There are a lot of stupid jobs in the world. However, money is money, right? LinkedIn is a service that offers many different types of job titles and here are seven of the most stupid ones.
STUPID JOB TITLE 1: ABRACADABRA
Want to become a magician through LinkedIn? Well, these job titles may be the ones for you. You could become a Digital Marketing Magician, and even a Wizard of Light Bulb Moments!
STUPID JOB TITLE 2: THE SOCIAL MEDIA BADASS
You think you are the ultimate BA when it comes to the world of social media, then you need to check this one out! This is also not even the only title for social media you can find. Social Media DJ and Social Media Rockstar are two of the others that can be found.
STUPID JOB TITLE 3: DIGITAL OVERLORD
I wonder what kind of degree this job would take! If you want to be an overlord, then you better know what you are doing. If you think you are a master in the digital world, head over to LinkedIn and become a digital overlord!
STUPID JOB TITLE 4: CHIEF MARKETING GURU
This one is not quite as bad as the others, but it still deserves mentioning. You will also come around the word guru quite a bit. Couldn’t they have chosen a better, more advanced word?
STUPID JOB TITLE 5: CHIEF THINKER
Who needs to actually do the work? Why not get a job where all you have to do is think? However, not a whole lot of creativity was given for this job title.
STUPID JOB TITLE 6: FOUNDER, CHIEF CREATIVE, INSPIRATION, AND ELATION OFFICER
Wow, that job title was certainly a mouth full. Whoever holds the position of this job title would have to be considered the greatest person in the world!
STUPID JOB TITLE 7: DIRECTOR OF FUNDOM
The Director of Fundom, does that not sound like the coolest job in existence? However, if someone were to actually pay your for this it would be plain ridiculous.
It may be time to ditch Facebook and switch to Reddit, and here is why:
REASON 1: PRIVACY
Facebook has been known to constantly change their data use policy in the past. They also are constantly changing their privacy settings. Their newest setting allows anyone to look someone up, and this is an issue that will not be experienced using Reddit. You can be completely unknown on it, but have fun trying to do that with Facebook.
REASON 2: GREED
Greed is a powerful enemy that can rip apart relationships and companies. The main reason Facebook is greedy is because they decide what you can see. Reddit, on the other hand, lets users see whatever they please. They are actually owned by Advance Publications and they allow their site to fend for itself.
REASON 3: THE WAY THEY USE INFORMATION
There is something that all Facebook users need to be aware of. This is the fact that they use your account information to advertise. Oh, and, by the way, they will also do this without letting you know. That is correct, without your consent, Facebook will advertise your account information.
REASON 4: BACK TO PRIVACY
There was one strong instance in the past where Reddit put their foot down. A couple of years ago, the company banned the website known as Gawker. They exposed the real identity of a famous hacker who was running some illegal versions of their website. This proved that the company is not afraid to expose you if you deserve it.
REASON 5: REAL PEOPLE
When it comes to deciding if the content is appropriate, Facebook uses automated processes and Reddit uses real people. This makes the process much better with Reddit because computers can not compromise. Usually, the company will only put their foot down if users are blatantly spamming or abusing someone.
Social media needs to be tread lightly because it has been known to cause depression and resentment in users. Facebook has often been received as the biggest culprit. However, Instagram is worse than them. Jessica Winter, an author, wrote about the issues with social media and why Instagram is the worst.
Studies have actually been garnered in the past about how Facebook is affecting people. As a matter of fact, the Human-Computer Institute found that Facebook creates loneliness and depression for some people. They found that this is due to your friends’ feeds, and even your own feeds. Two other universities took part in a study and found that vacation photos are the biggest culprit with user resentment. Many users begin to feel that their lives are simply not as good as others. This is clearly not the intent of these types of photos, but they can come off like that. Winter then went on to give four reasons to why Instagram is even worse.
FOUR REASONS WHY INSTAGRAM IS WORSE THAN FACEBOOK
The biggest reason why Winter noted that Instagram is worse than Facebook is due to the fact that the former is completely image-driven. So, the issue of vacation photos that was presented earlier becomes even more of an issue. With this platform, users are only exposed to photos and those feelings of loneliness become much more apparent. Adding on to this is three other major reasons. These reasons include Instagram messing with your sense of time, them distilling the emotional aspects of Facebook, and them upping your chances of seeing stalkers. The last reason is definitely worth noting as some people will feel the need to stalk someone else who consistently uploads what they are doing. The main aspect to remember is social media needs to be taken in moderation. If this is achieved, then these issues should not be present.
The statistics of 2015 show us some surprising figures. The age group that visited Facebook the most in the US were people between the ages of 25-54. On the other hand, 50% of Snapchat’s user base was composed of people between the ages of 13-17. So, is Facebook only for old people? Is Snapchat the new in app?
Statistics Show 25-34 Year Olds Make Up for 20.5% of Usage in the US
According to 2015 statistics, there was nearly the same amount of Facebook activity from 18-24 year olds as there were of 35-44 year olds. In fact, more than 10% of all usage in the US came from people in the ages between 45-54. These are no surprise, as it has become especially common for baby boomers to experiment with social media. Since Facebook was one of the first o get the trends started, it could be why it caught on with the older crowds first.
