There’s a popular story on Digg right now about a 104-year-old British woman who uses Twitter. It’s an obvious headline: “World’s oldest Tweeter talks cuppas and casserole.” It’s Digg bait. But what’s worse is that if you examine the story closely, it looks like the UK press may have gotten the poor old lady to sign up for Twitter just for their story!
The story is about how Ivy Bean uses the hot social network to post mundane updates about her 104-year-old life. But take a look at the picture in the story. On the screen next to Bean, you’ll see her Twitter page with a whopping two updates. These two tweets were sent out at the same time, the day before the story ran in a number of UK publications. In other words, Bean signed up and sent her first two tweets at the time all these guys were writing their stories. Or, to put it more clearly, this whole story was staged.
Bean sent out her first tweet at 2:02PM PST (6:02PM local time in the UK) on May 14, it read “I’m enjoying Twitter for the first time and having my photo taken” (the picture used in the articles). The Sun, which also ran the story, has an even better headline. “103-year-old Ivy loves to Twitter” — clearly, she does — I mean, she had been using the service for a whole two seconds before the story was being reported. Worse, The Sun gets poor Bean’s age wrong (they say she’s 103 years old).
We get some flack for running a lot of stories about Twitter, but this is just pathetic. Though maybe it shouldn’t be surprising. Twitter is red-hot right now and “world’s oldest Twitterer” is an easy Digg headline. And the Telegraph, which did get the Digg headline, gets nearly 10% of its traffic from Digg, according to Compete.
Does anyone know any 105-year-olds? I need to contact them for a story. And I’ll be nice enough to give them a Twitter ID that doesn’t imply they won’t make it to their next birthday.
[photo: PA]
I’d start here:
http://en.wikip...y_living_top_10
Just make sure you confirm they are carrying a current policy from Old Glory.
http://www.hulu...-live-old-glory
Oooh top one in the US and in Cali no less!
Hmm, a publication trying to create news about twitter?
I am shocked. shocked.
Pot, please meet kettle.
YOU ARE SOOOOOOOOO RIGHT!! Not one single day goes by without techcrunch mentioning some garbage about that SHIT product called Twitter!!
What is more shocking is that I find none of the TC guys in this list:
http://twitterc...tter-employees/
I’ve been hearing from actual UK residents that the Telegraph is a shady publication but never really bought it. They’re all over Digg every single day. You begin to wonder why — and I absolutely am starting to doubt its ethics.
Tamar,
You might want to ask your UK friends what the newspapers are like. for your information, the daily telegraph is referred to as a quality or broadsheet newspaper (but that’s all relative)
but what it is NOT is a tabloid is a tabloid, where the editorial agenda is the lowest common denominator, think comparison NY Times and Post with telegraph to the sun, for example.
And you may be forgetting: all the press is obsessing about twitter.
Regards
~Steve
OK technically the Telegraph is not a tabloid, but it is a very poor broadsheet. There are great newspapers in the UK – The Guardian just won a Webby for their excellent site and reporting, for example – but the Telegraph is not one of them.
It’s not a tabloid but it’s as close as one can get to being one.
Steve – Erm, the Telegraph isn’t a broadsheet no… But as Charlie and Charbarred have said it’s close to being one and is certainly not a quality broadsheet.
Re: Your point regarding “the editorial agenda is the lowest common denominator” – and that not being the case for the Telegraph – how do you think it got the nickname of “Torygraph”? Based on its right leaning financial provision and political bias which equals editorial agenda leaning to the right.
“And you may be forgetting: all the press is obsessing about twitter.”
Yeah – but that’s why I alluded to the other Telegraph stories that hit the front page of Digg. If MG wrote this article about another technology service and not Twitter, I’d still contend that the tactics are questionable.
Not everything the Telegraph has to write has to be diggbait, but so many articles are. I hope their advertisers know that most Digg users prefer AdBlock.
Well, we don’t draw the tabloid/broadsheet distinction any more, since the broadsheets all started printing tabby-sized editions instead of the cornfield-sized papers of yesteryear. Now we refer to ‘qualities’ and ‘red tops’, and the Telegraph is most definitely at the ‘quality’ end. Perhaps a better distinction would be ’shit’ and ‘unutterably shit’…
Ha. Good job web detectives, you’ve cracked the case. That old lady also writes for http://www.anonboard.com
Maybe that is why I stopped using Digg
I actually posted a post about her to TNW (http://thenextw...dest-twitterer/) and if i’m completely honest, after I did, I dug a little deeper…and began to consider the same things you are.
