Twitter and Techno-Tupac

Late Sunday night through most of Monday, my Twitter feed was littered with posts and tags mentioning holograms, Tupac, and Coachella. Upon reading these tweets, it took just a split second to discover that the digital version of the deceased rapper has, indeed, become “officially the most popular hologram of all-time,” as declared by the alleged hologram himself via the @HologramTupac Twitter account.

After watching the incredibly realistic video of the hologram performance, reading a handful of articles, and seeing a “Coachella 2013 Exclusively Hologram Lineup” meme, I wondered if the hologram would have been met with the wildfire of attention and success that it is currently relishing in, were it not for the social media advances of Twitter. No doubt, the approximately 100,000 festival-goers would have eventually spread the word, but just how many of them got on their iPhones the second Hologram Tupac appeared, and told the Twittosphere to be jealous of their experience? I’m willing to bet that the number is high. Subsequently, how many of those tweets were immediately re-tweeted? Techno-Tupac is a classic example of how Twitter is not only becoming the preferred vehicle by which news travels at a light-speed pace, but also a means by which to facilitate continued conversation centered around said news. @HologramTupac sent a tweet to Rihanna, for chrissake.

Additionally, all of this hologram hullabaloo showcases just how integrated social media and other, more advanced forms of technology are. I can’t say that I would ever have been interested in familiarizing myself with San Diego-based AV Concepts, the productions company that raised Tupac from the dead, before this event. Seeing this name floating about my Twitter feed (partly in thanks to Jimmy Kimmel) caused me to take a deeper look into what they do- and talk about it. Yet again, Twitter sparks a conversation.

Perhaps I’m merely a Twitter addict. Maybe I’m only paying special attention to the goings on of the first weekend of Coachella because I will be attending the second. Or it could just be that I think that holograms (or rather, a 2D technology that is made seem 3D) are pretty damn cool. In any event, the relationship between social media and the advances of complex technologies is certainly worth some scrutiny.

Thank you, AV Concepts, for resurrecting Tupac. And thank you, Twitter, for making sure I knew it had occurred.