Snapchat is an Entirely Different Story
The figures for Snapchat say something else. According to their statistics, the main group of users (50% of them) are between the ages of 13-17. The next age group where it is most popular is 18-24, with 31% of all usage. Groups over 25 years old make up only 19% of the platform usage. This says quite a lot about the platform.
How Come the Figures Are So Different?
Snapchat is more accessible to younger crowds because of its privacy. Since users can specifically choose where their context goes and since the information is (mostly) transitory, it might be more comfortable for younger crowds. Not to mention it brings messaging to a higher degree by combining fleeting images with messages.
Older Age Groups Will Catch Up… Eventually
Facebook is used by people above 25 to communicate in a more massive scale. They don’t communicate messages to individual users, they look to communicate to everyone. It has become the place for parents to tell the stories regarding certain events, their jobs, families, loved ones and such. This is probably why Facebook will be the most popular platform for those age groups for a long time to come. Facebook is the place to tell stories, express messages and raise awareness. At least until they catch up to other platforms, time by which younger groups will have already jumped ship to a different one.
Facebook has reported that they are getting about 8 billion video views on the website per day, and it looks like they want to expand even more. The social media website is rolling out a new ‘click for more’ feature to boost video views.
Facebook Video Click For More Is Coming After YouTube
Since a lot of content can be shared on Facebook, the platform has decided it is time to expand video services. The Click for More will be viewable from anywhere on the video being watched, and it will take users on new windows for more browsing. Video screens are bigger in the update, and it features a dimmer background. Users will also be able to see related videos and ads. Like YouTube, Facebook videos will also feature autoplay, but users will also be able to choose what to play next.
Facebook declared that this was the web test that the company hinted at in October. In addition to new video features coming out for iOS, Facebook is also expanding their live video so it’s on all Verified Pages. Facebook wants to increase time spent on the social media website since videos will be a sure way to keep people on the website longer. While it may not be a reason why people will go directly to Facebook, it’ll increase the average time spent there.
The New Feature Comes After Bringing In ‘Watch Later’ for Videos
Facebook is also looking for more video advertising on the platform. A lot of the bigger brands are branching out to different media to advertise, and they and Facebook would mutually benefit from advertising on the social network. YouTube is doing the same thing, though, being their base interface, it’s a little different. YouTube is moving to become closer to television.
Facebook is Even Bringing In Video Channels
The platform will be building channels that center around what friends of users are sharing, topics that might be of their interest or from Pages they have liked.
The response to this update has been mixed. There are people already looking for ways to disable the click for more feature. In some cases, instead of pausing, clicking on a video will redirect to a different one. This is an inconvenience that some users are already asking to get removed.
The update, out for iOS and web, may not be viewable for everyone yet. Some people have only been seeing in on the web version of the platform. For others, it’s only viewable on iOS. What’s more, clicking on a video on the iOS app will take users to a darkened screen with a roll of ads and related videos. Only exiting the app altogether will get rid of it.
Facebook Picks Up Where YouTube Leaves Off
Obviously, it’s not perfect. The social network wasn’t intended to be a video platform, and it is really only trying to adapt. With YouTube coming out with YouTube Red to get closer to television and looking for more exclusive content, Facebook is basically trying to get the crumbs of what YouTube is leaving behind. A lot of famous content makers will most likely move up to YouTube Red as time goes along, so Facebook might be the new way to get a quick fix of solid quality videos.
Soon enough, YouTube will be producing exclusive content via YouTube Red. It will probably go in the veins of what Hulu, Amazon and Netflix are currently doing. This means that YouTube is trying to go high-class. It definitely will take some effort to make a platform as popular as YouTube, but Facebook is a very solid contender to do it.
Social media has had many run-ins with politics this year, especially Facebook, Twitter and Russian VKontakte. This week alone Facebook offices in Hamburg were victim to a violent attack on the premises, and Twitter released information about a potential threat to its users.
Facebook Gets Attacked by Vandals in Germany
On the night of December 13, Facebook offices were attacked by vandals. They smashed the glass, threw paint at the premises and graffitied ‘Facebook dislike’ on a wall. The incident was handled by the Hamburg police department that night. The attack was reportedly carried out by a group of young people between the ages of 15-20, clad in all black and wearing hoods. There were no injuries or casualties, and authorities do not have enough information to pinpoint a motive for the attack yet.
Germany Will Not Tolerate Racism
There is a strong belief among the community that this attack was carried out because of Facebook’s poor efforts to remove racist hate speech from the social network. Celebrities and German politicians have expressed their concern on Facebook’s loose restrictions on hate speech, especially against foreigners in the German vein of Facebook. Germany has famously welcomed refugees with open arms, and the community has since embraced a zero-tolerance for hate in their soil.
