This one goes out to John Brown @brownbare, whose intrepid investigation of the Chatroulette ‘platform’ led him to conclude that it was mostly used by men who, in the immortal words of the DiVinyls, like to touch themselves.

It’s Telephone reinterpreted by a Chatroulette regular. I shall discreetly refuse to speculate what this guy is on, but he needs to think about reducing the dosage. Enjoy, and happy Friday.

Regardless of whether an artist best described as a cross between Justin Timberlake and Miley Cyrus makes you want to scream in girlish delight or horror, the Bieber phenomenon reads like a social media fairy tale. He was discovered on YouTube by a record company executive after Bieber’s Mum uploaded videos of him singing to the site, ostensibly so that farflung friends and family could see her boy in action. This early online hype led to a bidding war between Usher and Justin Timberlake to sign Bieber (Usher won), and he went on to record 2009′s second best-selling debut album in the US, just behind the all-conquering Lady GaGa.

From these seemingly humble beginnings, Bieber now has 1.8 million fans on Facebook, his videos attract 5 million views apiece on YouTube and the widget below gives you an idea of how his teenage fanbase uses Twitter as an extension of playground popstar adulation.

That’s the official story anyway. Whether Bieber’s rise to fame is down to serendipity, or just the same kind of hothousing of talented children that’s already given us Beyonce Knowles, Venus and Serena Williams, Britney Spears and, erm, Jimmy Osmond, is a moot point.

Bieber’s current record sales are good, but not astonishing. What is phenomenal, however, is the level to which his fans’ use of social media to share their enthusiasm for Bieber, leaves an enormous footprint over Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and turns a Canadian hit into a global sensation. The excitement may not last, but chances are the blurring of boundaries between official and fan promotion is here to stay.

new TWTR.Widget({
version: 2,
type: ‘search’,
search: ‘Bieber’,
interval: 6000,
title: ‘Everyone\’s talking about…’,
subject: ‘Justin Bieber’,
width: 250,
height: 300,
theme: {
shell: {
background: ‘#8ec1da’,
color: ‘#ffffff’
},
tweets: {
background: ‘#ffffff’,
color: ‘#444444′,
links: ‘#1985b5′
}
},
features: {
scrollbar: false,
loop: true,
live: true,
hashtags: true,
timestamp: true,
avatars: true,
behavior: ‘default’
}
}).render().start();
>

This year’s crop of Superbowl advertisers, however, are also maxing out their use of social media, trending hard on Twitter while sitting at the top of YouTube’s ‘Most Watched’ charts. But is there anything ‘super’ about the Superbowl ads themselves? Let’s have a quick browse…

Doritos

Doritos have clocked up more than half a million online views for this suite of four ads. All deploy the familiar trick of making snack food acceptable by suggesting that the heterosexual males who consume it are less intelligent than small children, dogs and psychopaths wearing samurai outfits made of corn chips. Hmmm.

Kia

“I may be a post-ironic cartoon mascot created to make a car manufacturer look cuddly and increase traction on social media, but I still like bowling. This makes me a regular guy.”

Prince Of Persia

Jake Gyllenhall’s first popcorn-movie starring role. Not that you can hear him for the explosions and ominous drumming. I’m not entirely sure this is a comment on the film itself, or the quality of his ‘English’ accent.

What have we learned?

They mightn’t be an inspiring bunch, but are the low production values of Superbowl 2010 ads a sign of shrinking budgets or changing channels?

Were the Doritos ads, for example, a TV campaign or an attempt to kickstart the viral sharing of ‘LOL! The kid hit him!’ moments on social networks? Given how hard they’re trending at the moment, it’s easy to see how effective social media can be at wringing extra value from your ad spend.