She was also named as the oldest person on Facebook a while back…by the Daily Mail http://www.dail...r-aged-102.html . Although a cool story, its quite possible they did – but heck, there’s little harm in it and she’s still tweeting!
who gives a s*** about fake twitter articles.
Without Twitter, my life would not have meaning. I twitter, therefore I am. Please, do follow me.
Twitter may mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. But…yeah…seriously…?
I’ll follow you just because you made me reconsider my “relationship” with Twitter…
obviously a set up
good detective work
Yeah, not bad.
I want the old Twitterless MG back…sigh!!!
next story – two armed amputee uses feet to tweet – wtf has all this to do with tech??!!!
Your exactly right, it seems techcrunch is SO up its own arse that its failing to listen to what readers want. TECHCRUNCH I suggest you hold a pole to ask people if they would like this daily bias twitter coverage to be toned down!!
Twitter is just amazing for anyone.
Anyone Digg this post yet? lol
Or the Yahoo!Buzz
(which I’m a bit pissed with because my votes aren’t being accepted)
How about “StumbleUpon” ??
~S
I would not be surprised if they did but I will say my 93 year old great grandmother is on the internet every day.
I understand them, there’s nothing to speak about, so they make the story…oh my god!
This wouldn’t be the first time the press tried to make news
Seriously, remember 9/11
Good catch!
Hey MG Siegler, a bag of rice fell over in China. Maybe you want to write about that as well?
http://tinyurl.com/oqnufz
The worst thing is that if that happened for real Monday morning, the DJ would be down below 8000 in less than an hour.
That’s the current situation. That’s the state of the Union. A rice bag falling could mean that aliens are dropping them from space, thus inciting a pending attack on planet earth, thus making all shares in companies completely worthless.
Except for Google, who summoned them here as part of an adsense for space deal.
wow — twitter juice would explain a lot about ashton marrying demi.
why can’t i Digg this article?
Seriously sketchy.
Bullshit story? You betcha! Digg bait? Hardly.
Yeah, I agree this story was totally fabricated to add a content piece with all the Twitter buzz, but I doubt it was written solely to hit Digg. The story has just 303 diggs right now, and Digg users aren’t really ones to jump on a Twitter story. A Digg regular who reads the comments knows that overall, the Digg community has a pretty anti-Twitter sentiment.
It was more likely put together as an amusing content piece for their own publication, and the other tabloids (The Sun, etc.) that picked it up.
This TechCrunch post is Digg-bait even moreso than the Telegraph post in question.
Seems like she’s been tweeting a lot in the last 48 hours
Eh, good for her.
Tweet on with your dusty ass self!
Do all you bloggers just spend 24 hours a day using Twitter? Will you ever use another service. Seriously, though, this Twitter myopia will prevent you from focusing on other tech. In a span of just short of 3 years, Twitter has amassed 418 posts. More then APPLE. The guys who you know, revolutionized 3 industries. Most normal people I know DONT USE TWITTER. Soon Twitter posts will overtake Facebook(at about lets say 5 Twitter posts a day), when Facebook has 200 million users. Twitter is hot to bloggers and the friends of bloggers. Not to anyone else. Look at your Crunchbase stats:
Twitter
Total Posts 418
First Post 7/15/06
Latest Post 5/16/09
Facebook:
Total Posts 603
First Post 9/7/05
Latest Post 5/15/09
Apple
Stats
Total Posts 356
First Post 8/29/06
Latest Post 5/16/09
The real world’s oldest tweeter: http://twitter....m/theoldesttwit
TC= Twitter, Facebook, iPhone.
MG you FAN BOY, explain how this story relates to TECH start ups, or the TECT industry? You are a twitter douche.
As usual with twitter and cutting edge its worth your time following @Documentally who on behalf of his gran manages her account @Granumentally. Now she in no way is a twitter user in the conventional sense but @Documentally takes time each week to head over to see his Gran and uses that time to share the internet and twitter with her and her replies with his followers. He uses tools like Twitpic and Audioboo to capture her stories.
@Documentally also became a father recently and he created another account to track his views from his Sons perspective. @Minimentally follows his Babyboys actions.
The internet really is just about people and Id say if they wanted a digg worth Story then Id follow @documentally for a day.
I get the impression TC is thumbing their noses at the readers with yet another twitter bore. I hope that is good PR, but it would seem to me to fray-near-sever the chord attaching loyal reader to TC blog. I know my limit is history. I’ll try to ignore. Try other sites. readwriteweb, etc.
Why report about a fake twitter story… The old woman probably has nothing better to do though…..
Actually it sounds more like TechCrunch antics. They’re always looking for excuses to blog about titter.
Techcrunch bait. Maybe MG will post about my dog’s new twitter account.