Facebook Office in Germany
Facebook officials have not taken these concerns seriously, and the attack was likely an expression of outrage at this. While some people may assume that this attack was the product of just vandalism, the German people are standing up for something very valuable and very relevant right now. Facebook should, at least, consider monitoring hate speech more efficiently than they have done so far, that is if Mark Zuckerberg means anything he’s ever said concerning the ISIS conversation.
On the Other Hand, Twitter Warns of a Possibly State-Sponsored Cyber Attack
In other news, Twitter Inc has declared that some users might be at risk of having their information stolen in what could be a cyber attack sponsored by the US government. The attack could potentially involve hackers hired by the US government to obtain data from only certain accounts.
There was little else revealed by the social network, but several companies have shared that they were warned by Twitter that their information could be in danger. According to Twitter companies like Coldhak were sensitive to having their email addresses, IP addresses and/or phone numbers hacked by this group of cyber attackers.
Social media and politics seem to be hand in hand, and in truth, they are quite compatible. In a hilarious turn of events, Russian politics have seen an unlikely candidate this past week. Barsik the Siamese cat became a runner for Barnaul’s mayoral elections after being put on the ticket through VKontakte, the Russian counterpart of Facebook.
Barsik the Cat Could Become the Next Mayor of Barnaul
Barsik became a true and legitimate candidate for the elections, with his picture among those of the human politicians running for mayor of the Russian city. Over 2,000 people took part in the polls after the cat was shown as a runner, and it won by a very wide margin against human candidates. VKontakte accounts were making posts supporting the cat, with messages like ‘Go, Barsik!’ and ‘Barsik Rules’ throughout the time that the cat spent on the polls.
Why Was Barsik the Cat Ahead Of Human Russian Politicians?
Several users made an analysis onto why the cat received so much support. Despite the ridiculousness, the Russian people believe a cat can’t be more corrupt than Russian politicians, so they’d rather have their trust rest with Barsik than with anyone else.
Petr Frisen is the current mayor of the city after Igot Savintsev was fired from the position because of corruption. Surely enough, Barsik the Cat could be replacing Frisen for the same reason.
Brand-new research from the University of Montreal reveals that teens that have more than 300 Facebook friends experience greater degrees of anxiety compared to those that are hooked up to a smaller sized group.
More than 300 Facebook friends are a whole lot to stay on par with. The research shares that younger people tend to keep an eye on every little thing and also every person in their network.
High Cortisol Means High Stress
Earlier research kept in mind that high degrees of cortisol amongst kids might raise the danger of anxiety later on in life, and the research team claims that though it’s not a cause for much concern, it’s worth monitoring.
The study, published in the Journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, took 88 youngsters between the ages 12-17, that reviewed their Facebook good friend numbers, exactly how usually they made use of the website, regularity of self-promoting articles, as well as regularity of friend-supporting activities. According to the results, kids with more than 300 Facebook friends had higher cortisol levels.
Facebook Friends: Like this Status for De-Stressing
Aiding youngsters alter their use of Facebook could be beneficial. It’s likewise essential to bear in mind the favorable component of this research study: Liking Facebook friends’ posts as well as sending out encouraging messages decreases cortisol levels, so common positivity on social media could help make the general public less stressed.
The conclusions, released in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, reviewed the subjects’ Facebook activity, just how typically they made use of the website, regularity of self-promoting blog posts, and also regularity of friend-supporting activities. They were then able to conclude that youngsters with more than 300 Facebook friends had greater cortisol degrees; we could consequently picture that those that have 1,000 or 2,000 good friends on Facebook might be subjected to also lessen tension.
Essena O’Neil, Instagram star and Australian model, has just announced she’ll quit social media. According to the star, it was all fun and games and hundreds of likes on Instagram, but in reality, she felt lost and lonely.
Her take on social media? It’s not real. Much like some of us have heard ‘never believe anything you see on television’, O’Neil suggests you don’t believe on social media either. The Aussie became Instagram famous thanks to shots of herself in great clothes and great backgrounds, and fans were surprised to see her delete her account and come back with an entirely different one. She deleted thousands of her pictures and edited captions to say ‘social media is an illusion’. The nineteen-year old felt she was worth only as much as her Instagram posts, and her reception there and in other social media.
For some posts, she was paid to wear outfits and promote certain products, and like many social media personalities, they are even told what to say and when to upload pictures. The model decided to delete her Instagram as a wake-up call to her public, reminding them to remember that even social media can be synthetic. Since age 12, Essena O’Neil has gained over 500,000 followers across her social media accounts, but she felt it wrong that modern society associated followers, likes, views and comments as validation of popularity, and ultimately of worth.
From now on, O’Neil wants to handle herself differently, and treat social media as a way to tell teens that fame, especially on social media platforms, doesn’t make you any better or worse than anyone else. She wants to find a radical way to call out the double standards on social media, and tell her followers that they should always give themselves their best chance to be happy.
Social Media can really make a difference for your business. It is very important to increase you brand presence and be active on all forms of social media. Every marketer has various kinds of Social Media platforms, which should be used to market their business. Each social networking site has to be customized and tailor content to persona and the network.
