O.J. Simpson found "not guilty" of murder in the age of social media would've broken the Internet.
Without celebrity, racial issues and six long years leading from charge to court however, the Trial of This Century — Casey Anthony facing felony charges for the death of her two-year-old daughter Caylee — isn't as all consuming as the Trial of That Century.
So when the "not guilty" verdict on the murder charges came down this afternoon, the Internet didn't break. It just got angry. Also, funny. At least, if that's your sense of humor.
There were "325,283 posts on Twitter today about the Casey Anthony trial — most from the time of the verdict," according to Crimson Hexagon, a real-time social media analytics firm. "The highest percentage of posts came from Florida, 9.7 percent, compared to other much more populated states such as New York, 8.3 percent, and California, 9.2 percent."
(We asked Crimson Hexagon to speculate on how much the O.J. verdict might've generated, and the analytics firm's spokesperson gamely replied: "We’d speculate that it would be several hundred percent larger based on the way the O.J. trial truly captivated the entire nation at the time.")
As the 2:15 p.m. ET verdict reading grew closer, #verdict and "Nancy Grace" — CNN's legal commentator — started to climb Twitter's trends, but once the very unexpected "not guilty" verdict hit live TV, the matching hashtag quickly became the No. 1 trend.
All across Facebook, status updates changed to show universal disbelief over what many believe to be the wrong outcome of a very publicized trial. Facebook citizens looked for any reason to talk about the verdict. Me, for example. At the time of the verdict, I posted the status, "I do a great Nancy Grace impression. I'm doing it right now," and received 18 rapid-fire comments of Facebook friends expressing disbelief — of the verdict, not my talent for mimicry.
In less than an hour, verdict-related topics supplanted almost everything else on Twitter's U.S. trends. "Dexter Morgan" surfaced, for the echoed suggestion that the aquitted Anthony meet Showtime's favorite serial killer, along with "Johnny Cochran," as the O.J. Simpson trial comparisons were also out in force. Still, the hashtag game #youknowtheycheating held strong at No. 3. Special attention was paid the Twitter-famous Kardashian gals (who are pretty much famous for being on Twitter). Their dad served on O.J.'s legal team, you know.
And of course there are Photoshop memes, such as O.J. added to the many Casey Anthony party pics (including the one above) that made the news rounds. Countdown 'til those clever pranksters over at 4chan post jury address and phone numbers. Internet, you're a classy bunch.
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More on the annoying way we live now:
- Casey Anthony iPhone apps are best-sellers
- Amish sexter busted for buggy sex invite to girl, 12
- How Twitter found 'up to 30 dismembered bodies'
Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Tell her to get a real job on Twitter and/or Facebook .