The Social Life: Social media can offer new angles

You can follow events you can't attend by following them on social media. Photo/Thinkstock

I didn't get to Raggamuffin last weekend but thanks to social media I didn't miss a thing. Well, apart from the sounds, as I couldn't hear a thing from my house for once.

If you were at Raggamuffin, I'm sure you had a blast. If you weren't there then you could have done what I did and kept up with the experience via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The Rotorua Daily Post team were keeping the social networks humming with updates, lots of photos and short reviews.

On Monday, the social networks were buzzing with a different kind of event and of bigger proportions. The Superbowl might not be a big hit but it trended in little New Zealand.

Even yesterday #Superbowl, #SB48 and #Broncos were still trending, but not Seahawks, funnily enough.

If you can't get to an event, or even get near a television that is screening it, you can get a citizen's view from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

These views will be very different from mainstream media, which will only offer you a handful of opinions from a small group of commentators. Get a bunch of fans together though and you will hear all kinds of thoughts and observations.

In something like the Superbowl, or the English Premier League, fans will have watched every minute of every game, know the nuances on and off the field and have an insight that casual observers would not.

I've "watched" a range of events unfold over Twitter, simply search for a hashtag, such as #Superbowl, and see what people tweet.

For events in and around Rotorua follow @TheDailyPost. You might be surprised at what you learn.