Finding a new job has never been so tweet !

Theres a new way of finding a job..back in the day finding a job was all about looking through those posts at the back of the newspaper, making a call, getting an application sent out and then getting an interview. If a job was not found through newspapers..it was job advertisements on websites then recruitment agencies and job sites such as Monster.co.uk.

Studies have shown that now in america, more than 36.6 million people have found jobs through social media. Thats about 16 % of the adult population (Shea Bennett 2011). Linked in has been known for being a website specifically for professionals..with alot of poeple using the site to find jobs and build a network of people . Though figures show that facebook is the most popular when it comes to finding jobs . "One in six workers say that they used social media to get hired, with Facebook (50 percent) the most popular way to look for work, ahead of LinkedIn (26 percent) and Twitter (25 percent)", (Shea Bennett 2011).

This means that those who have not caught up to the shift of power which is occuring with social media will be doing themselves a huge dis-service if they dont consider it for job hunting. as aqcuring a job has a lot to do with speed, the first come first serve basis and for those who are on social media they can be the first to hear about a new job when a company advertises it through their social media outlets. What do you think though..are you going to seriously consider social media when your looking for your next job ?

http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-media-job-stats_b16217

Security on Social Networks: A Pressing Concern?

Security on Social Networks: A Pressing Concern?

As Social networks become more and more popular, scammers and phishing is certainly on the rise within social networking sites. Scammers use crafted baits which make people become more interested and therefore make them click on the link without them thinking. Exclusive footage such as celebrity death claims like the Lady Gaga example is examples of this. Facebook has had security issues on a regular basis, with the latest having a very sickening nature of it. However, this Facebook attack was based on click-jacking technology, and did not rely for users to click on the links or images. Another problem with Facebook is the applications you can add to your Facebook account. Most people would associate Facebook applications to be safe, but this is not always the case. In 2010, 1 in 5 applications were malware.

Facebook is the most known for the security issues, but twitter has certainly not been immune. Numerous Twitter accounts have been hacked in the past, including Barak Obama. Click-jacking is a threat on twitter as well as shortened URL’s which distribute Malware if your are of the curious type. Trending Topics can further hide malware due a certain topic being tweeted so often that twitter defines this as a trend. Phishing attacks on Twitter are also easy to do, with plenty of users being caught out with phishing attacks. Social Networks and their security is always a worrying concern. New scams are always being sent to fool the end user.

However, due to the rise of mobile technology, particularly android, new threats are emerging for mobile users. This was shown by the recent malware attack through the android market as well as URLs being shortened on mobile phones, which cyber criminals can use to their advantage. How do you feel about the security of social networking systems? Do you ever think about security when using Twitter or Facebook? Would you ever think about click-jacking as a threat when tweeting on a regular basis? Social Media and particularly social networks are always giving cyber-criminals an opening. Even the XBOX360 network service is not immune, as users also happened to fall victim to a phishing attack earlier this year.

references:-

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2011/11/29/social-media-users-being-warned-of-new-online-scams/

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/08/11/facebook-crimes-on-rise-experts-warn/

http://www.crn.com/news/security/231600446/fake-anti-virus-social-network-scams-on-the-rise-report.htm

https://www.infosecisland.com/blogview/9829-One-in-Five-Facebook-Applications-Contain-Malware.html

http://blog.twitter.com/2009/01/monday-morning-madness.html

http://www.webpronews.com/things-you-need-to-know-about-twitter-security-2009-07

Yumety; A unique way of social networking

It is fortunate for us all that we are all going through the “social networking bubble”, a way of life were we spend hours a day socialising with other people. These are exciting yet crazy times we have ahead of ourselves, just one click of a button and people will know; what you think, what you are doing, were you are etc. There could be thousands of people “following” us, where by 10 years ago I’d call the police for someone following me. Nowadays we are proud of having a number of people “following” us.

However, is this a way of socialising? Or is it taking us further away from socialising? “How many of our social networking friends are our real friends? How many can you say who really knows me? Who exactly are we sharing our state of minds to?”

