Sockington
Encyclopedia
Sockington is a domestic cat
who lives in Waltham, Massachusetts
. He has gained large-scale fame via the social networking site Twitter
; his owner, Jason Scott
, an archivist & Internet historian, has been regularly posting from Sockington's Twitter account since late 2007. As of May 2010, Sockington's account has over 1.5 million followers, many of which are pet accounts themselves.
Sockington is a grey and white domestic shorthaired cat
, and his true age is unknown; he was found as a stray outside a Boston
subway
station in 2004.
the posts are written a few at a time using a shell script
and slowly fed into Twitter at short intervals
Between 2007 and January 2009, the Sockington account grew to 10,000 followers. In February 2009, the Sockington account was added to the "recommended feeds" list of Twitter, making it one of the accounts suggested to all new users who joined. This caused a rapid expansion of the account at the rate of between 500-5,000 new followers a day. By May 2009 the account had half a million followers, which led British newspaper The Independent
to call him "Twitter's latest megastar".
In July the number was over three-quarters of a million. In August 2009, that number surpassed 1 million. Scott, however, believes that only a minority of these people are avid followers, a situation he prefers. As of February 2010, Sockington has over 1.5 million watchers, making him the most popular nonhuman tweeter, being the 98th most popular Twitter feed.
Sockington has two feline companions whose Twitter voices are also provided by Jason Scott: the ginger Pennycat (aka Pennsylvania) whose posts tend to reflect ironically on Sockington and his fame,
and the kitten, Tweetie, a rescue cat who looks enough like Sockington to be nicknamed his "Sockelganger" (a pun on doppelgänger
). Tweetie's tale of rescue has effectively brought attention to the plight of feral cats and provided an opportunity for fund-raising for The Animal Center in Newtown, Connecticut (USA), the shelter that saved him.
news site holds Sockington's posts to be a parody
of Twitter's "online time-wasters", while Scott himself believes the account shows up the low possibility of financial profit from Twitter: "Everybody wants this social media bubble. They want something where we're all chattering so much that we all get rich. This cat makes everybody look like fools because he's got hundreds of thousands of followers. And he doesn't tend to follow anyone but other animals."
Mary Ullmer of The Grand Rapids Press called the tweets by Sockington "hilarious" and described the phenomenon as "Garfield
goes 21st century".
or speak about causes...what does a cat have to do with the war in Darfur
?" On June 22, 2009, Scott created a "SocksArmy" account on Twitter, to allow for announcing causes and calls for charity. On October 25, 2009, Jason Scott announced Sockington would not be endorsing products or "selling out" (defined as being paid to change the nature of Sockington; he still indicated plans for a Sockington book and Sockington T-shirts are sold).
Cat
The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...
who lives in Waltham, Massachusetts
Waltham, Massachusetts
Waltham is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, was an early center for the labor movement, and major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, the city was a prototype for 19th century industrial city planning,...
. He has gained large-scale fame via the social networking site Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
; his owner, Jason Scott
Jason Scott Sadofsky
Jason Scott Sadofsky , more commonly known as Jason Scott, is an American archivist and historian of technology. He is the creator, owner and maintainer of textfiles.com, a web site which...
, an archivist & Internet historian, has been regularly posting from Sockington's Twitter account since late 2007. As of May 2010, Sockington's account has over 1.5 million followers, many of which are pet accounts themselves.
Sockington is a grey and white domestic shorthaired cat
Domestic shorthaired cat
A domestic shorthaired cat is a cat fancy term used to describe a shorthaired cat that does not have a pedigree or belong to a recognized cat breed...
, and his true age is unknown; he was found as a stray outside a Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
subway
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, often referred to as the MBTA or simply The T, is the public operator of most bus, subway, commuter rail and ferry systems in the greater Boston, Massachusetts, area. Officially a "body politic and corporate, and a political subdivision" of the...
station in 2004.
Twitter fame
The posts, or "tweets", are written by Scott from the perspective of Sockington, typical posts run along the lines of:the posts are written a few at a time using a shell script
Shell script
A shell script is a script written for the shell, or command line interpreter, of an operating system. It is often considered a simple domain-specific programming language...
and slowly fed into Twitter at short intervals
Between 2007 and January 2009, the Sockington account grew to 10,000 followers. In February 2009, the Sockington account was added to the "recommended feeds" list of Twitter, making it one of the accounts suggested to all new users who joined. This caused a rapid expansion of the account at the rate of between 500-5,000 new followers a day. By May 2009 the account had half a million followers, which led British newspaper The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
to call him "Twitter's latest megastar".
In July the number was over three-quarters of a million. In August 2009, that number surpassed 1 million. Scott, however, believes that only a minority of these people are avid followers, a situation he prefers. As of February 2010, Sockington has over 1.5 million watchers, making him the most popular nonhuman tweeter, being the 98th most popular Twitter feed.
Sockington has two feline companions whose Twitter voices are also provided by Jason Scott: the ginger Pennycat (aka Pennsylvania) whose posts tend to reflect ironically on Sockington and his fame,
and the kitten, Tweetie, a rescue cat who looks enough like Sockington to be nicknamed his "Sockelganger" (a pun on doppelgänger
Doppelgänger
In fiction and folklore, a doppelgänger is a paranormal double of a living person, typically representing evil or misfortune...
). Tweetie's tale of rescue has effectively brought attention to the plight of feral cats and provided an opportunity for fund-raising for The Animal Center in Newtown, Connecticut (USA), the shelter that saved him.
Reception
The MSNBCMSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
news site holds Sockington's posts to be a parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of Twitter's "online time-wasters", while Scott himself believes the account shows up the low possibility of financial profit from Twitter: "Everybody wants this social media bubble. They want something where we're all chattering so much that we all get rich. This cat makes everybody look like fools because he's got hundreds of thousands of followers. And he doesn't tend to follow anyone but other animals."
Mary Ullmer of The Grand Rapids Press called the tweets by Sockington "hilarious" and described the phenomenon as "Garfield
Garfield (character)
Garfield is a fictional character and the title protagonist from the comic strip Garfield created by Jim Davis.-Personality:Garfield is an anthropomorphic ginger cat. He loves eating , and sleeping. He is teased about being overweight. He is also selfish...
goes 21st century".
The future
Sockington's account has been recommended to people joining Twitter in the "Suggested User List." Scott has had offers to commercialize Sockington, and is already selling Sockington T-shirts. He may accept one or more offers to offset his personal debts. In a May 2009 interview, Scott emphasised the deliberate light-heartedness of the Sockington updates and pages. "People have come asking Socks to endorse productsTestimonial
In promotion and of advertising, a testimonial or show consists of a written or spoken statement, sometimes from a person figure, sometimes from a private citizen, extolling the virtue of some product. The term "testimonial" most commonly applies to the sales-pitches attributed to ordinary...
or speak about causes...what does a cat have to do with the war in Darfur
War in Darfur
The Darfur Conflict was a guerrilla conflict or civil war centered on the Darfur region of Sudan. It began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and Justice and Equality Movement groups in Darfur took up arms, accusing the Sudanese government of oppressing non-Arab Sudanese in...
?" On June 22, 2009, Scott created a "SocksArmy" account on Twitter, to allow for announcing causes and calls for charity. On October 25, 2009, Jason Scott announced Sockington would not be endorsing products or "selling out" (defined as being paid to change the nature of Sockington; he still indicated plans for a Sockington book and Sockington T-shirts are sold).
External links
- Pictures of Sockington on FlickrFlickrFlickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
- Jason Scott interview about Sockington