The year 2011 provided 365 days of news, work, and entertainment. Social media flourished this year and literally gave us something to talk about. In fact, the Merriam-Webster dictionary added the words “tweet” and “social media” to the dictionary to describe ways people communicate online.
Social media ruled 2011. This June, Google premiered Google +, which added to our endless repertoire of social networking sites. Additionally, thanks to Tumblr and other blogging websites, people were easily able to create personal blogs and quickly gained hundreds of online followers. These bloggers either wrote about their daily lives or made special interest sites. While many amateur bloggers made their mark on the blogosphere, many seasoned writers, such as Perez Hilton, decided to expand their online empires and created new subsidiary blogs.
This year, YouTube helped give rise to the birth of many Internet celebrities. This spring, the world was introduced to the wonders of Rebecca Black and her song, “Friday.” Though her song and music video may be questionable in merit, they nevertheless helped jump-start her singing career and helped her become so popular that she was included in Katy Perry’s “Last Friday Night” video. Rebecca’s videos weren’t the only ones to go viral; Jenna Marble’s “How to Trick People into Thinking you’re Good Looking” has been viewed over 29 million times and Dom Mazzetti’s videos are becoming more and more popular across college campuses.
When speaking about the Internet, it’s impossible to overlook Twitter and its impact on the social scene. During the past year, countless people have created satirical (and usually anonymous) Twitter accounts to vent about daily problems. For example, @FiWoProblems (#firstworldproblems) tries to show that “living in the first world can be so hard. Sometimes people just don’t understand how difficult our life can be.” At the same time, some people created accounts to tweet current events. As any Fordham student will tell you, after the Bronx Zoo’s snake went missing, a comedic genius created the Bronx Zoo Cobra account and tweeted “updates” from the missing reptile.
Twitter did more than just affect the ways we shared information; it began to influence the ways we spoke. This year, people began to take Twitter’s trending topics to a whole new level by not only incorporating phrases such as #thingslongerthankimsmarriage and #winning into their tweets, but also into their regular conversations.
Electronics also played a huge role in 2011. This year, many companies debuted new e-readers and tablets that allowed us to access the Internet—even when we were away from our computers and phones. When we did have access to our smart phones, we were able to play online games such as fan-favorite, Angry Birds. This year brought good news for iPhone lovers everywhere, as Verizon and Sprint both began to carry the iPhone, thus enabling all people to have access to the addictively-awesome game, Words with Friends. During 2011, Apple premiered its new operating system, Lion, while Microsoft continued to promote its search engine, Bing, and created new best-selling Xbox games. Besides helping us connect to the Internet, the tech world helped us improve the ways we listened to music. Professional-quality headphones experienced a surge in popularity this year as products such as Beats by Dr. Dre and Bose headphones became a staple part of everybody’s wish list.
Speaking of music, 2011 marked the return Britney Spears and proved once and for all that Ms. Spears really is the Queen of Pop. While Nicki Minaj, Drake, Katy Perry, and Taylor Swift dominated the charts this year, 2011 also witnessed its fair share of hits from UK powerhouses, Ellie Goulding and Adele. Dubstep and House Music flourished this year and helped make DJ’s like David Guetta, Afrojack, and Avicii household names.
When we weren’t listening to music or surfing the net, we had movies to keep us preoccupied. This summer, many teens and 20somethings felt their childhoods come to an end after they saw the final installment of Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2. In November, Twilight lovers also got their vampire fix and got to see The Twilight Saga: Break Dawn — Part 1. Those of us looking for a quick laugh saw The Hangover Part II, Bridesmaids, Bad Teacher, or No Strings Attached, and movies like Cars 2 or The Smurfs helped satisfy our inner-child.
2011 witnessed its fair share of big events. An estimated 2 billion people watched Prince William’s wedding to Kate Middleton in April and ever since then, the royal couple has been taking over the media by storm. Kim Kardashian also had a huge wedding—and subsequent divorce, and over the summer America became hooked on the Casey Anthony trial and Lindsay Lohan’s legal troubles. 2011 also marked the death of Steve Jobs, the genius behind Apple computers and soul singer, Amy Winehouse.
Finally, fashion flourished in 2011 and impact statement clothing and accessories became all the rage. This year, people fell in love with oxford shoes, sky-high pumps, loafers, and boots—specifically their Hunter and leather-riding boots. Stripes were in this year as was anything leopard print. Additionally everywhere we looked, people were wearing leggings, body suits, and blazers, and skirts. This year, the fashion world was reminded of the power of accessories as feather accessories, impact statement watches, Ray-Bans and scarves continued to fly off the shelves. Satchels and all types of leather bags also became popular this year.
2011 was definitely a year for the books — or in this case, blogs — and provided us with countless memories. As for 2012? Now it’s our time to use these 366 (it’s a leap year) days to make history.