Enter Yumety, Yumety is a unique way of social networking which connects people through the emotional states of others such as; wishes, desires, worries and dreams. This type of social networking is a perfect platform to make friends with someone similar in the way each other feels “Someone who is going through or have gone through what we are going through inside us”. There are a number of dreamers out there that wants to express their dreams but are too embarrassed, shy and/or afraid. However, Yumety is a way for people who have similar emotions that people are out there that; do share the same feelings, do daydream a similar role, do wish similar aspirations etc. By sharing their state of mind “its algorithm computes a character graph for you (like your level of perception, emotion etc.) And then it compares your graph with other members and suggests similar people, with whom you can share, discuss or pursue a dream together.”

This type of website aims at audiences that want something different. The chances of you matched up with someone that have similar emotions, are high, which will inevitably lead to a better relationship between you and that specific person, which to me personally is their “selling” point, the way they entice people in, to sign up.

What are your views towards this? Is it too personal? Or diverse? Would you want to sign up to this?

http://www.sociableblog.com/2011/10/19/yumety-social-network-for-dreamers/

Application of Second Life

Application of Second Life

Second Life in a nutshell is a virtual reality world; where users of Second Life, known as ‘Residents,’ are able to communicate to one another’s avatar to socialise or partake in the many applications or groups within the Second Life world. Within the CS3010 lab where we were able to join the Second Life world to explore and gauge an overall feel for this particular virtual reality. Second Life to a beginner like me seemed to be a glorified Sims game, however whilst continuing my experience and exploration with Second Life I have become aware of some of the advantages and assistances it provides to some people. Online communities to support and facilitate the arts, religion, corporate work, science and education which is what I will elaborate further on.

Through my own experience as well as research it appears that the education within the Second Life world is rather substantial and thorough. The sheer detail of some of the online campuses within Second Life is astonishing, with developers of the campuses providing a carbon copy of some university students’ campuses, with unique aspects of one’s campus, such as a constantly faulty printer or broken door, being implemented to provide a sense of realism for the user with the addition of a personalised avatars to be an accurate portrait of student to contribute to the realism. The distinct advantages I found of the Second Life education community is as follows; firstly the problematic matter of distance for some students is somewhat resolved as the students in remote areas are able to participate in a global networked virtual classroom, where they are able to ask fellow students and/or the lecturer questions to help assist their studies with instant feedback, which would not be usually available to students using a virtual learning environment such as u-Link, where a response to a question may range from hours to days or never in some cases. Another advantage of the second life education community is the support and confidence it provides students with learning difficulties. Students with learning difficulties may be required to undertake extra tuition or are perhaps removed from mainstream education. In either case a fall in confidence will likely be experienced, thus students with learning difficulties within the Second Life education community are able to work at a pace that is suited to them; either one to one with a teacher or with a group of students with similar difficulties to facilitate both collaborative learning as well as to build confidence that they are not alone and can be educated. In both advantages the key feature is the social aspect that Second Life provides, as the majority of students I know feel that collaborative learning is the most beneficial method to learn, as students are able to engage and share ideas and solutions to problems that they may not have known if they were learning by themselves, as well know that they are not alone if they do not understand something.

However, with young or vulnerable learners caution must be exercised as adult content is an issue with Second Life, thus everything must be assured that these learners are not subjected to such content. ‘Early research indicates however that a level of caution is required to ensure that young learners and other people are not inadvertently interacting with ‘islands’ in the Second Life environment which include unsavoury and unacceptable practices of an adult nature. In response to this, the educational community has developed the ability to purchase private restricted islands which are suitable locations for young learners…adults are not allowed to set foot on the mainland.’

References

McCrindle, R. J., & Adams, A. A. (2008). Pandora's Box. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Buffy: The Facebook Smartphone - The future?

