Engineers at Facebook have recently developed a "Sympathize" button as an alternative to the not-always-appropriate "Like" button. "Sympathize" would become a response option specifically for status updates containing depressing content — like news of breakups, pets dying or alerts signaling that you've been listening to…
Much virtual ink has been spilled over the past few days over the Oxford Dictionary's choice of "selfie" for 2013 word of the year. But I've noticed among the chorus of opinions on the social media self portrait an annoying trend: the selfie evangelist. Selfies are just dandy, they say, because they're a way for people…
For a woman who has built an empire marketing her own smugly tied gingham ribbon of perfection and self-satisfied domesticity, Martha Stewart is remarkably terrible at one thing that, in the digital age, is almost unavoidable: sharing pictures of food on social media. In fact, Martha Stewart's Twitter feed is…
The New Zealand teen rapists
Earlier this week, a group of privileged New Zealand teen boys called the Roast Busters made international news for basically being a social media-active gang rape club that the cops (and much of the community) ignored for years
If you're ready for the brand new age of advertising, it's happening now: Saturday, Juicy Couture — the brand that is neither juicy nor couture — will start an advertising/marketing/something campaign on Snapchat, the app considered to be a teen selfie haven.
Yesterday, someone going by the name "Jonathan Jno" posted a Vine video of what appears to be an unconscious or barely conscious woman apparently getting raped in a park on the South Side of Chicago; horrified Twitter users were quick to report it to the Chicago police.
A recent survey of 12,000 people aged 18+ in eight countries sings a very familiar refrain: 70 percent of people say that technology enhances their personal relationships, but 60 percent believe that it can be dehumanizing. This is a theme that's been revisited and rehashed and commented upon until it's been…
Over the past weekend, I fell into the booby-trap of the internet, and it saved my life. After hanging out with some rad, critical, hilarious, and fun friends over the weekend, I got tricked into thinking that Facebook is, in general, a great place to engage others in critical and meaningful conversations about how…
Nancy Jo Sales recently wrote an article about what social media and porn are doing to American teenage girls. It was a very interesting read, but oh boy, I was clutching my pearls throughout. (My apologies if someone has already linked this to GT and I missed it)
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have analyzed 700 million words and phrases from the Facebook messages of 75,000 volunteers. The resulting word clouds show the extent to which our use of language is influenced by our personality, age, and sex.
Revenge porn — or when a jerk posts private sexy photos of a woman online without her permission with the intent to humiliate or exact comeuppance — is seriously disruptive to the lives of the women victimized by it. Laws haven't caught up to reality, though, and in most states, once you sext a guy pictures of your…
The internet is not the place to go if you’re looking for universal validation for your life choices. Sure, you may run into a lot of similarly-minded people who will tell you, “Oh, it is extremely cool that you’re having a Christian Slater marathon this afternoon, and you’re right — best not even to bother with…
If you make an OKCupid account but never check it because you only get messages from self-proclaimed Nice Guys/the entire endeavor fills you with existential dread, the site will attempt to reel you back in by telling you how hot and elite you are.
You thought babies capturing the market on style blogs
"Smack Cam" is when people (typically douchey bros or bitchy mean girls) smack unsuspecting victims and then post their stinging faces and shocked screams on Vine.
I think we can all agree that the internet is a rank cesspool of bitterness and poison and no one should ever, ever look at it. But, on the other hand, I think we can all also agree that the internet is a magical Vegas buffet heaping with joy-shrimps and a communal fountain of human spirit fondue. So what are we…
Consider how many times you've heard that "X" trend has turned "boy-girl relations into a cut-throat sexual race" over the decades; substitute "X" for "sexting," "crop tops," or "coed education," and you've got yourself a Newsweek cover story. This week, X = "pouty self portraits" — otherwise known as the selfie — and the…
After analyzing the feeds of just under 2 million tweets from 16,000 Twitter users, social scientists have determined that Christians on the social network platform exhibit more happiness and optimism than atheists.
Indiscreet Facebook posting usually leads to trouble, especially if, let’s say, you’re part of a fairly conservative institution that doesn’t value individual expression quite as much as unstinting obedience and homogeneity. If you were serving in the Israeli military, for instance, you might not want to post…
According to a series of Monday-afternoon reports, Sen. John McCain slipped into Syria with the ninja-like grace of a small reptile, maybe a snake, although not a mean, poisonous snake. Probably a peacemaking garter snake (snakes make for positive images, you guys). He became, announced the Daily Beast, the…
Oh, no! The teens are turning their Limited Too-clad backs on Facebook because it's been invaded by parents and drama. Because no matter how many times they yell "STAY OUT OF MY FACEBOOK ROOM, MOM," the moms will not stay out of their Facebook room. In fact, the moms keep coming back into their Facebook room to snoop…
Pinterest, the internet's Home For Wayward Mason Jars™, is causing serious stress for moms. Apparently ladies are feeling inadequate because their attempts at craftiness aren't as stellar as the stuff showcased on the website's homepage. Women are worried their homemade cherpumples look like dino turds, and they're…
People who incessantly post photos of their meals online aren't just trying to make you jealous — they may have serious medical issues, according to the Canadian Obesity Network.
Hear ye, hear ye, legions of cappuccino and nail polish photographers, ye tilt-shifters and lovers of filters! Instagram has released a brand new feature. Many have waited with bated breath for The Update We've All Been Hoping For: "Photos of You." With the newest update, a tab on your Instagram profile will show tagged …
Toronto police are investigating a potential rape case after an anonymous poster described having sex with a heavily intoxicated woman on a Facebook page called "Humber Epic Hookup Fails." The page, which went live two weeks ago, featured anonymous posts by Humber College students about hookups gone awry, because people …
Despite thorough debunkings of the purported links between vaccinations and autism, plenty of parents are still conflicted about whether or not to adhere to the CDC's guidelines. In the county where I live—King County, in Washington state—vaccination rates are below the national average, and, not-so-coincidentally,…
Social networks' chicken-egg impact on rape culture has been discussed in detail since before the landmark case in Steubenville (and, more recently, a quite similar case in Torrington, Connecticut
Everything that's allegedly great about communication for humans is terrible for romance, AKA, will we ever HEAR the lolz again? It was inevitable that, as mouth people, we'd create ways to get our message out in as few grunts as possible, and while this has been a boon for general humanity, it has left modern lovers…
There's a huge, American-sized gender gap
