Whether it’s through Facebook or Snapchat, images and videos are changing how we communicate. But as words become more trivial, our attention, our creativity, and even our empathy may be at stake.
The ephemeral social media platform Snapchat is a hit with young people. And while it can lead to risky behaviour, it can also encourage creative experimentation and socialisation.
Researchers got 128 students at a middle school to use Twitter to further their science learning. And what happened? These students learned how to connect science to real life.
Some selfies are more dangerous than others…
'Selfie' via www.shutterstock.com
After a selfie-snapping man was mauled to death by a bear, a psychologist wonders why people feel so compelled to capture and share images of themselves.
Free Syrian Army fighters on their smartphones.
Jalal Al-mamo/Reuters
As usage continues to grow in the region, what’s the ongoing dynamic between the Middle East and social media? It’s complicated.
When we’re flooded with images, how much of their content do we retain?
Penelope Umbrico, '541,795 Suns from Sunsets from Flickr (Partial) 01/23/06,' 2006-ongoing, detail, 2500 4 inch x 6 inch c-prints. Courtesy Mark Moore Gallery and Bruce Silverstein Gallery.
Snapping and sharing photographs has never been easier. But being inundated with images can have a host of unintended consequences, from heightened anxiety to impaired memory.
Phones out, but today’s students are less likely to have Facebook or Twitter open.
Phones image via www.shutterstock.com.
Young people are starting to skip the very public postings of some of social media’s original platforms. Why? And where will that leave the companies that rely on our willingness to divulge everything?
Life online can continue even after the real life version ends.
scyther5/Shutterstock
Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose. So said Kevin Arnold in The Wonder Years. Now that we spend so much time online, our digital…
It’s not a bubble when everyone’s in it.
Anthony Devlin/PA
A recent flurry of business mergers and acquisitions and stock market flotations in the US has prompted some financial commentators to predict a new tech bubble. The size of these buyouts and IPOs, and…
Happy decade, Facebook. You’ve come a long way.
Creative Cakes by KeeKee
When we think of tenth birthdays, we associate them with youth and the cusp of tweenhood, a life only just begun and about to get more exciting. But it’s different in the technology industry and, as it…
Reports this week reveal the number of text messages sent between mobile phones has fallen into decline for the first time since the service was introduced. According to figures from Deloitte, the number…
Age: 16, likes: social networking, dislikes: Facebook.
dangaken
What does 2014 hold for your online life? If you’re young, it probably won’t involve Facebook that much. This year marked the start of what looks likely to be a sustained decline of what had been the most…
I can haz online anonymous? Probs not, depending on your lingo.
striatic
Twitter is awash with trolls, spammers and misanthropes, all keen to ruin your day with a mean-spirited message or even a threat that can cause you genuine fear. It seems all too easy to set up an account…
Snapchat’s turned down a US$3 billion buyout offer from Facebook … but why?
ryan.nagelmann
Facebook last week was reported to have offered US$3 billion to acquire the Snapchat social network service – an offer that was rejected. The hefty buyout offer (maybe strategically leaked by Snapchat…