It has been reported that Facebook are currently working on developing a new Facebook smartphone- "Buffy". According to All Things Digital; "Facebook has tapped Taiwanese cellphone maker HTC to build a smartphone that has the social network integrated at the core of its being." What will be different about this smartphone from its competitors? - Facebook states: "Our mobile strategy is simple: We think every mobile device is better if it is deeply social. We’re working across the entire mobile industry; with operators, hardware manufacturers, OS providers, and application developers to bring powerful social experiences to more people around the world." (dailycaller.com)

Social media services are proving to be a very important aspect within the mobile industry now, with the increasing number of people using mobiles to access social networking services. Facebook want to integrate social media at a much deeper level than it's competitors (e.g. Google); they want to integrate contacts and sharing into the core of the user experience. "The device would be a heavily-customised version of the Android operating system featuring full integration of Facebook functionality." (digitalspy.co.uk)

Facebook already allows users to upload photos directing from the picture-taking app and intergrates Facebook contacts with the phone book, but what the Facebook phone would be able to do remains a mystery. The package will use HTLM5 support. How will it evolve with HTML5 applications?

Could this phone be a huge failure? Some people hate Facebook..

Do you think a Facebook smartphone would be succesful? Would you buy one?

References

http://dailycaller.com/2011/11/25/facebook-mum-on-whether-anticipated-smartphone-violates-net-neutrality/

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tech/news/a352268/facebook-partners-with-htc-for-buffy-smartphone.html

Is Facebook unbeatable?

There have been rumours that Google+ is “dead”. If it were true then Facebook would be the dominant social networking website on the internet.

“Google+ was supposed to be a "Facebook killer". Some now say it's already dead - but the search giant says it is just getting started.” (Danzico, 2011), basically this means user’s are exaggerating the slow success of Google+ or could this be a prediction? Presently, Google+ has 100 million users whereas Facebook has 800 million. That is a big difference, but these things take time, as Danzico (2011) states ‘Facebook and Twitter both took more than two years to hit the 10 million user milestone.’

With this on suing competition, how is Google+ gaining its user’s? My opinion is that Google is popular with its search engine and other services (such as Blogger and YouTube) and so because it is popular people want to try out the latest service, in this case Google+, Google’s answer to social networking.

“The real test of Google’s social network is what people do after they join. As far as anyone can tell, they aren’t doing a whole lot.” (Manjoo, 2011), it is known that Google+ struggled when it became live on the internet and people have been sceptical about it with mixed opinions about it lacking and being more like Facebook. But if were struggling now then it would not have gained its 100 million users (which is the last published record to date and as the number continues to grow).

“Whether Google+ grows or not, the public should expect to see Google putting everything it has into the service's promotion and development during the coming months.” (Danzico, 2011), so it would appear that perhaps Google+ could be a worthy competitor against Facebook in the near or later future, that’s if Google keep the dedication to improve Google+ up.

But it is only a matter of time before we can properly answer the question, is Facebook unbeatable?

External links

Google denies Google+ death reports - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15829333

References

Danzico, M., 2011. Google denies Google+ death reports. BBC News, [online] (Last updated 11.04 PM on 22nd November 2011). Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15829333 [Accessed 27 November 2011]

Manjoo, F., 2011. Google+ is dead. Slate, [online] (Last updated 5.22PM on 8^th November 2011). Available at: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2011/11/google_had_a_chance_to_compete_with_facebook_not_anymore_.html [Accessed 27 November 2011]

Pokki, keep all your social media accounts synchronized in Windows!

For the time being, all of the current operative systems should have native support for social media. If just checking one account from time to time to see if someone texted you can become annoying, imagine having as many accounts as I do (Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Gmail etc).

I spend more than half of my time using Linux, and all I have to do to see if someone texted me is just sit, and watch, the OS (via Gwibber) will notificate me about anything new in any of my accounts. On top of making my life a little bit easier, I waste less time. Back in the day when I used to swing by Facebook just to see if I had any new notifications, I always ended up checking someone's profile or new pictures, wasting a lot of time. Now, whenever I have something new I get notified, so I just have to go to Facebook whenever it is important.

Because lately I have been spending more time in Windows than I am used to, I have been wondering if there was a way to fix this. Turns out, there was! It's a little program called Pokki (http://www.pokki.com/). When you install it, you get to add new apps (specially for things like Gmail, Facebook or Twitter). The apps notify you whenever you have something new, so you don't have to be checking all your accounts any more. The apps are coded in HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript, so everything runs and looks wonderful. I strongly recommend that you guys give it a try, it's really good!

