The Cyberbullying Research Center has added its own data to our growing understanding of bullying related to sexual orientation. The researchers, Profs. Sameer Hinduja and Justin Patchin, found that 72% of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) students have been targeted by bullying at some point in their lives, compared to 63% of heterosexual students, with an "even more striking" … [Read more...] about LGBT youth & cyberbullying: Study
Social Media
We need to work out the social norms of social media: Why?
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about David Brooks's column on today's version of evolution and the new survival of the fittest: survival of the most cooperative, whereby people develop moral communities and the social norms that help those communities succeed. Then I watched Brooks's TED Talk about a new humanism that's emerging which expands on that. It's not the right-leaning … [Read more...] about We need to work out the social norms of social media: Why?
In FB, ‘kids don’t want to be friends with their parents’?
That statement, by Forbes writer David Martin, is and isn't true, I think. It's Martin's explanation for why, as reported last week, "for a second month in a row Facebook is losing users in the US, Britain and Canada" (I think PC Magazine had a better set of explanations, but it's all speculation; the BBC had Facebook's response). Of course we know that one of the tasks of adolescence is to push … [Read more...] about In FB, ‘kids don’t want to be friends with their parents’?
U13s on social sites: Who’ll get the equation right?
The number of social sites aimed at children under 13 is suddenly growing again. Now joining Everloop (which just raised another $3.1 million, TechCrunch reported), YourSphere (for young people under and over 13), and Togetherville.com (recently acquired by Disney) is WhatsWhat.me. National Geographic-branded AnimalJam.com for kids 5-11 passed the 1 million player mark in a matter of months with … [Read more...] about U13s on social sites: Who’ll get the equation right?
Student’s tornado relief page on Facebook
Right after the tornado hit the small Massachusetts town of Munson, high school senior Laura Sauriol logged into Facebook and noticed that residents' questions about who to help, how to get help, and where to get information started flying. Seeing her town needed an information clearinghouse, she created the Monson Tornado Watch 2011 page on Facebook, the Hartford Courant reports. "Over the next … [Read more...] about Student’s tornado relief page on Facebook