Over the past several months, it appears that World Wrestling Entertainment’s core product of professional wrestling TV programs have been obsessed with Twitter.

Announcers have driven fans to discuss the shows on the social platform. Characters have referenced their Twitter followers in the storylines. A wrestler’s gimmick is that he’s popular in social media (we discussed Zack Ryder a while back here). Whenever a WWE-related person of phrase trends worldwide on Twitter, they tell people immediately.

Many fans and analysts find it quite annoying. To put it mildly.

I’m somewhere in the middle between loving it and hating it.

As discussed here, for better or worse, Twitter is the currency of social discussion. It’s where the public conversation is happening. So WWE is trying to take advantage of a particularly chatty network filled with fans. It’s a thumbs-up to the discussion happening online – telling everyone how much they appreciate the online love.

Also, by bringing Twitter chatter into the storylines, fans could possibly feel like they are more involved in the show.

However, with the proliferation of DVR technology, they run the risk of a large percentage of their viewers seeing the show on delay and finding all the Twitter talk irrelevant.

And by having Twitter fans play into the logic of their characters, they have run into some awkward positions. Two recent examples come to mind:

1) John Laurainitis, bad guy authority figure, talked about appeasing his Twitter followers in making a huge match on last week’s edition of Monday Night Raw. A bad guy shouldn’t care about the fans – he should care about making life miserable for the good guys. When the end result is a match fans actually want to see (it was the two main champions, both bad guys, in a tag match against their two “babyface” challengers), he loses bad guy credibility.

2) When John Cena invited rival The Rock to be his tag team partner at Survivor Series, Rock responded with a video message emphatically saying he refused. But then he listened to his fans on Facebook and Twitter, which made him change his mind. What? The Rock has NEVER listened to anyone, so having Tweets convince him to do something he doesn’t want to do completely goes against his character’s storied history.

So is this a good thing or a bad thing for WWE?

Is encouraging people to connect and talk about your product ever a bad thing? If it’s overdone, it can definitely turn people off, and maybe even push loyal fans away.

They are kinda-sorta breaking a fourth wall, by allowing public sentiment to be a part of their program. They are doing something no other company is doing and bragging VERY publicly about their domination in the social realm.

It may be bad, it may be good, but, let’s face it, it’s pretty damn cool.

Mashable released their latest “Social TV” list for both cable and broadcast programs for the week of 10/24-10/30/2011. Through a partnership with Trendrr, the list presents which shows were most buzzed about online, incorporating statistics from Twitter, Facebook, GetGlue and other social platforms.

We’re in an interesting place in pop culture right now.

Never before has pop culture been more about the NOW.

However, never before have we had the ability to time-shift the way we do now.

While the online conversation is real-time, we can easily postpone watching a show by minutes or even months.

This “mixed media” presents some obvious challenges for all parties involved:

1) While you can avoid “spoilers” for shows that haven’t aired yet, how can you possibly avoid conversations about major TV shows after they have aired?

I vividly remember an episode of the tragically-short series “Sports Night” where sports broadcaster Dan Rydell goes to great lengths to avoid knowing the score of a game he wanted to watch in full after his show. This included rewiring the studio, involving a dozen other people and other shenanigans. Naturally, someone who didn’t know about his avoidance tactics told him the final score immediately following the broadcast.

2) You have to choose: be in the NOW or be free.

If you watch a TV show live, you are doing so with millions of other viewers. You can have live chats with other viewers online and over the phone, which builds amazing communities.

Years ago, my wife and I would call people during the commercial breaks of LOST and create a shared viewing experience.

The trade-off is freedom; freedom to set your own schedule, consume media when you want and skip over commercials. You can’t generally have both.

3) Stories play out so differently.

Gone, for many, are the days of the cliffhanger. There was little more exhilarating than seeing your favorite show end in a mystery or with a shocking development – knowing you had to wait a full week for the next chapter in the story. Anticipation would build over the next seven days, allowing word of mouth marketing to get more and more people interested.

Now, you can live-stream entire series, or DVR and store several episodes, watching a season’s worth of stories play out in a lazy weekend on the couch.

We’ve traded anticipation for instant gratification. Not a bad thing, per se, but still a thing.

4) Who wants to be 2000 and late?

