The days of simple, single-use apps may be over. Or not, depending on the user, his or her context and a whole lot of other factors. But there is a bit of a trend among messaging apps. Not all apps – particularly the No. 1 messaging app, Facebook's WhatsApp with 600+ million users – are part of it, though, so where you are in the world has been a driver of this trend so far. The trend, … [Read more...] about The universe in an app: Will youth create a trend within the trend?
Social Media
Digital parenting: Individual, situational, contextual
It's so interesting to see what British psychologist Sonia Livingstone zooms in on in American psychologist Lynn Schofield Clark's book on parenting digital media users, The Parent App. Dr. Livingstone picked up on what I liked most about the book too: diversity and depth of insight. Dr. Clark interviewed "46 very different families" for a study that Livingstone calls "one of the most astute … [Read more...] about Digital parenting: Individual, situational, contextual
Growing empathy: How VR could augment our humanity online
BusinessInsider.com reporter Dave Smith recently experienced social virtual reality – not the videogame kind anybody who has demo'd VR has experienced, where you find yourself in some exotic activity like standing on top of a skyscraper or snorkeling by Australia's Great Barrier Reef. And Smith says, "social is the killer app of virtual reality," likely why Facebook acquired Oculus Rift for $2 … [Read more...] about Growing empathy: How VR could augment our humanity online
How brave commenters are growing the power of Lewinsky’s talk
"Together, we have the power to protect the most vulnerable among us." There never was a truer, more urgent call to the world's social media users. It's from Nadia Goodman, TED's social media editor, in a blog post about the digital aftermath of posting the video of Monica Lewinsky's TED talk in the TED site. [This is a followup to my post on Sunday about the talk, which has gotten nearly 2 … [Read more...] about How brave commenters are growing the power of Lewinsky’s talk
Social circles, more than social media, cause stress: Study
Social media itself doesn't increase our stress levels, but our social lives can. We knew that, right? Caring about others can cause us stress when we see them suffering, and that's one of the things social media does: expose our friends' challenges. We can probably extrapolate a few things about our children's experiences from the Pew Research Center's survey of 1,801 adults that explored … [Read more...] about Social circles, more than social media, cause stress: Study