2012 Archives - The Sociable

The Sociable: Our top 20 stories from 2012

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Before we begin our journey again in 2013, we take a look back on 2012 and reveal the stories you read most on The Sociable.

Social Media

A year of tweets – 2012’s most popular & important Twitter updates

Piers Dillon Scott9 years ago

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Twitter has released its review of 2012, showing the most popular and important tweets of an eventful year for the social network.

Social Media

Facebook’s Year in Review – Did you mention these topics on Facebook in 2012?

Piers Dillon Scott9 years ago

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Facebook has revealed its year end review of the most mentioned topics on the site as well as an application that allows you to create your own timeline review of 2012.

Web

A man falling from space & robots on other planets: Google’s global Zeitgeist reveals what we searched for in 2012

Piers Dillon Scott9 years ago

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Google has revealed what we searched for in 2012, in its annual Search Zeitgeist report. From Martian rovers to a man jumping from space, this was 2012 in search terms.

Social Media

2012 was most socially active year ever, sharing up 23% [Infographic]

Darren McCarra9 years ago

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Spurred on by the London Olympics, the US Election, and Hurricane Sandy, and the proliferation of mobile devices facilitating the ease of sharing, 2012 was the most socially active year on the internet to date.

Event organisers Beatrice Whelan, Amanda Webb and Lorna Sixsmith with Dave Antrobus, MD of Grafton Media. Image credit: Cearbhuil Studios

Web

100’s of Irish blogs nominated for this October’s Blog Awards. Is yours?

Darren McCarra10 years ago

1.79K

Grafton Media has been named as the headline sponsor of Blog Awards Ireland 2012, an event that will celebrate the best of Irish blogging and, at the same time, assemble blogging communities together from all over the island at the Osprey Hotel in Naas this autumn.

Technology

Opinion: Five Digital Security Predictions for 2012

Piers Dillon Scott10 years ago

3.27K

In this opinion piece Threatscape's Dermot Williams outlines his predictions for 2012's IT security. He believes IT security threats could have dramatic effects of day-to-day life.

Brains Byte Back

We explore how our brains, psychology, and society are impacted by the ever-evolving technology that surrounds us. If you want to be better prepared for the new information age, have a healthier relationship with technology, and get more out of life using top technology and psychology hacks, this is the podcast for you! Every other Friday we bring you interviews with leading experts in the fields of technology and psychology combined, with past guest speakers such as New York Times journalists, MIT Professors, and C-suite executives of top tech companies.

You may have heard of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his followers, commonly known as Rajneeshees or sannyasins, from the incredibly popular Netflix documentary “Wild, Wild Country.”

Well in today’s episode we speak with a former follower of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh cult to get a better understanding of how this society functioned, what it was like to live in normal society as a member of the cult, and what it was like on the famous Oregon ranch.

With our guest, Annie (who has asked to remain anonymous but showed her mala that she wore during her time as a Rajneshee to prove her affiliation with the cult), we find out how she first find out about Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and the Rajneeshees, and what inspired her to join their cult, where she goes into great detail about how she found them when she was 16 at an Alcoholics Anonymous event.

She also shares why life as a Rajneeshee was difficult off the ranch in normal society, as society often treated them with a mixture of suspicion, curiosity, and fear. In fact, she was fired from all of her jobs due to her membership in the cult, but she also explains how she saw this as a positive, “a trial by fire” as she claims.

Annie also goes into detail about what it was like visiting the ranch in 1983, when, she believes, much of the footage used in the documentary was filmed. She talks about the important role meditation played in being a Rajneeshee and what a normal day was like on the ranch.

She also shares her thoughts on how accurate the documentary was, how close she came to meeting Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and finally, how she left the cult in the end.

Overall, Annie explains why she doesn’t see the following as a religion or cult, but instead as a community and how this community had such an overall, lasting positive experience in her life.