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."

Comedy website The Onion has released an iPhone application called The Onion Microfiche Reader. It's pretty cool. The app lets you flip through very short joke-headlines in an interface that looks like the old microfiche readers. There's no satire news stories associated, just funny headlines. The Onion understands that "you must be very busy to have such an important phone."

The app also offers easy download of the company's video and audio podcasts and easy sharing on Facebook and Twitter. It's definitely worth the 99 cents they are charging for it. Unless you're broke, in which case don't bother.