Mark 2012 as history's last 'social media' election

Twitter's Election Day 2012 event page

As soon as President Obama offered the phrase "horses and bayonets" during his final debate with Mitt Romney last month, the Twitterverse lit up. It wasn't long before we learned that the quip turned out to be the most tweeted remark of the final presidential debate, good for some 105,767 tweets per minute.

The media duly took note of the occasion. In fact, each time there's big news -- Hurricane Sandy or a presidential debate -- the media quickly inform us how the event is playing out on social media. Indeed, we've come to expect such details as tweets per minute, and even tweets per second. But this seeming fascination with all things social as something separate, even novel, may be a fleeting phenomenon, as 2012 could be a turning point of sorts -- the last U.S. presidential election in which the media pore over every detail about what's going on with social media.

Why? At some point, it's simply no longer surprising. It just..... [Read more]