The top 5 social media platforms that should be used by most marketers are as follows:
1. Twitter: Conversations.
It has more than 200 million users. It is a micro blogging site. Follow people from same industry to see what they trends they are tweeting about. Need to make it a routine to tweet and check all interactions and reply to every tweet related to the business. Retweet interesting and useful tweets. Use of hash tags is the most important element as it helps people to search and makes it easier for the people.
2. Facebook: Personalities.
The marketer needs to be active on Facebook on daily basis; use of pictures is an important element on this media. Creating a page and making it attractive is not charged on Facebook so marketer should make full use of it. Encourage fans to like or share the page. It is very important to reply to comments as that creates a brand image.
3. LinkedIn: Professional
This is a site mostly used by all professional so the marketer has to make sure that it is maintained well and a little formal. Connection with people is required and making connections with people related to the business is very important. Joining groups and participating in discussions help in creating contacts and marketing.
4. Instagram: Behind the Scenes.
It is one of the media sites, which is used to show everything in a visual way. The advantage of posting on Instagram is it gives you an option to share it with Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Flickr etc. It is used to promote contests, free distributions of products etc. It works wonders, as people really like to get freebies.
5. Google+: The Search Engine Drivers.
Marketers who are already on other social media websites should use it. The posts made have to be more formal compared to Facebook. It is mainly used as an alternative to Facebook.
Keywords play an important element as Google+ acts as a search engine driver.
More and more people around the world are attaching their screens to their life, and whether you like it or not, social media has become a big part of adventure. Perhaps you’re old school and think that screens have no place in the adventure lifestyle. It’s true that if you keep your face glued to your phone, you can miss out on something great going on in the world around you, but don’t forget that social media is a tool, a powerful tool, and as a tool it can be used correctly to aid your life or misused to damage it.
Social Media can be a pretty dense jungle to navigate, so here are some tips to help you use it to best benefit your adventure:
1. Create Quality
It doesn’t do much for you or anyone else to tweet that you’re climbing a mountain or kayaking a river. The Internet is about getting things instantly, but it’s also about collecting the truly great things. Every time you post or add something to a social media platform, you are creating content. Take the time to develop content you can be proud of that people will care about. There are some great devices out there that allow you to capture any adventure (such as GoPro or Lightbox. Videos and photographs are the big grabs, but audio is great too. There are a lot of birdwatchers out there who would enjoy a recording of the mating call of a red-tailed hawk or other bird. Wouldn’t that be so much nicer and more unique than just posting that you saw a hawk today? You could create a whole soundtrack that samples sounds found in the wilderness. The trick is in preparing your devices so that they detract the least from your adventure experience, and that means having the right tools.
2. Research
You don’t have to use social media while you’re actually on an adventure to benefit from it. If you don’t want any screens or wireless waves of data while you’re out and about, that’s fine. Others are doing that legwork for you already, and you can benefit from their documented experiences. Follow travelers on twitter to better learn about the places you want to go and how to get there. Use apps like Airbnb to find places to stay and save money while you travel. Scroll Tumblr or Pinterest to discover places you never even knew about, but now they’re your next must-go destination. Search Kickstarter and IndieGoGo for better equipment to use. The Internet is full of advice, and social media platforms makes locating the right advice for you all the easier. A true adventurer is always well prepared.
3. Stay Safe GPS apps, weather apps, Yelp reviews, and tracking devices are all there to make sure you don’t take the wrong turn into somewhere you don’t want to be. (there’s actually a few new social media platforms being built around GPS and weather tracking to allow notes and experiences to be shared, providing more of a first hand account and ground view perspective in the information.)
You see, social media isn’t about detaching yourself from the real world, it’s about optimizing your real world experience. You just have to use it right.
Social media has its legitimate place in culture and society. Yet the pressure to maintain an online persona 24/7 may have serious physical and psychological effects on teens, according to a new study.
Researchers asked 467 teenagers about how often they are online throughout the day. Researchers then looked at their sleeping patterns, the quality of sleep, the inception of depression, self-esteem and anxiety.
UNDER PRESSURE
Overall, the study found that the necessity of being on social media at all times triggers low sleep quality and has a negative effect of self-esteem – particularly in teenagers who log at night.
“Since adolescence is a vulnerable period for development of long-term issues, it is essential that we understand how adolescents’ social media use relates to factors like sleep quality and the risk of depression,” the researchers wrote in the new study.
Teenage years tend to be turbulent, study author Heather Cleland Woods, of the University of Glasgow in Scotland, explained. Adolescents are more prone to suffering from depression and anxiety; sleeping poorly to live longer in the virtual world may contribute to the risk of developing these conditions.
Smartphones and computers have practically become a body extension. The purpose of the study is certainly not to place social media under the guillotine, but rather to increase awareness about the risks of the digital overdose. Aided by the constant access provided by mobile devices, especially smartphones, 92% of teens report going online daily — including 24% who say they go online “almost constantly,” according to a study from Pew Research Center.
