Heavy Facebook Users Less Happy - Study Says

 Did you know research over the past several years shows that heavy users of social media tend to be less happy than non-users?

 A new study now suggests that social media tools like Facebook can also affect how we perceive the happiness of others.  Watch this ad free video by VOA about Facebooks impact on university students.

"They found the students who were more involved with Facebook were more likely to think other people’s lives were happier and better. This was especially true among students who included more strangers on their Facebook accounts."

"Psychologists say Facebook and other social media can be valuable tools to connect with people and the world. But that assurance does come with a warning. “Don’t spend a lot of time just looking at other people’s positive events. Share your own and see who are your true friends, who really cares for the things that happen to you,” Kashdan stated."

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 How Facebook Effects Happiness

Facebook Valued at $100 Billion May Go Public

Facebook May Go Public Valued at $100 Billion
VOA - Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Facebook is moving closer to an initial public stock offering that could value the company at more than $100 billion.

The newspaper said “people familiar with the matter” told a reporter late Monday that the company could go public in the second quarter of 2012. The sources said Facebook is looking into raising $10 billion in its IPO, dwarfing other technology companies initial offerings.

The company has been vague in the past about the timing of its inital public offering. A Facebook spokesman refused comment on the latest report.

The Wall Street Journal says Facebook is in talks with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission about filing for the IPO as early as this year.

Facebook has said it will exceed 500 private shareholders in 2011, forcing the company under U.S. law to file a public financial report by the end of April 2012.

The world’s largest social media network has more than 800 million users. The company’s 27-year-old CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, founded the company in his Harvard dorm room in 2004, before dropping out of the prestigious American university.

Twitter and Facebook - Social Media Users are Happier, More Engaged Reports Survey

Survey: Social Media Users are Happier, More Engaged

People who use sites like Twitter and Facebook tend to be more trusting, have more close friends

VOA - Ted Landphair | Washington, D.C.
June 30, 2011

 

We call interactive communications tools such as Twitter and Facebook social media. But lots of commentators have asserted that using them heavily makes people less sociable, if not downright anti-social. 

They say such communication is largely self-centered, and that folks get wrapped up in texting or spilling their innermost secrets online, without ever relating to others’ concerns.

But a new national survey of more than 2,200 American adults shows that those who use social-networking sites have what the study calls “higher measures of social well-being.” They are, it found, more trusting, have more close friends, get more support from those friends and are more politically engaged than other Americans.

And the survey, by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, told us something most of us already knew - that Facebook, in particular, has put users in touch with old high-school friends and revived other long-dormant relationships.

Much of the speculation about the impact of social-networking sites has centered on the possibility that they are hurting users’ relationships and pushing them away from participating in the world, notes Keith Hampton.

The University of Pennsylvania communications professor was the lead author of the Pew Report. “We’ve found the exact opposite, that people who use sites like Facebook actually have more close relationships and are more likely to be involved in civic and political activities.”

It can be noted that the 85-page report by Professor Hampton and his colleagues, which also found that the number of people using social-networking sites has doubled since 2008, ran considerably longer than 140 Tweet-able characters.


Survey: Social Media Users are Happier, More Engaged



Article from VOA

Facebook, Twitter - Social Media a Critical Tool for Middle East Protesters

Social Media a Critical Tool for Middle East Protesters
Alex Villarreal March 01, 2011 - VOA

Social networking websites have played a critical role in the anti-government protests sweeping the Middle East and North Africa. But media experts say the people, not the technology, are driving the demonstrations.

Organizers of the protests in Tunisia and Egypt used Facebook and Twitter to mobilize supporters.

In Egypt, the Facebook page "We Are All Khaled Said" quickly amassed thousands of fans and is now up to nearly 1 million followers. The page, honoring a young Egyptian businessman allegedly beaten to death by police last year, was instrumental in organizing Egypt's uprising.

Protesters' online efforts have shown the power of social media as a tool for political change. But Egyptian journalist and blogger Mona Eltahawy says those calling the Middle East movements Facebook or Twitter revolutions are not giving the credit where it is due.

"Facebook and Twitter did not invent courage. And I think we owe it to these incredibly courageous people. I mean look how many people are being slaughtered in Libya, to recognize that this courage has been there for decades, whether people outside of those countries saw it or not. Facebook allowed you to see it. Facebook allowed them to connect. But at the end of the day, it's their courage to go out on the street and topple those regimes that must be saluted, before we salute anybody else," she said.

Eltahawy shared her views Tuesday at a panel discussion in Washington hosted by the Center for International Media Assistance and the National Endowment for Democracy.

