Privacy Issues in Social Media
When social networks were in their infancy, people were slow to jump aboard for fear that their privacy and personal data could be compromised. Gradually, as everyone began to sprout profiles on Facebook, they discovered that there was not much to fear really, as long as you watched what you said and to whom and avoided inappropriate posts and pictures. Nothing very hard about that after all. Then came the “privacy is an illusion” years, when having a bit of relative privacy wasn’t enough — we should also willingly abandon it, because it wasn’t real to begin with. Was this the first sign of what we are seeing now from companies like Google and Facebook?
Social Media Brain
Social media and networking could be ruining your mind, according to statistics laid out in a new infographic by Assisted Living Today. The main concern put forth is that people’s nearly constant use of Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ has literally changed the way the receptors in the brain work, and has possibly affected the ability of our neurotransmitters to make the kinds of connections they have traditionally made; on the other hand, new neurotransmitting patterns are replacing the old ones. Is this evolution, or something to be battled with?
SOPA: Trouble In the Making
Unless you’ve been living under an Internet-free rock for the past month, you already know all about the growing opposition among Internet users to HR 3261, the official name of the Stop Online Piracy Act (or, SOPA). The first half of this legislation speaks to infringing websites overseas, and would make unauthorized streaming a felony crime. It would revoke the safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, making major players in the social web such as YouTube, Tumblr and Facebook, all which host user content, ultimately responsible for being sure that their users do not post infringing material.
Google Updates Algorithm
Yesterday, Google updated its search algorithm again in a first major follow-up to the Panda/Farmer update from early this year. As Netizens increasingly use Twitter and Facebook as sources of breaking news, the new update is designed to give searchers more current results on trending topics. Google reports that around 35 percent of searches will change because of this update. Google is attempting to deliver the most recent information that is also the most relevant to the search terms, so results should now include pages that have been updated as recently as a few minutes ago.
Tech for Students
Where does education go when students spend more time taking notes on laptop than they do taking them in a notebook? We go digital of course. I had an Anatomy professor that recorded every lecture and test review and made it available to anyone that had an mp3 player so that they could review the material whether they wanted another listen or if they had missed the class. While the course was very difficult and memory taxing those audio reviews were the only thing that got many of us through it. Now I’m hearing that universities are going a step further and giving students an iPod loaded with the course lectures at the beginning of the year so that they can get up to speed and succeed easier.