Social media has become almost a responsibility in the lives of teenagers they feel bound to keep up with. Self-promotion and “the trap of comparison” become so crucial to their well-being that they can subsequently create feelings of low self-assurance in some adolescents. Because their behaviors are not usually seen as a red flag, in a previous study published in the journal World Psychiatry, young people who use tons of media and don’t get enough sleep or exercise, have been nicknamed the “invisible risk” group by the study’s authors.
“In some ways they are at greater risk of falling through the cracks,” says Vladimir Carli, a researcher at the National Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention of Mental Ill-Health at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.
A BREAK FROM SOCIAL MEDIA
Cleland Woods suggested that parents should impose a “digital sunset” – a sort of virtual curfew to minimize the potential negative effects of social media use on sleep and teen’s mental health.
“Turn off the devices and the blue light, stop checking emails and social media, and allow yourself time to finish your day,” she said. “Sleep is important, so put your phone away.”
If you are interested in reading a teenager’s view on social media written by an actual teen, click here.
What do you think of the role social media plays in the lives of teens in the U.S.? Share your views in the comments section below.
Research released in the peer-reviewed Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking journal indicates that following famous strangers on Instagram could have a negative psychological effect.
“There is growing evidence that following strangers on (social networks) and comparing oneself to others have important implications for well-being,” the study stated.
HOW INSTAGRAM DEPRESSES YOU
A main reason, on Instagram at least, thought to cause psychological issues is following more strangers than friends. In an interview with San Jose Mercury News, Pace University psychology professor and co-author of the study Leora Trub, said: “More Instagram use is related to greater depressive symptoms only for those at the highest level of strangers followed.” Trub asked 117 Instagram users between the ages of 18 to 29 about their use of the platform and their feelings in comparison to other users of the platform.
MORE FACEBOOK USERS ARE FRIENDS WITH STRANGERS
And increasingly, users are including strangers in their social media circle. The Mercury News mentioned that the market research organization Statista has found that the average Facebook user’s amount of friends has increased from less than 200 ten years ago to more than 700 today.
The findings of the study were consistent with those of a 2012 report that established a link between social media use and depression in teens, as Carolyn Gregoire of the Huffington Post pointed out.
A COMPLEX RELATIONSHIP
Speaking to the Huffington Post, the study’s lead author Dr. Hugues Sampasa-Kanyinga appeared to have not drawn any big conclusions from the study. Correlation, as any professional researcher knows, does not equal causation.
“The relationship between the use of social networking sites and mental health problems is complex,” the psychologist said. “Simple use of social networking sites cannot fully explain by itself the occurrence of mental health problems.”
DO DEPRESSED PEOPLE MOSTLY USE SOCIAL MEDIA OR DOES SOCIAL MEDIA DEPRESS PEOPLE?
While it is thought by many that social media itself may have a negative impact, it remains a possibility that people with mental health issues use social media more often than those without them.
“It could be that teens with mental health problems are seeking out interactions as they are feeling isolated and alone,” Dr. Hugues Sampasa-Kayinga e-mailed the aggregate site. “Or they would like to satisfy unmet needs for face-to-face mental health support.”
Facebook has been in the news quite a bit as of late — mostly in regards to testing new ideas like its giant drone that will spread free Wi-Fi over certain parts of the world, or testing out their new storefront. Now, it looks like Facebook is getting ready to compete toe-to-toe with Twitter as the company is looking into developing a news application that functions quite a bit like Twitter.
Not So Fast
It’s definitely true that a lot of people rely on Twitter for announcements and breaking news, but there are a lot of other social features that allows users to interact with each other. The Facebook app that Business Insider reported about is more focused on the business nature. That means users won’t necessarily be interacting with each other, and they won’t be creating content either.
Instead, Business Insider suggests that the app will be a “broadcast-only experience.” Facebook will only be allowing partnered companies to produce content. Users will follow various topics they are interested in and receive instant alerts that are limited to 100 characters — slightly less than Twitter’s 140 limitation.
Facebook Hopes to Clean Up the User Experience
One aspect that Facebook hopes will give it an advantage over Twitter is reliant on how Facebook’s new app, currently in alpha, will curate posts better. Information about the app is still pretty vague, but Facebook is hoping that news won’t dissipate into the social masses as quickly as it happens on Twitter.
Facebook believes that this provides new users with a bad experience since the more people they follow, the faster their Twitter feed moves. Some users may never see a post on Twitter unless the tweet is retweeted by someone else or the original tweeter, but with Facebook’s new app, news will stay relevant for longer.
Facebook Is Trying to Stay Relevant
We’ll know more about Facebook’s new app as the company gets ready to share more details about it. This app is just the latest addition to the company’s rapidly expanding suite of apps that it hopes will help maintain its relevancy moving forward. Facebook also owns Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
For more tech related reviews and news, check out Clapway Trends channel:
If you spend any amount of time on Twitter then you’ve probably had a few contest tweets pop up in your news feed from time to time. Most of the time it’s someone trying to organically grow their group of followers by asking people to follow them and retweet their original tweet. In response, they’ll be entered to win a specific prize.