The business of Facebook

Its amazing how social media has changed the dynamics of how companies market themselves to customers. In the past it was simply putting money together and providing a 30 second clip of your product and hoping that your target audience see it and then go on to purchase your products.Though now with social media companies who have the money to spend, "There are games, videos, interactive campaigns and lot of big brands spending lots of money" Niall & Lauren (2011) , with these lavish social media campaigns which now doesnt look for a target audience it creates the target audience and attracts people who would normally not be interested.

I was reading this online article about the top 20 facebook campaigns, alot of them just seemed like pure fun and i wish some of them where still around, even though some of these campaigns had nothing to do with the product. For example Coca Cola company did a campaign for their coke zero product, called the "coke zero facial profiler ",which had nothing to do with the drink but looks like a heck of a lot of fun. "a nice Facebook app from Coke Zero (now removed) that allowed you to upload a photo or use your profile photo, and find complete strangers that looked like you" Niall & Lauren (2011)

This is great news because it means that the best business goes to those with the most innnovative ways of interacting with current customers and potential customers. This now puts things on a level playing field, even though the companies who have BIG MONEY can fund some impressive campaigns, innovation will always beat finance. Some of these campaigns are pure genius below are the best 20 facebook campaigns with companies and products such as ford, skittles, kohl, dominos, pringles and even marmite.

http://www.simplyzesty.com/facebook/need-facebook-marketing-inspiration-20-of-the-most-innovative-campaigns/ - Niall & Lauren (2011)

Google + is only getting started...

A fierce competition has begun between the two global giants, Google and Facebook. Some believe Google has no chance in competing with social network giant, however Google have fought back from pundits who claim the network is Dead.. By stating they have only just started..

Social media news blog Mashable said the new service may still emerge as a significant force in the online world. The online tool gained 10 million users within the first 16 days after its private launch, and 40 million within the first 100 days, making it the fastest-growing social network in the history of the web. In contrast Facebook and Twitter both took more than two years to hit the 10 million user milestone.

Google + says the service aims to be more than simply a social networking website. It is attempting to build a social layer across all its products - including Gmail, YouTube and Blogger - in an effort to help tie the services together. Google is Google+ users can recommend links, videos and other pieces of content to their friends by clicking "+1" on a small widget, Google's version of the Facebook "Like" button. This +1 is then used to help inform Google about how to list results from search criteria for each user.

However some argue that Google don’t stand a chance in competiting with the social network giant, because of the amount followers they currently have. Facebook, which now boasts more than 800 million users, has unveiled features similar to those that once set Google+ apart - such as the ability to lump friends into groups in order to separate who sees which content.

Reporting for Forbes, Paul Tassi was clear about the challenge Google faces trying to compete with Facebook."No-one is going to scrap a social network they've spent eight years building up to start over from scratch for one that offers only a few minor improvements," he wrote.

Google has partly built its reputation on the breadth of its services, from email to photo sharing to music streaming. Users of these products total in the hundreds of millions, comparable figures to Facebook's reach. Whether Google+ grows or not, the public should expect to see Google putting everything it has into the service's promotion and development during the coming months.

http://gigaom.com/2011/11/23/can-google-news-compete-with-twitter-and-facebook/

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2011/1125/1224308102214.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15829333

What does the future hold for Google + ? Could Google be the only company that can take on facebook?

Driving and tweeting (hazard)

Driving and tweeting?
Driving, tweeting and updating your facebook is this a major issue? I believe so looking at some research I found that they have been serious incident that have occurred when using a smart phone whilst driving. Driving requires using concentration I believe that using a smartphone can cause major distraction such as using it to check mail, texting or even looking at maps.
“48% of drivers aged 18-24 had admitted to smartphone distractions, with 24% using an iPod to listen to music, 23% reading emails and 22% checking Google maps” (gurdian)
Year 2010 a well-known celebrity surgeon past away due to a car accident just after she” tweeted”

“New reports indicate that Dr. Frank Ryan, plastic surgeon to Heidi Montag and other celebrities, was tweeting just before his fatal car accident on Monday”(masahble)

This shows that how much of a hazard it is whilst using your smart phone when driving, this could be yourself using your smart phone to text, check emails, Facebook and tweet. Many people say that it’s not a hazard and that the brain can multi task, but is this true?

