I, Mat Smith, through the gift of working as a journalist here at Engadget, am verified. On both Twitter and Facebook. It’s the social networks’ way of certifying one to I am a lot better than the fresh muggles that people are who they say they are. I get a ticket to digital VIP room. Am I somebody? Not really. But you get certain bragging rights when you have that blue tick next to your name. To be clear, there’s no honorable, journalistic reason for me to be verified, but when I joked about getting such a certification on the online dating app, I received a flood of direct messages asking for confirmation (skeptics!) and for advice on how they could get the same treatment. Continue reading →