If you think you're different on Facebook than you are in real life, you've got some explaining to do.
A 2011 study from the University of Texas at Austin's Department of Psychology called "Manifestations of Personality in Online Social Networks: Self-Reported Facebook-Related Behaviors and Observable Profile Information" published in the academic journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking found that Facebook users are no different online than they are offline. The study also revealed strong connections between real personality and Facebook-related behavior. Social and personality processes, the study says, accurately mirror non-virtual environments.
When Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone five years ago, it was a happy day for the Apple faithful. Less so for the folks at Palm, whose employer became a ticking time bomb. In one move, Apple leapfrogged its rivals in hardware and software and changed the mobile industry forever. And Palm -- a touch computing pioneer that lost its way -- was toast.
That's just one example of how quickly a company's fates can change in today's fast-moving tech industry. Every company -- even those as seemingly strong today as Apple and Google -- have clear risks and weaknesses. The iPad could drive Microsoft's decline. The government could smother Google's growth efforts. And a mobile player that doesn't even exist could be the one that takes down Facebook.
Yesterday Facebook began rolling out sponsored stories in the main news feed. At the end of 2011, when this announcement first broke, a Facebook spokesperson told us that these ads would be clearly marked "sponsored" so as not to confuse them with other stories. But it looks like - surprise! - Facebook changed its mind somewhere between the announcement and the rollout, and decided to call the ads "featured" instead of "sponsored." This is confusing for the user but rather advantageous to the advertiser.
As a writer, I write the stories that I would like to read. In my former job as an art critic, I wrote about the shows that I would have made if I had some visual talents. On Facebook and Twitter, I post stories that I would like to read - and hopefully others with similar interest will enjoy. In the online world of iEverything and me-centric filter bubbles, the virtual world can start to feel like a personal museum of mirrors. And thanks to Intel's The Museum of Me, it actually is.
But back to you for a minute.
Your Museum of Me is a white structure located in an unidentified utopia space far beyond city limits. There's a green open field, a shallow pond and clean white pavement surrounding your incubator-like museum. To enter, just click.
The Hill reports that Reps. Edward Markey (D-Mass) and Joe Barton (R-Texas), co-chairmen of the Congressional Privacy Caucus, have accused Facebook of evading questions related to whether it tracks users' online activities to deliver more targeted ads.
The congressmen were not satisfied with Facebook's response to questions raised by a February 2011 patent filing. It suggested that the social network tracked users when they were logged off and browsing other non-Facebook sites.
In an age of smartphone addiction, you'll find a Facebook user checking and updating from pretty much anywhere. But what about from the car itself?
Six months ago, the Mercedes-Benz engineering team began developing a Facebook app. The new product offers a way for drivers to access Facebook friends who are close, or nearby restaurants that their friends have "liked" on Facebook. The feature will be available in the 2012 SL-Class Mercedes this spring as part of the mbrace2 telematics system, which includes cloud-based apps, traffic and navigation assistance, speech recognition and Internet browsing. mbrace also features a smartphone app, which allows drivers to send information to their vehicle before actually stepping into it.
Last week, news broke that Kodak was preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after a long battle with digital photography and the proliferation of photo-sharing apps on the iPhone 4. Lest it be defeated, today at CES Kodak announced two new cameras that integrate with Facebook for easy photo sharing. The cameras also have two anti-social media applications for printing images from Facebook profiles. Kodak is banking on the idea that Facebook users may have a secret desire to print hardcopy photos from their Facebook profiles. Judging by digital-to-print image app Postagram, among others, they might be right.
Today Playdom, Disney's social games division, announced the release of its next Facebook game Marvel: Avengers Alliance. It will be available in Q1 at the end of March, according to reports from AllThingsD. This comes shortly after news that at the end of 2011, Playdom's hidden-object game Gardens of Time ranked number one on Facebook.
Last week Zynga launched a game that attempts to rival Gardens of Time. It's called Hidden Chronicles and, not surprisingly, it looks and feels a lot like Gardens of Time. The main difference is that Hidden Chronicles does not involve the time-travel element that is essential to Gardens of Time. Will Zynga's next game involve superheroes?
When technology pundits say mobile is exploding, many people just shrug and say "of course." Many people might not fully comprehend just how big mobile is growing and the enormous ecosystem that it now encompasses. Mobile computing through smartphones and tablets is growing four times faster than the PC and Internet evolutions of the 1980's and 90's. People are now using mobile apps more than the Web and the gap continues to widen.
In research done by mobile analytics company Flurry, users are spending 94 minutes a day with their mobile apps versus 72 minutes on the Web. Author Charles Newark-French attributes the drop to people using mobile apps to access Facebook more often than the Web. Can Facebook really have that type of affect on user behavior?
Students who share certain tastes in movies and music - but not in books - are more likely to friend each other on Facebook, according to a study released in November that has been getting attention in academic circles.
The study has its limitations, according to authors Kevin Lewis, Marco Gonzalez and Jason Kaufman of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. But it is significant in that it demonstrates how social networks can help sociologists better understand social relationships and how they are influenced by cultural preferences, while also suggesting online friendships may not be effective in helping spread cultural tastes.
Sociologists have long known that so-called "weak ties" between acquaintances are particularly effective in helping push cultural trends. What the most recent study suggests is that online friendships like those fostered on Facebook are more about strengthening ties between people with similar interests than they are about influencing neighbors.
