No annual event in American cultural history is as important to everybody as the Super Bowl.
That statement was not meant to start an argument — it is definitive. Whether or not they think they’re too cool to admit it, everybody has some sort of interest in the game or the events that surround it.
Some people tuned in to NBC yesterday to watch the game. There were plenty of story lines to draw viewers — the Patriots and Giants faced on against each other in the Super Bowl in 2008; Patriots’ tight end Rob Gronkowski’s physical readiness was questionable; a win for Giants quarterback Eli Manning would bring more competition to the battle for supremacy with his older brother, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning.
Some watched for the halftime show. Madonna is one of the bigger names to grace the Super Bowl stage, and her roster of guest performers, including Nicki Minaj, M.I.A., LMFAO and Cee Lo Green raised interest in the performance.
Some watched to see the commercials. Those people didn’t get too much out of the experience. This Super Bowl was easily one of the weakest ad-wise in my lifetime. There was not one memorable commercial in the entire game, as most of the people tweeting with the hashtag #SBCommercials during the game.
Speaking of which, as expected, the big game blew up the Internet.
As much as our parents hate us for it, we live a good portion of our lives online. Specifically, on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.
We all know the drill on Facebook for big cultural events — there are three main types of statuses for those occasions.
First, there’s the standard “I am watching this event and enjoying it.”
Second, there are the statuses by people who think they are cool, cultural gods for intentionally knowing very little about the event.
Lastly, there are the witty among us who write, “Oh, is this event happening? Thanks for writing statuses about it, everybody, or else I would have had no idea.”
Facebook isn’t where to go to see what the nation is talking about, though — just your friends, high school classmates and totally real supermodels who added you.
No, Twitter is the place to go.
Twitter has long been a source for news and entertainment. Journalists are able to break news as soon as it happens and everybody else can share their opinion with the world instantly.
Everybody from comedians to politicians to UMaine athletes had something to say about the big game.
Senior women’s field hockey co-captain Kelly Newton tweeted, “excited for the #SuperbowlSunday festivities to commence #weshouldnothaveschooltomorrow” and freshman Andrew Cerretani, a freshman forward on the men’s hockey team, tweeted, “Getting jacked up to watch the #Superbowl #bradyshow #gronknation.”
For a day, the NFL owned the Internet. As early as 10:15 a.m. on Sunday, Happy Super Bowl Sunday was a trending topic on Twitter in the United States.
Early Twitter stats gave interesting insight to the nations opinion of the game. At 10:15, of the trending locations in the U.S., seven — Boston, New York, Detroit, Miami, Philadelphia, Providence, Washington — had trending topics related to the Patriots, and five areas — Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Baltimore, Tampa — were talking about the Giants.
An interesting coincidence: Super Bowl XLVI was the Patriots’ seventh Super Bowl appearance and the Giants’ fifth. Take that information and interpret it however you may.
While not completely taken over by the Super Bowl in the afternoon, Twitter was alive with football talk.
By 11:30 a.m., many were talking about ESPN anchors’ picks for the game with the trending hashtag #ESPNSBPredictions.
At 1:30 p.m., #BetterHalftimeShows was trending, with hilarious tweets like @mattytalks’ “Kanye West showing all his favorite tumblrs and things he pinned on pinterest on the Jumbotron,” and “Tebow crucified at the 50 yard line, the NFL commissioner asks the crowd who to pardon, they scream “Michael Vick ” #BetterHalftimeShows” from @ThatWeissGuy.
The “Twitterverse” spent the rest of the afternoon talking about Madonna, various players involved in the game and Nick Cannon’s face time during pre-game coverage. Cannon got a lot of negative reactions.
“The Nick Cannon interview with Danny DeVito should have been sponsored by cyanide,” tweeted @richarddeitsch.
By the time 6:08 p.m. world around, the world announced it was ready to watch the game by making the phrase “Almost Game Time” a trending Twitter topic.
Kelly Clarkson’s powerful singing of the national anthem made her a trending topic at 6:28 p.m., mere minutes after she finished her performance. The speed and volume with which Twitter users reacted to everything about the game was astounding, this being the first prime example.
Not long after that, the Super Bowl began its official takeover of Twitter. At 6:36 p.m., only six minutes after kickoff, every trending topic in the U.S. was related to the game.
After every modestly important play, a trending topic related to it would emerge, proving that not only is the Super Bowl one of the most watched events on television, but it’s also one of the most discussed online.
Madonna was what made Twitter Super Bowl talks really take off — there were about twice as many tweets during the first half that mentioned “Madonna” than those that mentioned “Patriots TD” and “Giants TD” combined.
Twitter got slightly quieter during the second half, likely because everybody was too busy paying attention to the close game to tweet. When the game came down to the wire, everybody returned to their laptops or cell phones to chronicle the final moments of the game.
The Pats crushed most of our dreams with their heartbreaking loss. I know my brother crushed his hand punching a hole through his bedroom door. That’s the sort of emotional investment we put in our sports teams, a dedication that shone through as the country voiced its passion for a traditional favorite pastime — football — with a new favorite pastime — Twitter.
Anybody on Twitter but not watching the game during the Giants’ and Patriots’ final drives would have still known almost exactly what was happening based solely on the trending topics.
The trends from the final moments of the game are more narratively powerful and have a greater context than it initially appears. Not only do the trends record the facts of what happened, but they also express the opinions of the nation in a poetic way:
9:38 p.m. – Manningham
9:43 p.m. – Field Goal Range
9:46 p.m. – TD in Super Bowl
9:48 p.m. – Seconds Left
9:50 p.m. – Dropped Passes, Catch The Damn Ball
9:54 p.m. – Tom Brady, Hail Mary, Game Over, #teamgiants
9:55 p.m. – Giants Win
9:59 p.m. – Purple Gatorade, Congrats to the Giants, #SuperBowlChamps