It looks like social networking on desktops and laptops peaked in 2011 at 30% of Americans' time online – another sign of how mobile socializing's getting. Computer-based socializing decreased 3% last year for the first time, CNET reports, citing Experian market research. Social networking went down in the UK and Australia during the same period too – declining 3% in both countries. "If the time … [Read more...] about Computer-based socializing likely to have peaked
Social Media
Social cruelty on Ask.fm & the whack-a-mole tendency
Remember Formspring.me? Three years ago some terrible trolling that reportedly involved teens in New Jersey made the site, which announced it was shutting down* last month, a national news story in the US. Teens' viral adoption of Formspring and its format (ask a question, get an anonymous answer) reportedly took the site by surprise. Disturbing news coverage and letters sent home by school … [Read more...] about Social cruelty on Ask.fm & the whack-a-mole tendency
Law enforcement & social media now working together
This is a significant sign of progress: The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) is working with Facebook on consumer privacy education. We're still only in the first half of this decade, and in the second half of the last one, the state attorneys general were threatening legal action against a social media service – MySpace, the most popular one of that time. Now NAAG is actually … [Read more...] about Law enforcement & social media now working together
Parenting advice from a non-parent
It's fine for people who aren't parents to weigh in on parenting-these-days – aunts, uncles, grandparents, and children do all the time – but why market your article or post as a non-parent? Anyway, columnist Frank Bruni at the New York Times did. I agree with some of what he wrote (that parenting these days is pretty over-thunk), really like some of it (I'll get to that in a minute), and find … [Read more...] about Parenting advice from a non-parent
Australian teen panelists on social media: Meaty insights
My visit to Australia for the World Congress on Family Law & Children's Rights has been rich in hospitality and insight – I've had the privilege of talking with people in government, online-safety advocacy, industry, school (students!), primary and secondary education, research, of course many parents and grandparents, and even "Australia's Dr. Phil," as Michael Carr-Gregg has sometimes … [Read more...] about Australian teen panelists on social media: Meaty insights