The US's 43% social-media surge in the past year led "a substantial shift in how the country spends its online time," Advertising Age reports, citing Nielsen research. From June 2009 to this past June, "the time spent on social media accessed from PCs rose from 15.8% ... to 22.7%," with social networking topping the list of American's favorite online activity and gaming passing up email for the … [Read more...] about Americans’ social media use up 43%: Nielsen
Archives for August 2010
Tweeting around the globe
Another quick glimpse of how international social media are: Twitter grew 109% in the past year, comScore says, and "Indonesia, Brazil, and Venezuela led the surge." Indonesia was No. 1, with 20.8% of Net users there having visited Twitter in June. As for Venezuela’s growth, it was "fueled in large part by President Hugo Chavez’s decision to join Twitter in late April," comScore reports. Nearly … [Read more...] about Tweeting around the globe
Facebook adds ‘Places’: Cellphone location service
I'm sure you've heard about Foursquare, a game and geolocation app that lets people "check in" to their favorite spots virtually when they're walking in physically. Well, Facebook now has a geolocation app like that called "Places," so users can use their cellphones to let their FB friends know where they are (only in the US at this point). In addition to checking in, FB users can "see who else … [Read more...] about Facebook adds ‘Places’: Cellphone location service
The learning power of a virtual world
It's definitely not a flashy video production, but if you're interested in learning about a virtual world that 6.4 million kids aged 8-15 (68% girls, average age 12.5) like because it challenges them in math and science and expects them to be smart, watch this interview about Whyville.net at Discover magazine. Founder and CEO of Whyville parent Numedeon Inc., Jim Bower – who is also a professor of … [Read more...] about The learning power of a virtual world
Let’s avoid a ‘privacy panic’
Because media are increasingly social, media users are more and more public. So – although some publics (like Justin Bieber's or Taylor Swift's) are bigger than others – we all have publics now, as social media researcher danah boyd pointed out in the middle of the past decade. I hope by now that parents, or at least the parents who read my blog, have heard that what media users want is not either … [Read more...] about Let’s avoid a ‘privacy panic’