The 2012 Olympics are underway, and many of us are eager to see who will win the gold.
Because the games are in London, in many popular sports, we are forced to watch the athletes compete hours later, but social media is right on time with the results.
Medal counts and tight races are now displayed second by second on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and yes, even news stations, and some people are angry about it.
Liam Morris, 8, of Carolina Forest has fallen into a recent obsession with the Olympics. His mother, Lauren Morris, says he hasn't allowed them to change the channel since Friday.
"It's all about sports and I love sports," said Liam.
Sunday morning, the news of the women's gymnastic team was delivered to Liam before he got a chance to watch the recorded show. He says that announcement almost ruined his day. "'Cause I didn't want to know. I wanted to watch it, 'cause we were so close to watching it," he said.
In a Wall Street Journal article, some people said they will just stay away from the internet for the 17-day run of the Olympics.
NBC's executive producer of the games, Jim Bell, answered one tweeter who described herself as a St. Louis mom and complained about NBC's "Nightly News" on Saturday airing results of events that hadn't been shown on the network yet. Bell tweeted that he'd look into it, and shortly after told her that "Nightly News" would announce a "spoiler alert" to tell people to avert their eyes if they didn't want to see results.
Even some commercial breaks aren't safe. NBC ran a "Today" show promo about interviewing Missy Franklin on her swimming gold medal - just before televising the race.
And all the updates from the events by attendees caused some problems as well. During the first big event of the London Olympics, because of a glitch with GPS signals on Saturday during the men's cycling road race, broadcasters were unable to provide television viewers with much information about the location and timings of riders on the 155-mile course.
International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams says the Olympic Broadcasting Services service was jammed by "hundreds of thousands" of people sending texts, pictures and updates to social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.
What do you think? Does the internet and social media ruin your Olympic experience? Leave a comment below.
(The Associated Press contributed to this article.)
