Calling All Snitches…Facebook Wants YOU!
September 24th, 2012 by ChristenFacebook wants you to snitch on your friends. No seriously, snitch on your Facebook friends. Doesn’t makes sense yet? According to TPM – Facebook is randomly surveying users about their friends’ fake usernames.
Facebook has confirmed that for the past several months, it has been surveying users about their Friends’ usernames, asking if the usernames are “your friend’s real name” or not.
“This system has been in a few different incarnations over the past couple months,” a Facebook spokesperon confirmed in a statement. “It changes depending on what’s being asked. “Facebook wants to know if your friends’ names are real. Are you going to be the snitch?” tweeted an activist and photojournalist under the username “@chapeaudefee,” attaching the following screenshot to illustrate the survey prompt, which shows another user’s account name, profile photo and location and asks the recipient of the survey to indicate whether the person’s account is reflective of their real name or not.
The actual question posed by Facebook is phrased decidedly more delicately:
“Please help us understand how people are using Facebook,” it reads. “Your response is anonymous and won’t affect your friend’s account. Is this your friend’s real name?”
It then gives users four options: “Yes,” “No,” “I don’t know this person,” and “I don’t want to answer.”
The Facebook Terms of Service also state: “If you select a username or similar identifier for your account or Page, we reserve the right to remove or reclaim it if we believe it is appropriate (such as when a trademark owner complains about a username that does not closely relate to a user’s actual name).”
Facebook’s Help Center is even more strict, stating that “The name you use should be your real name as it would be listed on your credit card, student ID, etc.”
Despite this, Facebook itself has admitted its enforcement of this policy hasn’t stopped a sizeable portion of fake username accounts proliferating on the social network, up to 8.7 percent, which equates to 83.1 million out of 955 million users worldwide.
Does any of your Facebook friends have “fake” usernames? (Don’t worry we won’t ask who) Do you believe asking users to identify fake usernames will help cut down over 83 million of fakers our there? Sound off below…
Facebook Friday: What Your Friends Want You To Know…
January 13th, 2012 by ChristenFollow Friday, Make Friends on Facebook and learn what your friends really what you to know. Looking for more “LIKES” on your comments? Try thinking a little more positively during certain times of the day and see the difference it’ll make.
Do you pay attention to the amount of “LIKES” or comments you get on Facebook? Does a lot of “LIKES” matter to you?
Get Fashion Advice From Friends Online
August 23rd, 2011 by Christen
On September 8, thousands will gather at the world’s fashion capitals for extravaganza that is Fashion Week. Many more will have a virtual presence, using laptops and mobile devices to view and discuss the styles coming down the runway. Even with the integration of high tech and high fashion, a phenomenon dubbed Fashion 2.0, there continues to be a disconnect between imaginative designs and personal style. Fashion and beauty sites either suggest fantasy ensembles that wouldn’t fit most people, or they use simple-minded quizzes that produce fashion tips that are inaccurate, too generic or too overwhelming.
OhThatsYou.com solves this disconnect by putting the consumer in control.
It provides an integrated array of tools that enables members to…
- Interact with their trusted circle–including their friends and other members with similar attributes and lifestyles–to make style and purchasing decisions
- Use the OTY Window-Shopper to collect fashion images that suit their tastes
- Mix and match these items to create different looks
- Receive OTY generated personal fashion and beauty recommendations on items that suit their face and body type
“Our personal style is a combination of our unique physical attributes, the sum total of our experiences and our environment,” says founder Azita Gandjei. “OhThatsYou.com enables members to find their own unique personal style, whether they want to fit in or stand out.”
BREAKING NEWS: Social Media Kills Broadcast Media
May 2nd, 2011 by Christen
It’s official! This past weekend has been the busiest “Breaking News” moments the world has seen in a while. From the Royal Wedding (yeah, that just happend on Friday – REMEMBER?) To last night’s breaking news by President of the United States, Barack Obama announcing that world reknown terrorist Osama Bin Laden had been killed. This is where the interesting part comes in…if you’re like the millions of people from around the world that has interest in the latest world affairs you probably didn’t have to wait to hear the news via your broadcast news medium of choice, you simply logged onto your favorite social media platform at recieved the news immediately BEFORE THE REST OF THE WORLD!
For example, my story is this….on the day of Royal Wedding my timeline was filled with audio, video, photos and comments painting a play-by-play picture of the ceremony from gown to song (after song, after song, after song). Literally 15mins before the official Bin Laden announcement was made via President Obama, my Facebook feed was buzzing with the news that Osama was indeed captured and dead.
Is it possible that the Osama is DEAD Facebook page had something to do with the news traveling so fast? The page was actually created years before his death actually occurred. I don’t believe this conspiricy-theory driven page had anything to do with it, but with almost 350,000 LIKES this page is serving as an online memorial board where visitors are sharing their stories and feelings about his Bin Laden’s death.
Now, you want to know who had the news before Facebook, CNN and Twitter? This guy…
That’s right, he tweeted LIVE just feet from the actual mele that brought Bin Laden down. This is the exact reason why Broadcast media won’t be able to compete with social media. The live updates of billions via social media platforms will always out-perform the traditional means of relying on broadcast media for breaking news and reports.
(Twitter has just confirmed that nearly 4,000 tweets PER SECOND were sent out during last night’s speech by President Obama. – via CNNTech)
Still don’t believe that social media is outperforming traditional broadcast media when it comes to news delivery?
Check out this poll listed on Mashable.com:
So far, over 35% of all polled heard the news not via CNN or local news programming but via TWITTER!
The everyday journalist, Twitter-user and Facebook-correspondent are the ones making news happen and reporting it IN REAL TIME! After this weekend, I know that I’ll be the one checking for news more often online and awaiting for broadcast media to confirm it later, how about you?
In case you were wondering about the Royal Wedding and social media buzz, you can catch the details HERE.
Instagram Photos
