The Best of the Web this Valentine’s Day
14 February 2012 16:23 | Posted by Luke
Upon firing up our computers this morning, the entire staff of Lucidity was instantly beset by an overwhelming wave of e-mails, messages, viral videos and social media plugs, all in the name of a certain Saint Valentine. While some of us enjoyed the barrage, others struggled to sift through the love hearts and actually get some work done.
To ensure you don’t have to suffer the same way, we’ve picked out some of our favourite internet-based entertainment from the day, so that you don’t have to. Don’t worry if you despise the day, either. We have something in store for you, too.
One of the most talked-about features of Valentine’s Day this year was the adorable Google Doodle, which prompted a huge reaction across social media channels. TechCrunch interviewed the creator of the doodle, Michael Lipman, who said: “When Google calls and says, ‘Drop everything, we want you to create something that’s going to be seen by hundreds of millions of people,’ you heed that call.”
The Google Doodle for Valentine's Day
Next up is one for the music nerds like myself. The Facebook Data Team has released a list of songs that users most commonly listen to when breaking up and forming new relationships. The list is based on the recent integration of music apps such as Spotify and Rdio, and cross-references listening habits with changes in relationship status. “Don’t Wanna Go Home” by Jason Derulo made the top of the ‘entering a new relationship’ list, while “The Cave” by Mumford and Sons topped the breakup list. You can see both lists in full here.
In keeping with the theme of Facebook relationships, Mashable also released a handy guide for keeping changes to your relationship status private. The step-by-step guide instructs users on how to keep breakups out of the public eye, and avoid awkward questions.
GOOD featured a recent collective Tumblr blog entitled ‘Occupy Valentine’s Day’, which encourages users to submit their alternative versions of love and romance, rather than the traditional couple-centric view on the day.

An extract from Occupy Valentines Day
Our friends over at Daily Infographic popped up with another gem for explaining the signinifcance of different types of flowers. For those of you running late and unsure of what to buy now that everywhere has sold out of roses, you can find all you need to know here. Meanwhile, Mashable published an article that claims men (or at least those on Twitter) bicker more about Valentine’s Day than women do. You can find that number-crunching post here.
The folks over at The Journal posted their collection of some of the worst Valentine’s cards ever made, which included featured, among others, The Jonas Brothers, Valdimir Putin, and a woodchuck adored with butterfly wings.
Finally, The Next Web broke the news that cynics of the day will adore; Angry Birds is now available on Facebook. This means that bitter souls can now distract themselves from soppy status updates and comments by firing everyone’s favourite fowl at those evil green pigs. Happy hunting!

If you’ve got some other suggestions or think we missed something, let us know on Facebook or Twitter, or leave a comment below.




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