She said yes! Graph Search is used for good in this social media-made proposal

By Jam Kotenko March 6, 2013

twitbook-proposal

We know we’ve been doing a lot of reporting that may shed a not-so-attractive light on Facebook’s newest Graph Search feature, but this is not one of those stories. This one might actually leave you with some warm fuzzies for Graph Search, and remind you that social media can be an awesome way to convey real emotion during important life milestones. Take a look at this video and tell us you didn’t crack a smile:

Aptly titled ‘A Twitbook Proposal’, this 9-minute video features Twitter staffer Genevieve Wong being proposed to by longtime boyfriend and Facebook employee, Jon Park. If watching wedding proposal videos is already part of your routine, this one would make a great addition to your list simply for its uniqueness. If you don’t know how Graph Search works, this sort of doubles as a tutorial to help you navigate through the new Facebook service (and help you easily find photos with your significant other so you can properly chronicle your life story together).

Park employed real genius by using products that were developed by the companies they worked for, proving that social media should not be shunned as a tool that takes the romance out of real-life relationships. In fact, much like email and video chatting, sites like Facebook and Twitter help long distance couples cope better with their relationship—just ask these folks.

Thanks for demonstrating why social media is so awesome, Jon and Genevieve – and congratulations!

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

When she's not busy watching movies and TV shows or traveling to new places, Jam is probably on Facebook. Or Twitter. Or…

Social Media

Attempted coup in Turkey results in social media clampdown

facebook twitter turkey airport attack 42738422 flag

Turkey saw a widespread social media blackout on Friday during an attempted coup by the country’s military.

According to internet monitoring group Turkey Blocks, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube were all temporarily down in the country. Live-streaming services such as Twitter’s Periscope, and Facebook Live reportedly continued to operate.

Social Media

Twitter claims users trust social media influencers as much as their own friends

twitter influencers purchasing habits zoella yt

Who needs friends when you’ve got social media influencers? At least that’s the conclusion Twitter has reached following a study into the clout wielded by the web’s most popular stars when it comes to driving users’ purchasing habits.

The research conducted jointly with analytics firm Annalect found that 40 percent of respondents confirmed that they’d bought an item online having seen it being used by a social media influencer on the likes of Instagram, Vine, Twitter, or YouTube.

Social Media

YouTuber reveals the motivation and victim reactions behind that Social Media Experiment video

real meaning behind viral youtube social media experiment jack vale

Tweeting, Instagramming, Facebooking: It's become like breathing to us. We upload and geo-tag and post - we're all basically living out personal Truman Show-esque existences, documenting what we look like, where we go, and what we do. And yesterday, YouTube comedian Jack Vale proved it.
“I use social media every day and all day given the nature of my work as a prankster and comedian, and being aware of the detailed information you can get when reviewing someone's ‘status’, we wanted to see how hard it would be to get this information from people on the street,” says Vale, explaining his motives for conducting the experiment. Based on the video, there’s clearly enough information on anyone on the Internet, if you know where and how to look for pertinent data.
“One was happy when I revealed it was a joke but the other guy was upset because he claimed I ‘invaded his privacy.'"

Oftentimes, we forget that too much of anything is bad – in this case, it’s sharing personal information online. The experimented conducted by Vale explored just how much information on people can be culled from various social networking sites. If you haven't seen it (go watch it), Vale does a David Blaine-like imitation, approaching strangers and reading off details about their lives as if he were a mind-reader or prescient. In reality, all he did was scour social networks for geo-tagged posts in his area, find the unsuspecting users, and read to them details they'd posted.
Most of the people who appeared in the video saw the hilarity in Vale’s stunt, and perhaps made a beeline for their own privacy settings. Vale says the most memorable reaction he got from targets came from the two subjects at the end of the video. “One was happy when I revealed it was a joke but the other guy was upset because he claimed I ‘invaded his privacy.' I'm pretty sure he's mistaken since what he posted was not private and he posted it for the whole world to see,” he says. The guy in question even left with a threat, saying he’d call the police.
The video's takeaway lesson certainly hits home: Even the most careful Web savvy among us are susceptible to this type of "security breach." Sure, it's just a random guy approaching you who knows your recent life story, but you can see from the victims' reactions, it's frightening.
Even Vale went through an eye-opening experience while filming his video. “As a Dad, it did make me think about social media and how we use it a little differently. You need to be careful and a lot of times you need to be careful even when you think your settings are set to private. People can still get your information through posts of your friends, family, [and other contacts].”
And while Vale reveals that he personally discovered a multitude of ways to use our social media activity for potential future “experiments,” he says you shouldn’t worry about appearing in one of his stunts anytime soon. “I'm happily married with five kids so I won't be hiding in a tree in your yard tonight. More than likely.”