“Multitasking is a myth. Human brains do not perform two tasks at the same time. Instead, the brain handles tasks sequentially, switching between one task and another. Brains can juggle tasks very rapidly, which leads us to erroneously believe we are doing two tasks at the same time. In reality, the brain is switching attention between tasks – performing only one task at a time.”

Do you think using your phone whilst is a hazard? Or Do you think that you can multi task ?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/sep/28/mobile-phone-driving-problem-rac
http://mashable.com/2010/08/18/tweeting-death-frank-ryan/
distracteddriving.nsc.org

Facebook Depression

Facebook Depression

The mission statement of Facebook is as follows:

‘Facebook's mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.’

I for one believe Facebook has achieved this target to a certain extent: developing countries around the world are connecting to the internet and are a part of Facebook, in some areas political barriers are being abolished (for instance in China where censorship of Facebook may be lifted,) and people around the world are increasingly becoming increasingly more connected. A recent study by Facebook and the University of Milan found that the previous separation degree of 6, which was coined in 1967 by Stanley Milgram, is now 4.74 among Facebook users. Though becoming more connected and sharing more obviously has it benefits, harmful by-products have been produced as a result. One such consequence is the condition referred to as ‘Facebook Depression.’

Facebook depression is a virtual extension of what people experience in the real world; in fact, it could be argued that the depression experienced on Facebook is actually worse. One of the causes is the constant numbered and visual reminders of how great the gap in popularity there is between one another, (amount of friends a person has, pictures of people having a good time etc.) Whenever a victim of Facebook depression logs in they are continually exposed to the problem. On the other hand, someone suffering from depression in a real-world environment, such as secondary school, has their experience limited to the time period they are in, e.g. 9am to 3pm. As a result, victims of Facebook depression strive even further to become more popular to overcome their depression. ‘‘With in-your-face friends' tallies, status updates and photos of happy-looking people having great times, Facebook pages can make some kids feel even worse if they think they don't measure up.’

Nonetheless, Facebook is not without its benefits. As I mentioned previously, the advantages are many, with more people being able to connect to friends and family to facilitate a more open and social world. However, parents’ in particular should keep a vigilant eye on their children, as their minds, personalities and values are more vulnerable around the adolescent period, where popularity and social standing seems to be the only important aspect of their lives. As one put it: "It's like a big popularity contest — who can get the most friend requests or get the most pictures tagged.”

References:

Knight, W. (2011). Planes, Trains, Automobiles, & Foursquare Check-ins. Available: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/27364/. Last accessed 24th Nov 2011.

Tanner, L. (2011). Docs warn about teens and 'Facebook depression'.Available: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42298789/ns/health-mental_health/t/docs-warn-about-teens-facebook-depression/#.Ts44OWMUqso. Last accessed 24th Nov 2011.

Zuckerberg, M. (2004). Facebook Info. Available: http://www.facebook.com/facebook?sk=info. Last accessed 24th Nov

The Future of Social Web

The Future of Social Web

Social web is defined as we learnt is our third lecture as the following;

‘We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system.” (Boyd & Ellison 2007, p.211)

However, whilst attending the CS3010 lectures I have pondered what the future of social web is embarking on. The natural progression of social web would be for multinational companies to fully exploit the sheer amount of potential customers’ more so on social networking websites. For instance, the humanising of big brands, such as employees of brands and corporations themselves tweeting to the general public of up and coming products or events establish a relationship with consumers by providing a real face(s) that consumers can actually connect and communicate to personally.

An article by Jeremiah Owyang looked at the future of social web within a more long term forecast. He suggestes that there are 5 eras within the social web’s future: Era of Social Relationships, Era of Social Functionality, which is the era we are currently in, Era of Social Colonization, Era of Social Context and Era of Social Commerce. The Era of Social Relationships is the facility to simply connect to one another and share information with each other. The Era of Social Functionality is the current period we are experiencing; this in the form of an example is the creation and utilisation of Facebook as the platform to connect to other people and applications installed to enable further communication. The Era of Social Colonization is enabling the majority of websites to be social. With most websites sporting an array of logos ranging from Facebook to Digg It, it enables websites to become communal. For instance, Facebook Connect allows the user to click on the Facebook logo on a website such as Grooveshark (on-line music streaming) if they ’like’ a particular song, which will automatically be posted on the user’s wall and newsfeed. Era of Social Context is the provision of individuality to the consumer by providing tailored web sites for consumers by sharing their personal information, such as interests, activities etc. Thus displaying items that only parallel the consumer’s interests. The Era of Social Commerce is the replacing of brands with groups, with consumers’ of certain brands providing innovative ideas and features of what they would like to see in future products and/or services, shifting from a consumer culture to one of a prosumer.

Thus it could be seen that with constant evolution of social culture it is vital that companies are also matching their product portfolio/range with it. This is one of many possible views; do you follow this opinion?

References:

Jeremiah Owyang. (2009). The Future of the Social Web: In Five Eras. Available: http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2009/04/27/future-of-the-social-web/. Last accessed 22nd Nov 2011.

The Speed of Social Web

When I talk about speed and social web, I’m really just talking about news and how fast it spreads. Without the use of the internet, how would the world know about all the riots that happened in London during last summer? In my opinion the impact of Twitter, Blackberry Messenger and Facebook helped a lot as well as the odd few that used it to spread information about which JD Sports store was next to be raided. We have news channels that bring us news 24/7 but the technology has not allowed them to give us up to date news at 3 o’clock in the morning and this is where social media takes it place. Its straightforwardness is so important to today’s internet obsessed society.

Does anyone on this blog follow Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVitrtual)? I know you’ve heard of him before whether you cared about him or not, his name was passed around in the news at the same time of the capture raid on Osama bin Laden. Athar first heard helicopters during the raid and he shared his updates on Twitter. This guy is a real Twitter legend! Why do so many people follow Lady Gaga when this guy did something for the social world? (I don’t have anything against those who follow Lady Gaga by the way. Someone who has 16 million users is clearly doing something right).

News does move amazingly fast now, especially on Twitter. News reporters nearly always have their Twitter username alongside their name rather than their email address now because it’s just easier to forward news and to be up to date. For a journalist not to have a Twitter account is like them not having a mobile phone today.

I think we also have to account for the power celebrities have these days especially with social interaction. They market and endorse through social networks and could effortlessly make millions just with a couple of words. Celebrities these days don’t have to be supremely talented at what they do, some of them don’t have to be talented at anything at all. Let’s look at Kim Kardashian. No talent, really just a socialite with a pretty face. But she tweeted this to her 11 million something followers:

@KimKardashian: Wow seriously in tears watching this Chilean miners getting released on CNN! What a tough struggle they made it through!!!

How can we calculate the impact of this tweet to her followers?

Soon enough, any sort of news that surfaces will be passed across the globe in a second because of Twitter and Hashtags. (Has anyone seen someone on Facebook hashtag in a post? Does that even work the same way?) I know it is a wrong to reflect on negative news and the thought of “could social networking have helped things?” But could they? If a child gets abducted and someone curiously tweets about something they may have heard or seen, how fast could this news spread to the masses?

http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/05/02/heres-the-guy-who-unwittingly-live-tweeted-the-raid-on-bin-laden/

Unintended Consequences of Cyber bullying

There are a hand full of students out there that have been violently bullied to bravely talk about their experience, purely as an act for help and answers. But many ‘folks’ tend to ignore these cry out for help and move on, why? is it because many adults wouldn’t have a clue on how to approach a conversation about bullying?

Through my research, I came across an unfortunate suicidal victim called Jamey Rodemeyer who posted a number of blogs on the countless bullying he endeavoured. In one of his post he pleaded “I always say how bullied I am, but no one listens. What do I have to do so people will listen to me?” These types of victims that have the courage to post something so personal should be a wakeup call for us, we should be more aware that there are young teenagers out there crying for help. So how should we approach something so devastating?

In order for us to try and understand what these teenagers go through, we need to get into the mind frame of the youths to try connect and understand how they feel. “I’ve spent the last seven years talking to youth about bullying and drama and it nearly killed me when I realized that all of the effort that adults are putting into anti-bullying campaigns are falling on deaf ears and doing little to actually address what youth are experiencing.” Is this part of the reason why many teenagers tend to plea for help in the virtual world due to the ignorance of the adults? How would you feel if no one answered to your call?

It is unfortunate that bullying still happens around the world which begs the question; why hasn’t it been stamped out? A number of groups such as regulators and educators are trying to put a stop to end victimization. But it has been a long battle to find a solution, due to the lack of commitment from both the research and the voices of the youth. Why isn’t the youth voicing their opinions? Why haven’t many researchers provide statistics to try understand why bullying still occur?

http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2011/09/23/the-unintended-consequences-of-cyberbullying-rhetoric.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zephoria%2Fthoughts+%28apophenia%29

Mutual Circle Chat good or bad?

Google+ has recently added a new feature called mutual circle chat which appears in the lower left hand corner of your Google+ profile. This feature will allow you to have a conversation with those people in your mutual circle. This is the first time Google+ has done such a thing. With the use of this feature you can actually chat with anyone in your circle, who also has you in their mutual circle. Also according to Google’s post these people in mutual circles can also chat on Gmail, Google Plus, iGoogle, Orkut, and the Google Talk Client.

The benefits of having this feature are that firstly, according to a Google spokesperson “we’re making it easier to chat with the people you care about”. I agree with this to an extent. If you suddenly see someone that you know appear on chat that you are not directly friends with on Google+ then you can have a conversation with them. It could be that you haven’t seen this person for a long time and weren’t aware they are mutual friends with one of your friends. It is a good way of finding people. The same advantage goes for the person receiving the chat. That person may be glad to chat to you and catch up after a long time. In order to chat to these mutual friends you do not need to know their e-mail address which makes it easier to use the feature. The mutual circle chat has been one of the requested features in the new social networking platform. Everyday users want new features in every social network and these requests and changes are being made.The feature will also make it less tedious to chat with people you circle by forcing you to add them twice to talk to them on Google+ and the chat. This new feature also has the benefit of mutual friends being able to chat on Gmail, Google Plus and the others mentioned above which makes it easy to communicate across other networks. It is a feature with many opportunities to develop further in the feature and other social networks may also think about creating something similar one day.

The downside for some users of this feature is that they may not want to receive chats from various people in their mutual circle of friends. This new feature could be a way for some people to chat to those who do not wish to talk to them, which could lead to problems with mutual friends or even users reporting such events to Google+. Chat within circles means everyone in “your circle” which is going to be a large amount of users depending on how many friends you have; therefore the more users to chat with, which some people will take advantage of. To give a possible example celebrities and famous people may be approached on chat by some fans or even enemies and it is also said that the custom setting on Google+ chat do not offer much guidance on how to control the feature which means it will take a while for some users to get used to the swift change in the chat feature. However, there is no group chat involved nor can you start group chats from circles which are a good thing as it could lead to arguments in some cases over a conversation with mutual friends.

This is going to be a very interesting feature to be seen on the network. The benefits seem to easily outweigh the drawbacks. What are your opinions of this new feature?  

http://mashable.com/2011/11/21/google-plus-circle-chat/

Unwanted and offensive material on Facebook

Recently users of Facebook have been reporting rude and unwanted images including nude and disturbing content which has not been removed by Facebook swiftly as they may not have seen the material. There are 800 million active users out of which a fair few must have seen at some point some unwanted pictures on their news feed. Facebook should really respond to this content as soon as it is published because even if it is up for a day or two it can be viewed by thousands of users. Facebook is a social network such that everyone is connected to their friends and can also view various posts made by friends of friends, therefore they may be able to see photos and links which are offensive to them even though they do not wish to access them, but the network is such that posts are updated on users’ news feed on a regular basis.

Facebook allows users above the age of 13 to create an account. This is a very young age, therefore it is easy for them to come across or even find pornographic and unwanted material on Facebook. In my opinion the minimum age for creating a Facebook account should be at least 16. Nowadays facebook has taken over lives of kids whereas when I was 13 I had no access to any social networks. This shows the effect Facebook has had on youngsters. This makes the matter of unwanted content even more serious as children should not be viewing pornographic images, especially at their age. It is understandably hard for Facebook to identify each and every content but there should be a system which can realise material swiftly and then have the profiles of those users reported so that no such images are published again.

Another issue I came across was the creation of certain groups on Facebook which may also offend certain groups of people and individuals. It is so easy to create a group in minutes. No consent is required from Facebook, therefore users can create any groups which are publicly viewable and may be up for days, weeks or even months before it has been realised by Facebook as being offensive. These groups are often made public; therefore any users can access it whether they are children or adults. There should be some restrictions made on these groups if Facebook doesn’t choose to remove or block them.

So to summarise, I feel there is a need for a better system on Facebook that can identify unwanted images and groups and remove them within hours so that it is not viewed by many users. What are your views on this topic?

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/facebook-confirms-images-of-porn-and-violence-is-investigating/5330

The Social Media Gender Gap

Do females use social networking site more than males?

Men and women use social media for different uses. "Females spend more time than males on social media sites. They also contribute more, use mobile social networking more and they buy more stuff online than men do." (smedio.com, 2011) - Females are stereotypically known for spending more time on the phone, so it could be said as the emergence of Social Networking Sites (SNS) grew; females adapted to using SNS on their mobiles to communicate instead. Do females need to be socially connected at all times whilst males have other priorities?

Research has shown that females tend to use SNS such as Facebook and Twitter more regularly, whilst males tend to use LinkedIn. A much higher percentage of females post more photos and update their status more than males do on Facebook. "Men use social media to accomplish things and gain status, women seem to use it for deeper stuff like building genuine relationships, solidarity and discussions about life." (collective-thoughts.com, 2011) - Males are also more likely to use the internet for online gaming sites and multi-media viewing rather than SNS. Could this be because men and women act differently online as they do in everyday life? Females are natural networkers and tend to express their emotions more and men have more traditional masculine interests?

There are nearly twice as many LinkedIn users as females. Males may tend to like and use LinkedIn more as it is more of a professional social network, therefore they use it to attract job offers and networking with businesses in order to be successful. Could this fit in with the traditional role of masculinity and imbalance of management roles with females?

Why do you think there is gender differences in SNS participation? Why do they network differently? Is being socially connected more of a priority for females?

References

http://smedio.com/2011/06/22/women-are-taking-over-the-social-web/

http://collective-thoughts.com/2009/05/14/gender-differences-in-social-media-participation/

Facebook...The Spy

Enough is Enough, how much more is facebook going to monitor us?

Facebook has been engaging in a tacit warfare with the Federal Trade Commission over whether the social website is allegedly violating users’ privacy. Facebook has been crucified before due to the fact that apparently it shares too much of people’s personal information. But another issue, emerged of late

A new blow to the 800million active users!!

Facebook officials stepped forward this week and actually admitted that the company has been recording a log of the webpages that each of the 800 million registered members have visited during the previous 90 days. Facebook has reportedly acknowledged that it can track what other websites its members visit, even if they are logged out of the social network site. Has facebook gone really that far?

Studies show that Facebook's engineering director have found a new way of using a tracking cookie technologies similar to the controversial ones used by Google, Adobe, Microsoft, Yahoo and others in the online advertising industry. If you’re logged into Facebook, the session cookie tracks the web pages you visit, your IP, machine details, time stamps, along with your Facebook account data such as contacts, friends, and preferences via previous recorded “likes”.

http://www.techwatch.co.uk/2011/11/17/facebook-tracks-surfing-for-3-months/

The site claims the data collected is only used to improve its security and plug-in features and denies using the information collected to promote user-specific advertisements. They all say that the heavy tracking is needed to protect against spammers and hackers. But the Federal Trade Commission and members of Congress are not so convinced and have not abandoned the investigation yet.

When will facebook draw the line with privacy? Is it even safe to surf the net knowing that you are apart of a social networking site. How many Facebook users are aware they’re being tracked, even if logged out of the site, for three months worth of data? Probably not many...

http://techleash.com/2011/11/facebook-tracking-your-online-whereabouts/