Facebook is a complex, ever-changing digital world. No matter how much time you spend there, it seems there’s always more to know about it. For example, did you know that Facebook filters out most of your posts before your friends can see them? Or that Facebook users are, in general, hiding more personal information than they did even a year or two ago? These two Huffington Post articles have details.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/29/facebook-posts_n_1311330.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/24/facebook-users-privacy-social-media_n_1299211.html?utm_campaign=022412&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Alert-technology&utm_content=FullStory
Tag: Social Networks
The world’s biggest social network has a nasty habit of changing its user interface often enough to confuse and anger users all around the world. The latest Facebook iteration, the Timeline. presents your history (and may threaten your privacy) in a whole new way. This Macworld article tells you what you need to know to make the Timeline work for you.
www.macworld.com/article/164999/2012/01/your_complete_guide_to_facebook_timeline.html
It’s generally wise to understand the tools and tricks that people and institutions use to manipulate our behavior. This Wired article is packed with insights into how everybody from Amazon to Zynga gets you to spend more time and money at their sites.
wired.com/magazine/2011/06/ff_gamed/all/1
Computer programs are designed using mathematical/logical constructs called algorithms. This fascinating TED talk by Kevin Slavin shows and tells how algorithms are finding their way into all kinds of unexpected places in our world, for better or for worse.
ted.com/talks/kevin_slavin_how_algorithms_shape_our_world.html
The Internet is a marvelous medium for free-flowing discussion and information sharing. But it can also be an amplifier of hatred and rage—especially on sites where opinions can be posted anonymously.
What happens to your online identity after you die? This short TED talk explores this question and suggests some answers.
People use eBay and other auction sites for C2C transactions involving material goods. TaskRabbit is a C2C clearinghouse for services. Need somebody to run an errand or put together your new desk? Ask TaskRabbit.
Eric Whitacre’s virtual choir combines social networks and multimedia to create a unique and beautiful new work of collaborative art.
[ted id=1110]
Few people doubt that social media are changing our world, but what does that really mean? This animated video presents a rapid-fire sampler of facts and figures that drive home the point: It’s happening, and it’s happening fast.
In an age when “friend” is a verb, many of us have hundreds of social-network friends. But Oxford Anthropologist Robin Dunbar’s research suggests that we’re wired to max out our meaningful relationships at about 150. This NPR story has details. Can technology help us break Dunbar’s limit, and is that a worthwhile goal?