Websites are signing up to the Open Graph API and other social plugins at a phenomenal rate. In the future, you won’t go on the internet to log in to Facebook, you’ll log on to Facebook to go on the internet – how’s about that for a soundbite?
Facebook’s New Social Plugins Come to 50,000+ Websites in One Week
It’s a quote! from this study, which has been doing the rounds over the last few days, carried out at the University of Maryland, College Park, by the International Center for Media & the Public Agenda, who asked 200 students to abstain from using all media for 24 hours. And then they were asked to blog about it. No, seriously, I didn’t make that one up. (Next week: recovering alcoholics interviewed about their experiences in a pub).
Obviously, I’m not overawed with the methodology, and it hasn’t been published or peer-reviewed, but it’s still quite interesting, if only for the soundbites. You can have a look for yourself here: A Day Without Media but the really bizarre insights into how information is being consumed via modern media can be read off this pdf: Soundbites.
As I say, some are bizarre, but some are familiar – how about you? is email the only kind of mail you’ve ever sent? do you answer your phone in your sleep and have conversations you don’t remember? do you use Facebook to stalk?
Senators tell Facebook: tighten privacy policy (from the Washington Post).
This seems to happen every time Facebook make changes, and although this time it is a bit more insidious – if you sign up for a new profile today, your privacy settings are automatically set to public, unlike previously – I still can’t see this going anywhere. Why? Because Facebook are continuing to increase their political clout in Washington, spending and hiring more lobbyists:
Facebook steps up lobbying, deepens ties with intelligence agencies, FTC
Worried yet? Even just a little bit?
You’ll probably come across this one splashed all over the internet soon – apparently men and women are using Facebook differently. Which means we’re from different planets, of course. I mean, someone on ‘ForbesWoman’ said that ‘Experts believe the difference between how men and women operate online mirror their motivations offline’, so that must be true, because they are experts. Oh, I do enjoy my work.
What Men And Women Are Doing On Facebook – Forbes.com
This is a rather long-winded, but at the same time, stellar, insight into how Farmville ‘work’s. What the article shows, eventually, is that there are certain fundamental psychological ‘tricks’ built into the architecture of the game, that make it extremely habit-forming, not to mention socially viral. Well worth a read.
Thanks to Business Insider
The Real Reason You Are Addicted To Farmville (And Zynga Is A $5 Billion Company)