Styles Freelancer Douglas Quenqua! You Are In Real Trouble! @12:20 PM
"But some marriage experts say that taking your disagreements to Facebook, even jokingly, is nothing to LOL about." *THROWS DOWN LAPTOP, STOMPS OUT OF ROOM, GOES OUTSIDE, LIGHTS HOUSE ON FIRE* 17
Ask the Internet: Or Don't @1:50 PM
Ooh, hyper-modern ethics questions! My favorite. "I went to high school with a girl who I came across on Facebook. She's clearly got an eating disorder. What on earth do I do? I can't just friend her, and say, 'Hey! We went to high school together twelve years ago and I just found your profile, and you need some help! Go Bulldogs!'" That would be amusing. But one answer for sure is of interest. READ MORE 25
"37% of internet users have contributed to the creation of news, commented about it, or disseminated it via postings on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter." @11:50 AM 7
"According to Don Ambrose, a Rider University professor who studies creative intelligence, incubation is most effective when it involves exposing the mind to entirely novel information rather than just relieving mental pressure. This encourages creative association, the mashing together of seemingly unrelated concepts — a key step in the creative process…. A random scrap of information can trigger just the right conceptual collision. It’s hard to know which scrap might do the trick, but that’s the beauty of social networks — they constantly produce potential sparks, for free."
—Wired's Brendan Koerner tries to convince you that you are not wasting your time when you mess around on Facebook and Twitter. Or The Awl, for that matter! @2:10 PM 10
BREAKING! Roger Hodge Joins Facebook @11:30 AM
And, unlike when he was editor of Harper's, many of Roger Hodge's new friends are women! (Too soon? Totally. It's a shame he was let go. And unfair? Probably! Sorry, it's just that we may never get over the Celia Farber incident. But we hereby offer him a job with us, for sure!) 13
Here is a conversation with an anonymous Facebook employee that makes me very happy I am not on Facebook. @12:30 PM 11
Maybe Italy Should Worry Less About Facebook And More About Actual Faces @9:50 AM
In another example of the sterling work done by the Italian security services, a "young Italian with a history of mental problems has been arrested after he tried to enter the hospital room of Silvio Berlusconi during the night." (This is a different Italian with mental problems from the one who smashed Berlusconi in the face with a souvenir statuette on Sunday.) Meanwhile, amid threats by the Italian government to crack down on anti-Berlusconi pages on various social networking sites, Facebook has announced that it would carefully monitor its pages and "take quick action to respond to reports, and remove any content reported to us that makes direct threats against an individual." 6
Rich People Things, with Chris Lehmann: Moneyster. MoneyBook. MoneySpace? @11:00 AM
Oh, you social media, you! With all that Twittering, messaging and geo-locationing, you do, you must generate some kind of revenue-and, per the big business thinkers of Web 2.0, it has to be ginormous. There are 300 million Facebookers out there, after all, and while Twitter is still in the modest 10-figure range, it operates at a staggering rate of increase; a March study of social media usage found that Twitter users were growing at a monthly clip of 1382%. (I realized that anything was possible in the Twitterverse when I awakened to the news this Sunday that I had acquired Reaganite direct-mail guru Richard Viguerie as a follower.) And each of these self-actualizing Web exhibitionists often lists gratis the sort of fine-grained demographic data-tastes in cars and movies, political leanings, pet fetishes and whatnot-that marketers pay focus groups and research teams premium fees to disgorge from the buying public. READ MORE 7
"South Park," so much to answer for: "The beating of 12-year-old boy by a group of classmates at a Southern California middle school may be linked to a Facebook posting encouraging kids to target redheads, authorities say. The redheaded boy was beaten up by a group of seventh and eighth graders at A.E. Wright Middle School in Calabasas in two separate incidents Friday…. A Facebook page stating that Friday was 'Kick a Ginger Day,' referring to redheads and possibly inspired by an episode of the 'South Park' series, may have sparked the injuries at the middle school, authorities said." @1:10 PM 18
