Good news about teen safety practices on the social Web this week – surprisingly good to adults persuaded by the very negative hype about social networking in the news media this past year. A just-released study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that "the majority of teens actively manage their online profiles to keep the information they believe is most sensitive away from the … [Read more...] about Teen social networkers’ safety practices
Social Media
Net communications at Va. Tech
Administrators used email and students used Facebook as, in many cases, their only means of sending and receiving information fast in the aftermath of the worst mass shooting in modern US history, ABC News reports. The death toll was 33 by late Monday night, the Associated Press reported. With phone and other communication systems jammed, "many people turned to social networking sites to try to … [Read more...] about Net communications at Va. Tech
Social Web ads: Widgets
Where we used to we used to watch ads (what a concept!), our children are playing with widgets. Widgets, the Washington Post reports, allows people to do everything from design their own sneakers to create a ringtone to check out Hong Kong traffic or the surf at Australian beaches. Yahoo now has 4,300 widgets in its gallery, “blog publisher TypePad offers ‘blidgets’; home-page creator PageFlakes … [Read more...] about Social Web ads: Widgets
Social networking meets virtual worlds
If anyone's wondering if virtual worlds are the next social frontier for teens, they might want to look at the evidence. At least, the evidence of how much one virtual world – Second Life – has infiltrated the "real world" and vice versa:Calvin Klein launched its virtual perfume in Second Life, VNUNET reports. US T-shirt maker and retailer American Apparel has a virtual store in Second Life. … [Read more...] about Social networking meets virtual worlds
‘Distributed friendship’
Ninety percent of British youth have access to a computer at home, and more than 60% of UK 13-to17-year-olds have profiles on social-networking sites, The Telegraph reports in its thorough, thoughtful article, "Can u speak teenager?" Like the New York magazine piece I linked to last week, this one reflects some interesting analysis occurring about how all this online socializing is affecting … [Read more...] about ‘Distributed friendship’