Hunter Smith, an electrical engineer at Motorola, saw these and asked himself if anyone actually won these contests. Well, rather than sitting around and pondering something he’d never know the answer to, Smith decided to program a python script that would enter these contests on his behalf.
Smith’s Twitter Bot
Over the course of nine months, Smith’s Twitter bot entered him into 165,000 contests on Twitter, but he only won about 1,000 of those.
According to Smith’s blog, the Python script would log into Twitter and begin to search for tweets that mentioned anything about retweeting to win and retweet them. Smith said that he saw plenty of other users manually entered into these contests, but never saw anyone else running a script like his.
Cheating the System
The key to Smith’s Twitter bot was finding the perfect balance between following, unfollowing, and tweeting. You see, Twitter actually tracks various statistics it considers shady and use them to ban users from the site. Tweeting too often, aggressively retweeting, and following too many people in too short amount a time are all things that could lead to a user being banned from Twitter.
Most of the contests that Smith entered required him to follow and retweet the original tweeter, which is around 611 tweets and follows every day. After a lot of trial and error, Smith found out that a user with only a few hundred followers can only follow around 2000 people. To skirt around this limitation, he made sure that he would only follow the most recent 2000 people, and would only unfollow them when the contest had ended. As luck would have it, the number of contests he could find on Twitter never allowed him to exceed this amount.
What Does Winning 1,000 Contests Get You?
You can check out the entire list of items Smith won on his site, but Smith says his favorite prize was a cowboy hat autographed by the cast of a Mexican soap opera.
“I love it because it really embodies the totally random outcome of these contests,” said Smith in his blog.
What was his most valuable find? A trip to New York Fashion Week. It included a limo ride for Smith and a friend, $500 for spending money, and some tickets for a few shows. Smith decided to not claim the prize since he didn’t live near New York and didn’t want to pay for the taxes on its reported value ($4,000).
Nowadays Smith says he’s putting his Twitter bot to good work by retweeting people who are raising money for charities.
Enter our Twitter contest — with your own Twitter bot maybe — and win this screen protector made of intelliGLASS:
No matter what language you speak, laughter is one thing that is universal. But a new Facebook study published in response to a fun New Yorker article suggests that the way we laugh online has a way of varying depending on where we live, how old we are, and what language we speak.
The Dialect of E-Laughing
E-Laughter used to be dominated by the phrase “lol”, but Facebook’s new study shows that the act of laughing out loud is being expressed in a more literal and direct way rather than simple narrating actions.
The most common way to type out a laugh now is simply typing “haha.” Emoji is the second most popular way and “hehe” follows up close after. As it turns out, people still saying “lol” are a lot less hip than they might think.
The Facebook study shows that 51.4 percent of all posts and comments containing strings of laughter are expressed through the use of “haha.” Emoji makes up 33.7 percent, “hehe” accounts for 13.1 percent, and lol has fallen all the way down to just 1.9 percent.
Geography Is a Big Factor
Geography is perhaps one of the biggest factors in determining which phrase of laughter you might use. Facebook says that people who live on the west coast prefer to use different combinations of “haha” and “hehe” when expressing laughter, but their east coast brothers and sisters prefer to use emoji’s as their preferred method of laughter. Southern states are still using “lol.”
Battle of the Sexes
Men and women also seem to enjoy phrasing their laughter in different ways. Men prefer to use words like “haha” and “hehe” when they’re communicating with people online. Women seem to enjoy using “haha” and “hehe” as well, but they also predominantly make up the majority of the people who use emojis, and they use “lol” more often than men as well.
Facebook analyzed the data from comments and posts only, that means that no private messages were read, which also means that the data is a bit skewed.
Do you agree with Facebook’s study? Let us know in the comments.
The original Penny Skateboard has been put to the test on Clapway TV. According to Ben Mackay, the founder of Penny Skateboards, skateboarding can be “terrifying,” “exhilarating” and “blissful” all at the same time.
Google has announced its plans to further separate its sinking ship of a social media platform, Google+, from its other services.
Crushed Dreams
When Google launched Google+ back in June 2011, it was touted as another mythical Facebook-killer. The platform was exclusive and users needed to be invited in order to use the service. Even with the gate, Google managed to accumulate 20 million unique visitors to the site within the first three months of its launch.
Unfortunately for Google, Google+ just didn’t pick up the steam it needed in order to close the massive gap Facebook had on it. In an official blog post, Google mentioned that users weren’t really fond of using Google as their social “identity” when using Google’s services, though they did like the convenience of using one account to log into the services.
Moving Away from Google+
So, with that in mind, Google has decided to let users create, share, communicate, create a YouTube channel and more with just a normal Google Account. The first step involves separating YouTube comments from Google+ posts. This is a welcomed change since YouTube comments have a way of diluting legitimate discussion due to the fast-paced nature of the commenting system and its incoherent formatting.
