By Cody Crawford
“My boyfriend is English.”
That was the top trending topic on Twitter at the time this article was written. What does it mean? “My boyfriend is English” was a comment uttered by Kristen Stewart, star of the Twilight saga, in a recent interview. She apparently became excited and blurted it out, letting the whole world in on the secret that she and her costar, Robert Pattinson, have been dating for quite some time. Shocking!
The whole world is now incessantly tweeting and repeating this sentence, commenting on the important news. Kristen said one sentence and set off an internet trend.
The term trending was coined by Twitter, and literally means that Twitter records what people talk about on their site. If enough people are discussing the same issues, Twitter posts the keywords or phrases in the sidebar. This propels the viral effect and keeps everyone up to date on the useless chatter that makes Twitter so well-loved.
Trending phrases or keywords usually have a hash tag in front of them. Topics such as #ThingsIHearEveryday, #2012, and #GodKnows are called trending topics. A few examples of everyday tweets would be:
Lies, lies, and more lies #ThingsIHearEveryday
It’s not the end of the world… #2012
#GodKnows I need a vacation!
Follow us on Twitter @ValidityMag #please
Now that you know the origin of trending, let’s look at some of the strange places it has gone since then.
Internet trending is as random as it is silly. One trend, which was started in 2011, is called planking. Planking is when a person stretches out face down and becomes stiff as a plank. A picture must be taken of this event, and it must be given a name and posted online. “Wall planking,” is shown here.
Once the planking trend was started, people took it to the extreme. Planking has been done all over the world, on top of animals, grocery carts and McDonald’s signs (seriously, Google it). One girl planked with her head in a toilet. A case has even been reported of someone accidentally falling to his death while attempting to plank on a seven story windowsill.
For some reason, someone decided planking was not enough. A new trend, called owling, was born. To perform this trend, a person must squat down with their arms in and try to look very solemn, like an owl. Then, of course, a picture must be taken, named, and posted online. “Police Car Owling,” for instance.
And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: How to mag. The folks here at Validity have decided to give you a local brand of internet trending. Magging is a word we made up, defined as posing for a picture with a copy of Validity Magazine. Above is the first picture, titled Breakfast Magging, featuring our tech writer, Justin Crawford. We know you can do better than this! Make your magging pictures as serious or outrageous as you’d like, but please remember to be safe and have fun. Send your magging pictures to us and they might make the cut and end up on our website!
Cody Crawford holds a degree in Computer Engineering Technology from Middle Tennessee State University and is employed by a consumer electronics company in Nashville, TN.