Many moons ago, I discovered a wonderful social network known as myspace.com. It was an exciting way to meet new people and find those who had likeminded interests. It was also a great…
via Gizmag: There was an understandable amount of skepticism when Amazon announced its grand plans for delivery drones last year. But if the last twelve months are any indication, Jeff Bezos and his fellow…
From Wired: There’s this great Andy Warhol quote you’ve probably seen before: “I think everybody should like everybody.” You can buy posters and plates with pictures of Warhol, looking like the cover…
Abby and Robbie Martin discuss the potentiality of an ‘Occupy Silicon Valley’ protest movement in a similar mold to ‘Occupy Oakland’ taking place in California’s San Francisco Bay Area. They address the ethical issues revolving around tech-companies like Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Soundcloud and debunk the notion that private corporations will install privacy safeguards on their own without the pressure of public consumer outrage. Robbie goes into the history of Silicon Valley’s roots, which tie directly to the Pentagon’s post-WWII defense industry private sector push.
Yes, that’s right, Facebook is conducting psychological tests on its users. Or at least it was until details of the experiment leaked and they decided it was bad publicity. From the Telegraph:…
With public outcry over Facebook’s purchase of Oculus VR already at a deafening level, filmmaker Marc Tschudi turns the volume up one more notch in this short comedy video.
The tech blogs are outdoing themselves to gush praise on Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook’s megabillions bet on virtual reality company Oculus Rift sample the excitement below from Gizmodo); but do disinfonaut skeptics have…
Sarah Gray reports for Salon (via AlterNet) on research about how people on Facebook interacted with “trolls” posting false information; she says the results are depressing: From the steady roll of theories…
Researchers claim that Facebook has the power to spread moods in a viral fashion. Here’s the good news, though: Positive moods spread more easily. Via BBC News: “What people feel and say…
More than once I’ve been struck with the desire to abandon Facebook, and at least one of those times I actually deactivated my account. The reasons for my frustration have varied over…
Via the Economist, Adrian Wooldridge on seeing the giant tech corporations for what they really are: Geeks have turned out to be some of the most ruthless capitalists around. A few years…
Facebook users abandoning the ubiquitous sharing site in droves sounds unlikely but a serious academic study suggests it’s going to happen, reports TIME: Facebook’s growth will eventually come to a quick end,…
Anyone could certainly compose a valid argument that Facebook is a key indicator of narcissism, but it’s hard to say that liking the musical works of Phil Collins more than Huey Lewis…
Those familiar with my work probably know by now that by putting my own spin on sigil magick in conjunction with a background dabbling in hemi-sync astral projection has turned my consciousness…
Via n+1, Benjamin Kunkle argues that social media mega-sites need to be turned into public utilities so as to save us all: On November 6, Twitter went public, in the private sense….
Laura Dimon (demon?) writes at the Atlantic: “Eerie and remarkable.” Those are the words that Robert Bartholomew used to describe this past winter’s outbreak of mass hysteria in Danvers, Massachusetts, a town also…
Facebook struck what it thought was a blow for freedom of expression: It is now going to allow beheadings to be seen in its news feeds. Said the house of the billionaire…
Via Valleywag, Silicon Valley workers will have the opportunity to disappear inside Facebook, for good: If Facebook staffers opt to move in to work, they’ll be getting a very sweet deal out…
OK, it sounds crazy, but sociologist Robert Bartholomew believes that Facebook and other social media platforms can give rise to Mass Psychogenic Illness (MPI), also known as Mass Hysteria. Laura Dimon reports…
This week: Get off Facebook and read a book you dumbdumb, Why tech isn’t the solution to surveillance – you are, Bradley Manning’s fate, Blood surveillance a good thing?, The Moorish Americans…
Nearly 60,000 of you “like” disinformation on Facebook… From Reuters:
A Venezuelan government minister on Wednesday urged citizens to shut Facebook accounts to avoid being unwitting informants for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, referring to recent revelations about U.S. surveillance programs.
Edward Snowden, a former U.S. National Security Agency contractor who is stuck in a Moscow airport while seeking to avoid capture by the United States, last month leaked details about American intelligence agencies obtaining information from popular websites including Facebook.
“Comrades: cancel your Facebook accounts, you’ve been working for free as CIA informants…
On the symbiotic relationship increasingly being revealed between government intelligence agencies and internet corporations, Facecrooks writes: In another twist in what was already a complicated story about Facebook’s involvement in the National…
This week the Mindful Cyborgs podcast interviewed Nathan Jurgenson, the co-founder of the site Cyborgology, co-founder of the Theorizing the Web conference, a contributing editor at The New Inquiry and a sociology…
Social networking was supposed to gradually take over more and more aspects of our lives, but instead it may peter out into a sea of old people “liking” promotional posts from corporations….
Social networking sites are a great way to meet and connect with new people, such as cops. DNAinfo New York writes: Police are searching for suspects’ photos on Instagram and Facebook, then…