Twitter can help solve students’ annoyances

Edge Shave Gel’s campaign aims to curve the nation’s irritated population by sending them gifts to solve their complaints.

Imagine a student driving down Broad Street who has made a wrong turn and is completely clueless about how to get back on track. Or maybe a student decides to walk to class in a torrential downpour, and his $5 umbrella flips inside out. Or possibly, a student makes it to class without any mishaps only to find her laptop – which holds extensive notes from class – crashes. For anyone who has had this kind of luck, there is now a solution.

Officials at Edge Shave Gel launched a new campaign determined to fix people’s discomfort. To participate, all people have to do is share their bad luck on Twitter. The Edge Irritation Solutions campaign provides irritation relief to people who voice their frustrations via tweets that contain the hashtag “#soirritating.” Irritation Solutions Team staffers monitor Twitter for annoyed tweeters and offer a helping hand to a lucky few in the form of prizes, gift cards or other items that might give a little relief.

“We may find someone who is really irritated about the traffic jam they’re in, and [we’ll] offer to send them a GPS unit,” Edge senior brand manager Jeffrey Wolf said.

Edge conducted an anti-irritation survey to study what people were most irritated about and where those people live. Philadelphia ranked No. 6.

Abby Roche, a senior marketing major, was not at all surprised to learn the city’s ranking.

“I get so irritated with drivers. When I’m driving in Philly, I hate other drivers. When I’m walking to school, I still hate drivers,” Roche said.

Lewis LaBar, a senior recreation management major, expressed his frustrations with buying and reselling textbooks.

“I can think of so many things that irritate me. It’s obnoxious that schools require you to buy books that you don’t use. You spend $200 for a book you might use once or twice. It’s a waste,” LaBar said.

The shave gel company’s site also features a comment section and a map  of the United States that shows the states that are the most and least irritated, as populated through guest comments. There’s also an anti-irritation tool that allows people to test their levels of irritation by measuring the pace and force of punching the keyboard’s P and O keys – the harder you mash the keyboard, the higher the site ranks your personal irritation index.

“If I could win something that would fix all my problems, I would definitely give it a chance,” said Emily Culver, a junior metals major.

“The other day, we just gave a guy whose hard drive crashed a new one,” Wolf said. “Irritation relief is what it’s all about.”

Ashley Huber can be reached at ashley.huber@temple.edu.