When I saw the recent eruption of stories claiming Facebook is “dead and buried to teens” I was at first intrigued, but, once I had read through to their original sources, quickly disappointed – though…
While every year since the advent of the internet has had its share of privacy stories, 2013 has been a cornucopia of news about surveillance and personal data. Undoubtedly, the biggest story of the year…
Breaking up is hard to do, especially with social media. But thousands of people are doing just that, and with the new year and its inevitable resolutions just around the corner, it might be a good time…
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…
Human beings have long been easily influenced by the opinions of others but the social media networks that have come to dominate our lives may be making this “social proof” a problem. A recent study in…
“Move fast and break things.” That is the Facebook motto plastered all over their California headquarters to remind engineers never to stop innovating. This week, the company moved fast and broke some…
Advergaming is a relatively recent approach to advertising that overcomes many of the limitations of traditional advertising. But advergames are increasingly being used by fast food companies to target…
By David Holmes and Anna Matwijiw More than 50% of young Australians have seriously considered shutting down their Facebook accounts, even while many of them check the site compulsively through the day…
The democratising potential of social media have long been heralded. Successive government ministers, starting with Helen Coonan, Stephen Conroy and now Malcolm Turnbull, have all talked up the marvels…
The effectiveness of Facebook advertising as a marketing tool for companies has come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks. The first volley was fired by Nate Elliot, the principal analyst at Forrester…
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…
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…
The world of big business is littered with once popular but now discarded household names like Kodak, Borders and Blockbuster. In this disruptive forces series we find out who might be next, uncovering…
Is it possible to socially interact with another person in the absence of a body and the senses? Social networking allows us to present versions of ourselves. But when we use a computer to mediate our…
In the past few days, Facebook has gone full circle on its policy around censoring violent material. After much back-and-forth on whether a graphic video showing the beheading of a woman should be banned…
Have you ever tried reading Beowulf and decided it was a bit too hard to follow before giving up? How did you get on with War and Peace? If you struggled with either of these notoriously unwieldy classics…
The way information spreads through society has changed significantly over the past decade with the advent of online social networking. But it seems we humans continue to apply the same approach that we…
As Twitter sets off on its IPO roadshow, most analysts are predicting a strong response. But the social media giant remains in a slightly odd position: its revenues in the first half of 2013 more than…