ReadWriteWeb

Social media is supposed to empower users, giving them a platform to communicate more broadly. But as The Onion's Baratunde Thurston points out, social media also provides an opportunity for some great humor and pranking.

From live hate-tweeting the premier of the Twilight movies to creating rallies in support of Foursquare mayorships, Thurston addresses some of the "case studies of ridiculousness" that plague - or bless - us online.

Thurston is speaking today at ReadWriteWeb's 2Way Summit on "Creative Exploitation of Social Media from the Swine Flu to The Onion."

In New York City, on the 16th floor of the Roger Smith Hotel, we caught up with social media superhero Baratunde Thurston, web editor for The Onion.

Thurston started getting into this whole "Internet" thing in simpler times when the social web was called Usenet. He now carves out his niche at the overlap of the Venn diagram of comedy, politics, and tech. As an official Internet old-timer who makes it his business to stay relevant, Thurston has particularly useful insights on the business of curating applicable content with great efficiency and timeliness.