Seriously, MG, don’t stop posting about twitter. We give you a hard time for googling “twitter” and then writing about the first thing you see, but I actually only come to TC now to see what absurd excuse you’ve come up with to write about twitter. I used to come here for tech/venture news.
How about “Is @goatse the real goatse?” for you next post?
A Twitter story about a staged Twitter story? You guys are getting desperate.
“A Twitter story about a staged Twitter story? You guys are getting desperate.”
LOL
Twitter … twiiter … search.twitter.com kills GOOGLE.COM …. its time to pack up …
Stories from MG makes me almost miss Duncan Riley.
LOL!
How true.
TC swapped one clueless blogger for an even more clueless one.
who cares?
The Telegraph is also the newspaper that broke the story about institutional corruption among UK politicians this week – the biggest story of the year by far, and one that will force real and important change in our political system. That’s the work of a ‘very poor’ broadsheet? Let me know when a Twitter story has the same effect. I won’t hold my breath.
I don’t suppose Moldova counts?
http://www.guar...hiding-protests
No.
MG, TV is safe. You can come home now and fucking own the world along with Eldon, Anthony Ha, Cricketts, Kristin Moritz, Morgan Springer, and everyone that I have ever written with and taught me that I am a journalist for a reason and I don’t break embargoes for a reason because I am off finding the real story while everyone is shitting themselves over Twittershitters and being haters. Oh, snap. Shakespeare got to get paid, son.
“you’re gonna make mistakes you’re young” is what I’ve been hearing my entire fricking life. Yes. Boo fricking hoo, the war on terror is over. I ended it. I didn’t even realize there was a war going off, because I went off the fricking grid which was BROKEN. 3G is OVER. 4G is here. Brought to you by someone whose name is fucking T.VO.
Dear MySpace,
Boom. You dead.
Always,
Tam Vo
P.S. This is my full disclaimer and I’m sticking to it. THANK GOD I NEVER WORKED DIRECTLY FOR FB.
Also, I really need some health insurance, and some for a guy named Christian Rylander who lives at 2156 W. Potomac St, Chicago, IL. Corner of Potomac and Leavitt. Tell him everything is going to be okay but seriously, he hates the press and cameras and scenes and ambulances so get him the fricking keys from Lake Forest, IL to Wicker Park and I don’t want to see a single goddamn press person because I am the press and i am tired of the internet trying to BREAK ME.
It could just be a great stunt by The Geek Squad, who seemingly set her up and may even have given her the laptop we see in the photo. Even though the caption on her Twitpix picture says *she* is teaching *him* how to use it.
Funny, isn’t it, how it’s the boss who turns up entirely coincidentally at the same time as the newspaper’s photographer.
It’s all pretty pathetic, really.
Ding ding ding! We have a winner.
Martin Dix of Geek Squad deserves a pat on the back.
Thanks James, am I allowed to wear my smug grin for a day?
My name is Tam Vo and I am not fucking with you, so srsly don’t fucking bother with me. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON AND YOU CAN VERIFY WHO I AM IF YOU REALLY FUCKING WANT TO KNOW WHO I AM.
http://tamnation.tv
http://vimeo.co...amnation/videos
I REALLY FUCKING HATE YOU ALL.
IF YOU WANT MY SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER IT IS 614-10-5100. SO FUCK YOU AND YOUR COUCH.
ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW?!!!!!! >.<
I JUST KILLED MYSPASCE ANDasfkljkl;jdasfjjkl;fjkl;
Have you been drinking? Sleep it off champ.
MG GET YOUR ASS ON HERE AND TELL THE HATERS THAT THE WAR IS OVER.
heh.. and she had joined facebook 1yr ago: http://www.dail...r-aged-102.html
here is her facebook fan pages: http://www.face...78d58bcdbdc2d4f
The media attitude has promoted the new media i.e bloggers. If they continue doing this, they will soon face a total annihilation
are you sure that is not a fake?:|
Either one of her family works in press or PR, or someone at her care home has links. This is a complete non-story, but the article about her joining facebook just means someone knows her who is part of the media.
I doubt the Telegraph really care about Digg – their target audience is closer to Ivy Bean than a standard Digg user (and yes I know they use Digg to power a part of their site).
Oh, and in answer to your ridiculous headline, the UK press has NO IDEA what ‘Digg bait’ is – they create stories to sell newspapers. If your shite boring newspapers in the US did more of it, and threw in some tits as well, perhaps they’d still sell in quantity.
BTW, She has good PR – That was meant to be attached to a comment I had just written – not your comment. It was directed at the moronic writer of this story.