As our news/entertainment/meme cycle continues to accelerate, things happening this morning will be even more obsolete by this afternoon. (Dare I say things will appear and move on faster than a Kim Kardashian marriage?)

And with hundreds of channels and hundreds of social platforms, the churning will lead to burning faster than ever.

We have been presented with some of the greatest technology to control our lives and increase productivity, only to see pop culture move more rapidly in response.

How do you keep up with your TV and social media?

I’m an absolute sucker for reality singing competitions. I think they are the perfect showpiece of the social media era.

On these shows, contestants try to sing their way to fame and fortune; in social media, users try to Tweet their way to fame and fortune.

The decisions are made by judges…and then the public…on the shows. Aren’t we all judging each other in social media?

Naturally, I’ve been drawn to FOX’s “The X Factor.”

There are three contestants that have completely stood out to me as ones that have a true story to tell.

One is so young and so talented, turning a Justin Bieber anthem into a longing ballad.

One is trying to get his break to jumpstart his life, shocking everyone with how his voice didn’t match his body.

One is looking to realize her stalled potential and prove it’s never too late to be a diva.

The spectrum here is enormous. It’s real people trying to something extraordinary.

And you…we…get the chance to help take them from where they are to where they want their lives to go.

Such competitions exemplify the social sphere we live in. We’re connected, not just by WiFi, but by the actions we take. As such, social media is nothing new; it’s what we’ve been doing forever.

Here are my contestants to follow in the competition:

Drew Ryniewicz, Age 14

Josh Krajcik, Age 30

Stacy Francis, Age 42

Timeline, oh Timeline…wherefore art thou, Facebook Timeline?

Weren’t you supposed to be permanent and live by the end of late September?

At least that’s what you said when we first hooked up on a blind date at the Developer Section.

“You and me, together forever, publicly.  September 29.  I promise, baby.”

I went around excitedly telling my friends about my new love.

“In just a few weeks, Timeline and I are running into the sunset together in social media bliss!  She just needs to get rid of Profile.  She said she’s dumping him soon!”

But “soon” still hasn’t happened.

You circled the date on my calendar and you broke it.

September 29 became October 6.  And it’s now October 12.  And Timeline ain’t nowhere to be found…outside of the Developer Club.

So what’s going on?

Are you embarrassed?

Was it that little privacy “show who unfriended you” thing?

Baby, I know you’ve got a past.  I’ve got a past (and…uh…thanks for making THAT available!).  Everybody’s got a past.

What about our future?

I just want to love you.

I’ve got other options, you know.  Google+ is dressing all fancy and trying to win my affection.  LinkedIn takes me to nice business lunches.  Twitter and I have a thing.  Quora and About.me came a-chasin, but I was NOT interested in the least.

So, basically, stop taking so long getting ready and let’s just go out and have fun already!

As a social media pro, I’m always on the lookout for the next big thing.

For a hot second, About.me was it.

For a hot minute, Quora was it.

For a hot week or so, Google+ was it.  (And, truth be told, the jury is still out on them.)

So there have been a lot of pretenders and very few contenders.

A lot of other newer networks serve a niche – be it music, photos, etc.

So when I heard about a long-planned new platform called UNTHINK, my curiosity was piqued.

In a press release and video distributed this week, they directly attack Facebook for constantly changing the terms of service – even asking if that is legal.

While I, as a Facebook user since mid-2004, don’t quite appreciate the constant tinkering, I’ve accepted that I play in their world.  I don’t have such anger towards them.  If I have an issue with it, I can stop.  (Unless I am truly addicted, which would support their claims.)

From a professional standpoint, Facebook’s rules and guidelines for businesses do seem a bit puzzling at times.  Again, however, we choose our mediums to promote in based on population.  If a platform has a significant number of our target audience, we’ll go there, be it TV, radio, print, magazine or digital/social.

However, I’m greatly intrigued by hype.  And so far, that’s all I’m seeing from UNTHINK.

The details of what UNTHINK’s platform will be are yet to be announced.  The founders are talking a big game.  Directly taking on the most successful social media platform in the world take…cajones…not to mention smarts/insanity.

Will it be brilliant?  Will it be the next About.me?

Time will tell.

But I’m paying attention…and so should you.