of the 2012 realm.

LOCAL TATTOO ARTIST Shane O'Neill is Spike TV's "Ink Master. " O'Neill, 39, won $100,000 and a profile in Inked magazine on the show's finale last night. O'Neill, who operates Infamous Tattoo Co. locations in Willow Grove and in Middletown, Del., told the People's Paper's Lauren McCutcheon that he had a feeling all season that he would win. "I was winning the most challenges. At the very end, I wasn't surprised, but I wasn't expecting it either," O'Neill said.

Do you remember the pulsating beat and powerful lyrics of Big Daddy Kane, Slick Rick, or LL Cool J? Those artists were some of the key figures of old school hip-hop. They had a message, a unique style, a following, and no doubt a contract with a major record label. Today, the pioneer rappers have been replaced by Lil Wayne, Kanye West, and Big Sean. The message, the style, and fans may differ from the past, but the biggest change from old school to new school is the use of social media.

It's junior year and Ellie Likos is ready to start the college process. The first step: changing her name on Facebook. Since the explosion of social media just a few years ago, colleges across the country have increasingly used them to scrutinize applicants. To avoid being found on Facebook by admissions officers, it is typical for high school seniors to change the last names on their accounts. "I don't have anything that I would want to hide, but I am still going to change my name [on Facebook]

As the U.S. Postal Service struggles to stay afloat in a rapidly changing world, could it be that social media are helping to push it over the edge? Could technology put a "forever stamp" on snail mail? "We can't continue to operate on a precipice," Joe Corbett, the United States Postal Service's chief financial officer, said at a recent news conference. Coupled with the worst recession in 80 years, the USPS is facing challenges as the world of letters, postcards and stamps has taken a backseat in the millennium of e-mail, Facebook and Twitter.

Consumers are demanding better service in unprecedented ways. In the last several months, public outrage has helped beat back efforts by Bank of America Corp., Netflix Inc., and Verizon Communications Inc. to raise fees or significantly alter services. The victories come at a time when money is tight all around and consumers are tapping into social media to air their frustrations with like-minded individuals. "In the past, people would be angry, but they'd be all over the country talking to their neighbors," said Kit Yarrow, a professor of consumer psychology at Golden Gate University.

At Downingtown East High School, teacher Amy Tordone has to compete with Twitter and Facebook for students' attention. She also knows that her students must work on skills often missing from a world of 140-character tweets and minute-by-minute status updates. So Tordone has changed her curriculum by reemphasizing basic concepts, ways of thinking, and note-taking in her Advanced Placement Government class. She always has something for students to read, then follows it up with some form of social media.

Like most teenage girls, 17-year-old Madelyn Rosario is enamored with this spring's prom dresses. She loves the trendy princess gowns and body-skimming mermaid frocks made popular on this year's red carpets by the super-slim Miley Cyruses and Taylor Swifts. But at 5-foot-3 and 170 pounds, Rosario is a confident, well-dressed teen - who is a solid size 14. In the discriminating world of fashion, that qualifies her as plus-size. "Up until now, this is the biggest night of my life," said the Pennsauken High School junior.

EAGLES SAFETY Patrick Chung spoke to a group of up-and-coming NFL coaches and personnel people yesterday at Penn's Wharton School about what the modern athlete expects from coaches and management. "Be honest. Respect. Have a relationship, because we're all in it together, man," Chung said afterward, when reporters asked about the panel session, part of a 3-day NFL Career Development Symposium. "We're here to play against the other team. We can't have fights inside . . . Respect, relationship, honesty.

When it comes to personal digital satellite communications devices - what we used to call "phones" - I am not a technophobe, or even a 12:00. I own a cellphone, but use it for the strangest purpose: to talk to people. I don't take photos, I don't send text messages, I don't download from the Internet, I don't track my friends' global positions, I don't play music. I don't do any of the things most people under 30 think phones are supposed to do. In a world of smartphones, mine scored only 900 on the SATs.

When it came to their wedding to-do list, Antoinette Marie Johnson and Tyler Westnedge started with the standard fare: Book a venue, select flowers, arrange dress fittings, hire a caterer. But then, there was more to be done: Create a hashtag, develop a social media brand, and connect with more than 30,000 friends, relatives, business contacts, and total strangers along the way. Over several months leading up to their April wedding in Fairmount Park, the couple took to sites like Twitter, using the hashtag #atwed.

IT'S THE Phillies' Opening Day, and Jim Gardner opens up TweetDeck, his preferred client for posting to Twitter, his preferred social network. Gardner writes: "'Breathe in the smell of beer, mustard and funnel cake. Ah, we are reborn.' Quote from anonymous Mayan philosopher.#phillies. " Gardner waits. Nothing. Huh? Why isn't anyone responding? C'mon! That one was funny, he thinks. Kind of, at least, right? For those of us whose lives have become enmeshed with social media, it's a familiar scene.

ABC's sultry prime-time hit Scandal is a quick-paced drama starring Kerry Washington as high-powered crisis manager Olivia Pope. Pope, a no-nonsense-yet-emotionally vulnerable black woman, is having a steamy affair with the white Republican president of the United States, Fitzgerald "Fitz" Grant, played by the guy you'll remember as the baddie from Ghost, Tony Goldwyn. It's crazy, it's dizzying, and we love it. Scandal's success this season - it ranks a strong second in its 10 p.m. time slot in total viewers ages 18 to 49 - is more than confirmation that America loves a good nighttime soap.

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - If you can stand straight with your knees together and see a space between your upper thighs, you have what thousands of teenage girls are willing to starve themselves for. The thigh gap, as it is known, is a small space with a huge following on social media. You can follow supermodel Cara Delevingne's thigh gap on Twitter or peruse thousands of thigh gaps on Tumblr with images of ultrathin women in bikinis, hiked-up skirts, and lingerie, all baring thighs so thin they don't touch.

Friday morning America woke up to more mayhem - a manhunt for a terror suspect in suburban Boston. The whole city on lockdown. One suspect dead. Officer slain. Another officer shot. Thousands of officers geared up and ready for battle. It was utterly captivating. It was also almost unendurable, even at a distance, far from Boston. A person would be forgiven for turning off the television, shutting down the computer, and going back to bed to hide under the covers. For those of a gentle disposition, this was all too much like an episode of 24 or a Bruce Willis movie.

RYSHEED JORDAN won't be playing college basketball maybe a mile east of his North Philly home. Instead, the Roberts Vaux High superguard announced via Twitter just before 9 a.m. Thursday that he's headed for St. John's. Temple, St. John's and UCLA were the members of his Final Three. "I wanted to go [to Temple] since I was little," Jordan said Thursday afternoon by cellphone. "Coach [Fran] Dunphy did a great job recruiting me. Came to my practices and mostly all my games.

THESE PETS have found social-media celebrity: * Nora the Piano Cat The musical feline skyrocketed to fame in a viral YouTube video. Nora was rescued from Camden and adopted by Betsy Alexander and Burnell Yow of Center City before she became a famous musician. Alexander said Nora learned to play the piano by imitating her. ph.ly/nora * Darwin the Ikea Monkey In December, customers in a Toronto Ikea were entertained by an adorable, coat-wearing monkey that had escaped its owners.