Google+ Will Find Life After Death
Bradley Horowitz, VP of streams, photos, and sharing, has stated that Google won’t be giving up on Google+, however.
“We’re going to continue focusing Google+ on helping users connect around the interest they love, and retire it as the mechanism by which people share and engage within other Google products,” said Horowitz.
The idea is to shift the focus of Google+. Rather than trying to use it as a platform to encompass all of Google’s services, it will simply exist as a way for others to connect through what they love. With this in mind, Google+ will still be launching its newest feature, Google+ collections. This feature introduces a new way for users to group their posts by topic.
Every collection will be focused on a specific topic, allowing users to have a streamlined way of organizing their interests.
With Google+ Photos recently canned and now Google+ being separated from all of Google’s other services, it will be interesting to see what other changes Google will be announcing in the future.
For more tech related news, check out Clapway Trends:
LinkedIn has caused quite a storm within the past couple of days. They removed the option to instantly download contacts. Any user of the popular professional social network, one of over one million, were more than a little annoyed to find that while contact exporting was still available, a wait of up to three days has now been implemented.
LINKEDIN USERS HAVE MADE IT CLEAR ON TWITTER THAT THEY DON’T LIKE THIS
LinkedIn users have since been upset by the fact that change was implemented without any announcements or warnings. However, the company has since managed to turn this around by quickly after listening to a long stream of complaints on Twitter.
Previously, the “export contact” feature provided ease to users because it allowed them to export details such as names, phone numbers, email addresses, and uploaded documents, in both CSV and VCF formats. LinkedIn says that users will receive an email within the next 72 hours containing a link to download the archive when it is ready.
LINKEDIN VP OF PRODUCT MANAGEMENT EXPLAINED ON TWITTER
LinkedIn’s VP of Product Management explained later that the removal of the regular download option was part of their ongoing efforts to combat the incorrect exporting of member’s data by third parties. However, as a result of the member uproar, the instant CSV exporting is back, but users are not sure for how long. LinkedIn’s customer service team announced that the return of the instant download option is not going to be around in its current form forever and it will disappear again only when the alternative download methods are sped up.
LINKEDIN: GOAL IS TO MAKE INFORMATION AVAILABLE IN MINUTES
They also said that their goal is to make as much of the information, including connection information, available within minutes. They will keep the CSV connections tools available until they can reach that goal. Other data items will also be extended in an archive that might take longer to process. They will then turn off the tool again as a part of their ongoing efforts. It is not clear what the form future changes will take or when they might be implemented. For now, instant contacts exporting is back, for now.
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NEW VINE UPDATES MADE IT EASY TO find, play, and share VINES
The famous six-second (actually, six-and-a-half-second) Twitter video service, Vine, just updated its app to make it easier to search for popular video creators. Twitter has also brought a new way to find other Vines that will interest you by typing specific phrases. Along with this, there is now an easier way to search for Viners you want to discover and to find things you are interested by typing phrases instead of hashtags.
If you want to search for more Viners to enjoy, then open the new “Suggested Viners” section. This “Suggested Viners” section was curated by the website’s team to make sure that the Viners on the list really have worthy content.
Those on the Vine list are the creators of the famous six-second videos that users share common interests with and are hand selected by Vine’s Team. The new features also allow for you to search for other Vines that will interest you by typing certain phrases. This is an upgrade from the previous version that only allowed for usernames and hashtags.
VINE NO LONGER RUNS IN ITS ORIGINAL 480P
In addition to all of the new search updates, Vine also now features the ability for iOS users to view content in 720p, up from the original 480p that Vines started out in. Uploads will all be done in 720p HD. In order to get these features on Android, iOS, and Windows-run phones, you must update the Vine app. The new features can only be accessed by updating the Vine app, and then going to the “Your Content” section. Vine also recently began allowing users to link their address books and Twitter accounts outside of their immediate friends and Twitter networks.
INSTAGRAM DOES AND VINE DOES TOO
All of the updates to the Vine app are similar to the to the ones made to Instagram. Instagram’s latest update allowed it to support 1080p image and video uploads on its app. The fact that the two services’ updates fell within such short time of each other is no coincidence – Instagram is owned by part of Twitter’s competition, Facebook.
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Twitter plays the hero; Would it be crazy to say that if the Rwandan genocide happened today, lives might have been saved? Interviews and studies published in the last months suggest that the bloodshed of the 1994 slaughter, which killed up to 1 million people, might have been drastically reduced if the spread of social media happened merely one decade before.
Pictures showing the west exactly the harshness of the situation, would have put such a strong pressure on policy makers, that the UN would have never decided to withdraw its soldiers and politicians would have done whatever possible to gain more consensus.
Quite interestingly (and what led me to look into this topic more in depth) British former prime minister Gordon Brown, in a special interview to British leading newspaper The Guardian, went as far as stating that given the current spread of social media platforms “You cannot have Rwanda anymore”.
In the same field, a Canadian professor called Walter Dorn expressed a similar position on the matter, emphasising that “It is much more likely that the genocide could have been prevented, had there been social media at the time”.
