Justin Bieber Needs to Brush Up on his Etiquette

It is no secret that Justin Bieber is no longer the innocent teen heart throb we fell in love with a few years ago. Recently, is seems Bieber has been getting only negative publicity between his alleged DUI and his bad temper tantrums. His most recent scandal took place just the other day when Bieber was in Toyko, Japan and decided to pull over and take a picture of himself with a shrine. Seems innocent right?

Well according to E News, this was not such an innocent stunt. "Toyko's Yasukuni Shrine is a controversial structure honoring Japanese criminals who committed horrific acts against China and other parts of Asia during World War II. The Biebs, seemingly unaware of its history, Instagrammed the photo of himself bowing before the shrine, writing, 'Thank you for your blessings.' When word got out to Bieber about the controversy of his photo, he quickly deleted it, took responsibility for his inernational faux pas and explained how it happened.'While in Japan I asked my driver to pull over for which I saw a beautiful shrine. I was mislead to think the Shrines were only a place of prayer,' he wrote. 'To anyone I have offended I am extremely sorry. I love you China and I love you Japan.'"

Just two hours after posting his apology, Justin still appeared to be upset by his mistake, Instagramming a solemn picture of himself, head bowed, staring at the floor sadly. Seems like Justin should have done his researched a little better before traveling to Japan. 

Justin Bieber's instagram photo is a reminder of how important etiquette is when traveling to new and unfamiliar places. We have to really research and think about our actions before we do anything in order to avoid offending a culture and causing any controversy. 

Here is the link to read the entire article and see the instagram pictures:

http://www.eonline.com/news/534739/justin-bieber-extremely-sorry-for-visiting-shrine-honoring-japanese-war-criminals

American Airlines Responds to Twitter Threat

Yesterday morning, a Dutch teenager issued a very serious threat against American Airlines.  The tweet threatened the airline with terrorist activity.  Using this popular social media tool, American Airlines immediately responded and swore to take action in response to the threat made against them. 

Despite both parties deleting the tweet, with Sarah deleting her entire twitter account, this incident shows the importance of social media in all aspects of life, including national security.  In the aftermath of September 11th, these threats are taken extremely seriously.

According to Twitter's "Guidelines for Law Enforcement". the information of a specific Twitter user can be turned over and used as evidence “if there is an exigent emergency that involves the danger of death or serious physical injury to a person that Twitter may have information necessary to prevent.”  While there has not been substantial information released concerning the incident, Dutch police tweeted an update as of this morning confirming the arrest of Sarah in response to this incident.  Despite the teenager tweeting at the airline multiple times in response to their response, it is clear that they are still taking these threats seriously and are taking action against her. 

A representative for the popular social media site told Business Insider, "We’re not in a state that we can communicate any state of charges at this point, we just thought it was neccessary to bring this out mostly because of the fact that it caused a great deal of interest on the Internet."  

After this incident, it is important to remember to be careful on social media sites.  What may seem like a joke to you can be taken extremely seriously, especially if the content is aggressive and threatening in nature.  This story also shows the emphasis on security that airlines are implementing.  While security can be a pain when it adds on time to your travels, remember the service that they are doing and the lengths that they go to keep travelers safe!

All Aboard Air Twitter

In today's world, technology and social media can give huge benefits to many companies, including airlines. United Airlines recently committed to heavily utilizing Facebook and Twitter as means of communicating with their passengers.

On March 21, passenger Marybeth Cadotte was aboard a United airplane when the plane experienced mechanical issues. She tweeted the predicament at United's twitter handle and received a reply minutes later. They tweeted, “We hope to have you on your way soon.” United followed her case to ensure she had a successful end result. Soon after a mechanic showed up to the scene and Cadotte was off to catch her connecting flight. “The United app crashed, and people were on their phones talking to United. Twitter was definitely the way to go", said Cadotte.

This is just the beginning of large companies adopting social media as a way to connect with their consumers. Social media platforms provide customers with a magnified voice that can have a huge impact on a company's reputation.