The future is now: "University of Wisconsin-La Crosse student Adam Bauer has nearly 400 friends on Facebook. He got an offer for a new one about a month ago. 'She was a good-looking girl. I usually don't accept friends I don't know, but I randomly accepted this one for some reason,' the 19-year-old said. He thinks that led to his invitation to come down to the La Crosse police station, where an officer laid out photos from Facebook of Bauer holding a beer – and then ticketed him for underage drinking." [Via] 19
Power Of Facebook Harnessed Against Man Who Talks About Sports @4:10 PM
I had no idea so many people despise baseball announcer (and "ODIOUS DICKBAG") Joe Buck, but apparently that is the case. Also, if the commenters on the page are to be believed, Buck evinces an enormous craving for cock, or, in the case of Derek Jeter, balls. Look how much you learn every day! 13
Elements of Stale, with Luke Mazur: The Big Book of Friends @4:21 PM
So remember how someone clever-ish wrote that with respect to social networking, Facebook is like your home and Twitter is a bar? That is, Facebook is for friends, family, Farmville and Mafia Wars. Twitter is for David Carr and Rainn Wilson tweeting movie titles, but with one letter off. You know: "Annie Hell" instead of Annie Hall, or "Chafing Amy" instead of Chasing Amy. Or "The Frying Game." (Spoiler alert: the egg has two yolks.) The possibilities are, like with any good bar game, endless. And also like This or That, Will It Float?, and Categories, the possibilities are also only funny or fun if you're hammered, or if you're Sarah Silverman. Somehow "Children of the Coon" works at all hours coming from her, and doesn't work coming from me.
But lately Facebook has been turning into a bar too—specifically, a bar the night before Thanksgiving. READ MORE 44
Study: Facebook Makes You Gay @4:00 PM
Apologies if this was everywhere yesterday: I was siiick and didn't read much Internet. Anyway, couple of kids at MIT did a study supposedly showing that one's sexual preferences can be easily revealed by one's choice of Facebook friends:
They did this with a software program that looked at the gender and sexuality of a person's friends and, using statistical analysis, made a prediction. The two students had no way of checking all of their predictions, but based on their own knowledge outside the Facebook world, their computer program appeared quite accurate for men, they said. People may be effectively "outing" themselves just by the virtual company they keep.
The students report having even better results with Manhunt.
Apparently no longer related: Can Gays And Straights Be Friends? 19
Social A's: How Do I Deal With These Crazy Racists? @5:00 PM
Dear Answer Lady,
I need help. I grew up in Idaho, a pretty, if somewhat backwards, state. Recently, an acquaintance from high school posted this on Facebook [sic throughout]: "Isnt this great? Americans have put a socialist into the White House – a socialist who wants to indoctrinate our youth with his socialist agenda. Hitler was able to spread his ideas by appealing to German youngsters. Dont let obama get a hold of our children. Socialism always fails." READ MORE 67
Targeting Sarah Palin's Facebook Lies @9:51 AM
All you fans of contextual ads will be happy to hear about a more deliberately targeted campaign: Americans United for Change has launched this ad, aimed at the hundreds of thousands of Sarah Palin supporters on Facebook, reports Greg Sargent. The AUC tells Sargent that they're working from the premise that "some of her supporters are not of the hard core fringe and might at least be open to hearing death panel counterarguments. Indeed, the Facebook ad will be further targeted towards Independent and moderate Palin backers." So they can convince those people with "facts" and "reason"? Uh, good luck with that. 4
Bill Keller Scolds Newsroom About Tweeting @3:53 PM
It is shockingly 2002 all up in the newspapers now. People are learning about being discreet with their Internets! Now it is: not putting things about your workplace on your Twitter and your Facebook. It's the sort of thing many of us learned painfully about one million years ago. Now, the executive editor of the New York Times is forced to lecture his staff at meetings: "I'd be grateful if you would lay down your Blackberries and iPhones, and treat this as a conversation among colleagues." Unfortunately, he did not address the issues of intense annoyingness on the part of his staff on social networking sites, but we can hope. 4
Obits 2.0 @10:11 AM
Legendary groupie Sable Starr passed away on Friday. The news was first reported by punk historian Legs McNeil. On Facebook. 5