Thinking of that terrible event in such ways it is hard to have a clear position, especially because re-imagining the course of historical events under different circumstances often turns out to be quite misleading.
In the case of Rwanda in particular, it is quite complicated to follow this path as politicians and the UN knew exactly what was going on and did not take the correct measures to save lives. Actually, the UN purposely withdrew its Blue Berets from Rwanda and the reasons behind this decision are still not clear.
The ongoing “internet revolution” is definitely more tumultuous than any previous social uprising. Social media websites have empowered individuals from all over the world to report breaking news, share stories and gather support for a cause. Social media platforms allow any individual to become a reporter by letting the world know what is happening in a certain place at a given time.
Something all of us are aware of, is that technological advancements have been a major feature of recent years, thanks to the spread and development of social media tools like Twitter around the world and the massive growth of mobile phone and smartphone usage. Social media usage has inevitably had effects on political foreign policy choices and in reporting faraway disasters.
These advances have brought a “democratisation of information”, meaning that specific areas of political competence are no longer the province of just a few elites. But how does this occur?
Foreign policy shaped by public opinion
Visual material such as videos and photos always help deliver a clear understanding of the gravity of the events. When thinking about the impact of social media in reporting faraway disasters, we should think about its ability to shape public opinion in a way that the political class feels forced to act. Gordon Brown himself said that “information would come out more quickly about what is actually going on and the public opinion would row to the point where action would need to be taken”.
We can associate therefore the so-called Twitter Revolution to the CNN-Effect of the 1990s. This refers to the influence of then-new 24h broadcast service on International Politics, which largely shaped public opinion and drove foreign policy in specific directions.
Kenya’s successful technology
When talking about this “social media revolution”, think of the recent Arab Spring, which started in Tunisia in 2011 and had strong domino effect throughout other North African countries also thanks to videos and pictures of protests spread through social media. The tole of social media was Important in allowing young protesters from different backgrounds to come together to fight for a common cause, and for those affected by the violence to spread videos and images all over the web in order to stimulate political action from developed countries.
In fact, the moment in which pictures showing thousands of children and families killed by chemical weapons in Syria in 2013 spread all over the web, generated massive discussions in the developed west which turned into immediate political debate on whether humanitarian intervention was necessary or not.
NGOs in line with digital developments
It is interesting also to look at the role of NGOs in the effectiveness of social media of reaching a wide number of people from across the world. The idea that they can create impact through the use of social media platforms by gathering support and aid has in fact led many organisations to increase the use of Facebook and Twitter among their information tools.
Annelie Abildgaard, head of communications at IBIS, one of Denmark’s leading development NGOs with programmes in different countries, emphasised how the use of social media by NGOs in Denmark is growing, by creating platforms for participating debates.
Referring to the potential of social media to shape public opinion and force the political elite to take action, Abildgaard emphasised how “creating awareness is crucial, by informing people and making them understand that they can act in a way that pushes the pressure on the political class to change and end poverty”.
“What I really like about social media” she added “is that it is way less elitist than radio and television as it holds a great democratic position. With social media, you don’t have to be someone to have a voice”.
Important points about how social media is not actually the devil. Its always been about using responsibly. Protect your smartphone with Urban Armor Gear for maximum responsibility:
Tumblr has just unveiled Tumblr TV, which will be filled with nothing but GIFs, GIFs, GIFs, meant for either the utterly curious or complete time wasters.
How exactly does Tumblr TV work if featuring only GIFs?
Tumblr TV is available for access by everyone, whether they have a Tumblr account or not. At the moment, it is only accessible on desktops, but rumors are that the company is working on trying to make Tumblr TV work on mobile devices as well. According to reports, the new feature will work in full-screen mode and also offer “player controls like play, pause, forward, and backward.” The popular and well-known graphics will be playing in a loop either once or several times, before a different one plays. These GIFs will be coming from various Tumblr users, and those viewing the new feature can also search for them and even repost onto their accounts.
Tumblr’s motives and main purpose in releasing Tumblr TV
Tumblr’s main purpose in releasing this new feature, Tumblr TV, is to continue to capitalize and take full advantage of the growing popularity of GIFs and internet users either creating, reposting, or generally being obsessed with them. The company informs us that Tumblr TV is part of a long-term effort to expand access to one of Tumblr’s most popular features, the animated GIF. Realistically speaking, this feature may be unique, but it can also be seen as nothing more than a bunch of random, repetitive GIFs to goad at. Buy hey, it is the year 2015 in the age of information, social media, and oversharing after all, so there are always new GIFs being made by an obscene amount of people.
Hooray for the curious and for those who appear to have too much time on their hands to waste
Social media, and Tumblr specifically, has made it their mission to find ways for internet users to do something with their time, whether that’s seen as wasteful or not. Sure, social media helps with bringing together lost connections and friends, as well as significant others, even from far away. With Tumblr TV set to become a popular new feature, just how much social bonding will there be if there is nothing but aimless gawking at the computer screen?
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