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Category Archives: Social Media

Can People Tell When You’ve Blocked Them on Texting or Social Media Messaging Apps?

Consumer Reports: “Here’s what they’ll see on text messaging, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, LinkedIn, Signal, Twitter, and WhatsApp. If you’ve ever been bombarded with incessant messages on your phone or favorite social media app, or received even just one message from someone you’d rather not hear from, blocking the sender might seem like the obvious decision. … Continue Reading

EPIC Urges Postal Service to Reverse Plans to Expand Law Enforcement Access to Customer Data

“In comments to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), EPIC urged the agency to reverse a system of records expansion that would pull data from U.S. Postal Service customers for use by the law enforcement wing of the Postal Service. The proposed modification would give the USPIS access to information used for package tracking and other services,… Continue Reading

Study IDs Visual Characteristics That Make People ‘Like’ Images on Instagram

NC State: “Marketing researchers have identified the combination of characteristics that make people “like” images on the social media platform Instagram. For example, the visual complexity of images has a significant effect on whether viewers choose to engage with a social media post. “We are increasingly able to determine whether images included in social media… Continue Reading

What the Kids Are Reading

Paul Musgrave – Engaging with the new generation and its media consumption: “…The idea that today’s college students are digital natives who can seamlessly navigate the online world is, well, doubtful. But even more dubious is the unthinking presumption a lot of faculty and institutions fall into of assuming that they were familiar with the… Continue Reading

How to turn on Twitter’s dark mode

Mashable: “Twitter can be an assault on the eyes, and not just because of its frequently distressing content. The microblogging website’s default white theme can sometimes feel harsh and blinding, particularly if you’re waking up in a cold sweat to check your notifications in the middle of the night. Fortunately, the microblogging platform offers a… Continue Reading

Big Tech foes launch ‘campaign-style’ initiative to push for antitrust legislation

Washington Post: “Tech giants in the past decade have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into lobbying, advertising, polling and research to advance their political interests in Washington. Now some of their top adversaries are forming a plan to use that same playbook to press Congress to pass bills that would place new limits on… Continue Reading

‘Winnie-the-Pooh’ just entered the public domain. Here’s what that means for fans.

Washington Post – “Luke McGarry began drawing a nude Pooh Bear as soon as he heard the news. The original, nearly 100-year-old “bear of very little brain” from the Hundred Acre Wood had rung in this new year by entering the public domain. Now quite humbly, McGarry’s creative appetite felt rumbly. The Los Angeles-based artist… Continue Reading

Law Enforcement and Technology: Using Social Media

CRS Report – Law Enforcement and Technology: Using Social Media, January 11, 2022: “As the ways in which individuals interact continue to evolve, social media has had an increasing role in facilitating communication and the sharing of content online—including moderated and unmoderated, user-generated content. Over 70% of U.S. adults are estimated to have used social… Continue Reading

How democracy gets eroded – lessons from a Nixon expert

Via LLRX – How democracy gets eroded – lessons from a Nixon expert – Ken Hughes is a researcher with the Presidential Recordings Program of the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. Hughes argues that erosion in American democracy depends on the conspiracy theory, destructive and demonstrably false, that the 2020 election was stolen. As the… Continue Reading

Mozilla launches Facebook Pixel Hunt

“In a collaboration between journalists at The Markup and Mozilla researchers, this study seeks to map Facebook’s pixel tracking network and understand the kinds of information it collects on sites across the web. The Markup will use the data collected in this study to create investigative journalism around the kinds of information Facebook collects about… Continue Reading

Pete Recommends Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, January 9, 2022

Via LLRX – Pete Recommends Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, January 9, 2022 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly… Continue Reading

Psychological Language on Twitter Predicts County-Level Heart Disease Mortality

Eichstaedt JC, Schwartz HA, Kern ML, et al. Psychological language on Twitter predicts county-level heart disease mortality. Psychol Sci. 2015;26(2):159-169. doi:10.1177/0956797614557867. “Hostility and chronic stress are known risk factors for heart disease, but they are costly to assess on a large scale. We used language expressed on Twitter to characterize community-level psychological correlates of age-adjusted… Continue Reading