What Happens When The NBA is Told to Play Nice

Last week, the NBA sent out a memo to the teams emphasizing rules that prohibit “mocking and/or ridiculing” opponents, team personnel, or game officials over official team social media accounts.  This alone shows the profound impact that social media, particularly Twitter in this case, has on society and organizations.  This means the NBA truly believes that the Portland Trail Blazers Twitter account tweeting a GIF of Memphis Grizzlies player Chandler Parsons shooting an air-ball with a sassy message will seriously effect the team or player’s reputation. Or, maybe the NBA is just trying to set a non-bullying standard to be a role model for its followers.  Either way, no matter what the official team accounts say, trash talk will never just disappear.  Professional basketball is an extremely competitive sport and tensions can easily rise between teams and fans quickly.  No tweet will change that. 

That being said, since the memo was sent out, a few official NBA Twitter accounts have showed their opinions about the rule in the best way possible: humor and sarcasm.  Here are some hilarious exchanges between the Sacramento Kings and the Atlanta Hawks during their recent game:

If that wasn’t enough for you, don’t worry because it only gets better:

Isn’t it incredible how these teams can strictly follow the new rules and completely make a fool of them all at once?  This truly is the beauty of social media, being able to express your feelings in any way you please.  No rule, even from the NBA, is going to change that. 

Read Receipts: Friend or Foe?

In this day and age, there are a billion and one ways to send someone a message through a computer or phone.  Between iMessage, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, GroupMe, Twitter, LinkedIn messaging, etc, it is pretty simple to send out a message to someone, no matter whether they are a complete stranger or your best friend.  The golden question now has become, will they respond?

Read receipts, which is how you can tell if your message has been opened, are the best way for you to  answer that question.  Let's say you are interested in a job and sent a message on LinkedIn to a recruiter.  If you go back a week later and see the message was read, then it is safe to assume you won't be getting a response.  While this is very helpful to know for you as the messenger, it will definitely hurt the recipient's reputation in your mind.  Now imagine you are the recruiter. Your inbox is constantly flooded with messages from hopeful college students, and you just filled your last position seeking students.  Is it worth your time to respond with a "no" to each and every one of them? Most likely not.

On a professional platform like LinkedIn, read receipts are normally seen as more helpful than anything because the messages should be about business and shouldn't be taken personally.  Though, even on LinkedIn, you have the option of whether or not to send and receive read receipts.  In fact, most messaging services give you that option.  That being said, one very important and personal platform is notably missing that option.  That platform is Facebook Messaging.

Everyone either loves or hates read receipts for their own personal reasons, but why is it that Facebook of all platforms has no option to turn them off? There is no official answer to that question, but in my opinion, Facebook keeps them on to encourage conversation.  Let's face it, you are much more likely to respond to a message if you know that the sender can see if you've opened it, especially if the message is from someone you could run into at a later point in time.  However, the guilt of having to respond has led many people to just simply never open the messages.  People are just reading the preview they get on their phones, and if they don't think they will respond, they just leave it unopened for an extended period of time or even forever.  In a way, I think it is noble of Facebook to not give the option to turn the read receipts off because it encourages more honest communication.  Though, how honest is too honest? That is for you to judge.

That Moment When... Lady Gaga Didn't Get Political

It is times like these in America where we just expect controversy.  We expect drama.  We expect politics.  But as America, and the rest of the world, watched the Super Bowl halftime show featuring Lady Gaga, we were shocked to find the lack of something overtly controversial or political.  It is almost as if for one second, America paused and realized that it is acceptable to just watch an entertaining performance with no distractions.

And for those of you who forgot.. the performer was Lady Gaga: an activist who has dedicated so much of her life to fight for equal rights, LGBTQ rights, and human rights.  In this heated political time, it was honestly shocking to see such a passionate performer not say or do anything overtly controversial.  Yes, of course, "Born This Way" is a political song in itself, but it is one of her top hits, which is what an artist is expected to play during the Super Bowl halftime show.

While everyone will always have strong opinions about Super Bowl halftime shows, the response to Lady Gaga's performance was generally very positive on social media.  If one of the main criticisms was her "copying" Pink by doing some acrobatics, then you know she did a pretty fantastic job.  As much as some people may have wanted to, it is hard to argue against her amazing voice and energetic dancing.  With no controversy to comment on, people on social media did what they do best: have some fun.