In view of this morning’s Twitter following/followers count reset and the subsequent fall out, I thought it would be nice to step back and examine, once again, how social media has so permeated our everyday lives.

A decade ago, I wouldn’t have woken up and remained in bed while scanning all my accounts for new messages on my phone, only to then get out of bed and do it again on my computer as if the prior were an appetizer before actual computing. But when I find myself reflecting on the days of rotary phones and the simplicity of life with fewer connections, I realize that this reflection isn’t unique to my peers and me. It’s a feeling that cycles in for every generation of adult.

Consider your parents and the childhood they had. Wasn’t there a time when the television (or even radio, depending on how old you are) was a novelty? I wonder if parents in those times worried about raising their kids in the television age the way I worry about raising kids in the smartphone age.

And as this technology becomes more integrated into our lives (and it can), we should expect life to change even more, where our communicative connections revolutionize themselves the way electricity transformed the use of power, or the way indoor plumbing improved the smell of our city streets.

Anyway, this is just a grasp at perspective as we all go from surprise to half-joking panic at our decimated Twitter metrics. On the plus side, at least we’re now all about as popular as Ashton Kutcher…

As internet fans ready themselves for Season 6 of LOST, blogs and message boards explode with theories regarding the conclusion of the series in its final season. But will the show’s loyal following draw enough views to push ABC past NBC in primetime network views? Here, we examine ratings from the week of 1/11/2010 and viewership results from the first five seasons of LOST to see just how big a pull the show will need to lift itself into the top ten.

TV by the Numbers tracks television metrics on a daily basis to report ratings on broadcast and cable programming. Between broadcast networks, CBS and Fox still rank highest with NBC and ABC trailing behind.

Nielson TV Ratings: (Week of January 11):
1 AFC DIVISIONAL PLAYOFF-SA(S) – CBS (30,569,000 viewers)
2 AMERICAN IDOL-TUESDAY – FOX (29,936,000 viewers)
3 AMERICAN IDOL-WEDNESDAY – FOX (26,393,000 viewers)
4 AFC DIV-PLF-POST-GAME-SU(S) – CBS (25,807,000 viewers)
5 NCIS – CBS (20,845,000 viewers)
6 TWO AND A HALF MEN – CBS (17,266,000 viewers)
7 GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS(S) – NBC (16,982,000 viewers)
8 NCIS: LOS ANGELES – CBS (15,596,000 viewers)
9 MENTALIST, THE – CBS (15,375,000 viewers)
10 60 MINUTES – CBS (15,775,000 viewers)

Using the metrics above as a performance guide, we can approximate the performance requirements for LOST’s season premiere. Dan Owen of Dan’s Media Digest utilized Nielson metrics to visually track the ratings results from the first five seasons of LOST:

One can see a decline in viewership as the show progressed (and, depending on who you ask, became either more convoluted or rad). Even with the non-recurring top ten shows removed, LOST would still have to outperform all of Season 5 to get into the top ten. But though LOST may not bring in the views it once garnered, ratings may be ultimately unimportant to the fans of the show during its final season. LOST blogger, Docartz, commented in his blog on how the final season will be a network success even if ratings aren’t up to par:

For those of you who dismiss news of LOST’s wobbling ratings as inconsequential – you’re good, you don’t need to be here. For the rest, let’s take a closer look at the widely publicized ratings trickery and what it means – or better yet, doesn’t mean – for LOST’s future. Most of the fuss seems to come from a lot of very creative (read that as ’shady’) number reporting from a couple of networks, ABC and FOX. FOX is exploiting an overlap trick to inflate their numbers. The trick is, they run their programs over which earns them an artificial share at the turn of the hour or half hour. ABC will soon be doing the same with LOST, and in fact already did to some degree with their claim that 20-million viewers tuned in for LOST’s premiere, when the actual number of live viewers was somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 million. LOST posted its lowest numbers for a premiere, ever – yet LOST won the key demographic of 18-49, which is cool if you are selling advertising, which we are not. What does it all mean for us? Nothing.

So LOST would need a pretty remarkable opening to blip ABC back on the ratings radar. Either way, it’s a certainty that the final season’s premier will at least satisfy its current contingent, and you can be sure I’ll be one of many fans annoying the rest of the world with endless LOST banter: