Love in the Time of Passwords
There’s a new source of peer pressure on the block as teens in love share their passwords

Coughing up the password to an email address or social media site is the newest test of young love. With this top-secret data in hand, modern high school sweethearts scour one another’s exchanges for clues about faithfulness—often storing ammunition for post-breakup warfare while they’re at it. Adults, too, grapple with the issue of disclosing passwords to [...]

Compulsive Behavior
Our relatively new but extraordinarily rampant Internet addition may warrant an official diagnosis

Ever experienced a peculiar surge of elation when you watch the “likes” pile up on one of your Facebook statuses? This particular joy—triggered by, say, a small video-game victory, clever tweet or kind text message—is probably derived from the neurotransmitter dopamine, which sets our brains’ pleasure circuits ablaze. More scientists today are comparing this biological response with the gratification felt by addicts who bring the first [...]

Attention, Abbreviated
Our attention spans are shorter than ever—mere seconds—as social media rewires our brains

In just a decade’s time, the average attention span has plummeted from 12 minutes to five seconds; considering that the average office worker checks his email inbox 30 to 40 times an hour, we can see why. Social media looks to be “drastically changing” the way our brains work, resulting in folks who are more impatient, forgetful, self-centered and, in some cases, distracted to a dangerous [...]

For Your Eyes Only
Social media sites—and government officials—are still grappling with privacy issues

Mark Zuckerberg would have you believe that we’re sharing more personal information online today than ever because we’re now in “complete control” over who gets access to it. The Facebook founder recently took to Facebook’s blog to address the site’s settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, which determined that Facebook deceived consumers over the years by failing to keep privacy promises. In his statement, Zuckerberg [...]

Modern Popularity
Klout is catching flak—but why exactly?

If you Tweeted and no one retweeted your Tweet, did you really Tweet at all? According to Klout, the answer may as well be no. The San Francisco–based firm, which analyzes data from 13 different online networks in order to derive a social-influence score from 1 to 100, has ruffled all kinds of feathers since its data started being used in earnest for such purposes as weeding out job candidates and drafting [...]

(This article was originally published on the Huffington Post.)
Does the notion of “me time” almost always mean “we time” in this decidedly social age (even if me plus one or more is virtual)?
I wonder what Greta Garbo (who infamously crafted a reluctant catchphrase in the movie Grand Hotel: “I want to be alone”) would think of alone time circa 2011? Later in life she discounted the plea and said, “I never said, ‘I want to be alone.’ I only said, [...]

The Law of Facebook Averages
The typical social media user is older and more connected than ever before

It’s so 2008 to complain that Mom and Dad have joined Facebook. The platform long ago ceased playing host to mostly college kids and their keg party pictures. These days, the average age of an American Facebook user has risen, to 38 in 2010, up from 33 in 2008. (Also of note: This average user has amassed 229 friends but [...]

Social Media Performance Anxiety
As the rules for social media engagement evolve, one thing remains the same: Brand value hinges on it …

Now that the social media footprint of corporate brands has been directly linked to a company’s growth and value, more emphasis is being put on the how-tos of branding via social media. For one, there’s the matter of “likes” and comments and how to get them. Comments, especially, are valuable to brands, as they lead to four times [...]

Growing Pinterest
Appealing to collectors of pretty things everywhere, Pinterest.com shapes up to be the next big thing in social media

Pinterest.com didn’t even exist 19 months ago, and earlier this fall it was still being run out of a co-founder’s living room. Now the site, beloved by DIYers and design enthusiasts, is valued at a reported $200 million. Although this kind of runaway success isn’t necessarily uncommon online—flash sale site Fab.com reports having reached one million subscribers in only [...]

Ganging Up on Crime
Police are tracking down gang members through their social media pages

File these in the Dumb Criminals Hall of Shame: One drug dealer carelessly complained on Facebook that someone had been “watering down” the strength of the PCP he was peddling—a detail the FBI agent used against him in court. An MS-13 street gang member went hunting on MySpace for a a federal witness he wanted silenced. Still another MS-13 member flashed a gang symbol in [...]