Abderrahim Foukara, chief of television network Al Jazeera's Washington bureau, also spoke at the event. He said social media were incredibly important in publicizing the protests. But he said he doubts the websites could have spread that spirit of democracy alone, adding that other media also played an important role.

"There were a lot of young people using Tweets and Facebook, and they still are, to convey a sense, in the case of Libya, of the atrocities being committed against civilians. But in the case of Egypt for example, you needed a television medium, whereby Egyptians can have a conversation with each other in real time in a way that put what was going on in Egypt in context, not just for people in Egypt but also for other people around the region," he said.

Social networking websites also can be fragile. U.S. Congressman Adam Schiff said Facebook and Twitter have become "vital platforms" for mobilizing dissidents, but he pointed out that the tools are not immune to government influence.

"In Egypt, the government successfully shut down the Internet for five days during peak demonstrations, cutting off protesters' access to online resources. Similarly, in Libya, Tunisia and Bahrain, governments have worked to censor online content and slow down Internet connections. And in Iran, authorities have used Facebook user accounts to shadow and capture members of the opposition. These protests make it clear that digital media can be used to accelerate political and social change, but they also highlight the ability of authoritarian regimes to use the same tools to stifle it," he said.

U.S. officials have spoken out strongly against governments' efforts to block Internet services. Schiff said the U.S. government also is discussing how it can use social networking technologies to support democratic growth.

Michael Nelson, who teaches Internet studies at Georgetown University, says those seeking change have not let online crackdowns stop them. He said Internet users in the Middle East and elsewhere have found ways around the restrictions - using proxy servers, online gaming worlds and even dating sites to keep up communication.

"In many of these countries, the most technologically sophisticated 10 percent of Internet users will find a way to get what they want. The other 90 percent are often held back, they are often blocked. But as long as there's that 10 percent and they have relatives and they know other people, you can spread the word," he said.

Even after the revolutions, the panelists say social media will continue to play an important role, with citizens using the tools to discuss what kinds of countries they now want to build.



Social Media a Critical Tool for Middle East Protesters
Article from VOA

Internet Freedom - China Warns US

China Warns US About Push for Internet Freedom

VOA News February 17, 2011

 

China's Foreign Ministry on Thursday warned the United States not to use Internet access issues as a "pretext" to interfere in China's internal affairs.

The warning came in response to a speech by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Tuesday, during which she urged governments to end Internet censorship or risk the kind social and political unrest currently sweeping through the Middle East.

 

Clinton also said the administration would spend $25 million this year on initiatives to protect bloggers and help them circumvent Beijing's efforts to curb Chinese access to foreign websites.

Since Clinton's address, Chinese Internet censors appear to have deleted U.S. embassy posts promoting the secretary's address. According to the Associated Press, online searches for the word "Hillary" in Chinese have been blocked on at least one site. And Reuters news agency quotes embassy spokesman Richard Buangan as saying he was unable to post information unrelated to Clinton's speech on the embassy website Thursday.

At a regular news briefing Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu repeated his government's standard position the Internet freedom in China is guaranteed by law. But he also said Beijing remains opposed to foreign interference in Chinese affairs.

Secretary of State Clinton also used Tuesday's speech to point out the role Twitter and Facebook played in uprisings in the Middle East.  Both social networking sites are blocked in China.

Beijing also routinely blocks websites of foreign news organizations, including VOA, and blocks topics it considers sensitive, including the uprising that toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

China Warns US About Push for Internet Freedom

Article from VOA

Hillary Clinton deliveredspeech on Internet Freedom, February 15, 2011

Google, Twitter, Facebook - Increasingly Caught Up in Political Events

Internet Companies Increasingly Caught Up in Political Events

William Ide | Washington February 16, 2011 - VOA

Internet search giant Google and social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook are increasingly finding themselves caught in the middle of global political developments, and playing a role in those events.  In some cases, as with the recent uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, they have been a part of the push to overthrow autocratic leaders.  As Google has shown in China, the major Internet companies also have challenged government policies that appear to restrict free speech and personal privacy.

When Google executive Wael Ghonim re-emerged in Egypt earlier this month after being held by security forces for 12 days, he was welcomed like a hero by anti-government protesters in Tahrir Square.

Ghonim leads Google’s marketing efforts in the Middle East and North Africa.  A Facebook page he launched before the mass protests began played a key role in drawing demonstrators into the streets - helping to launch the mass public uprising that ultimately ended President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule.

Marcus Messner, who teaches journalism at Virginia Commonwealth University, says Internet companies are playing an increasingly bigger role in world affairs. "I think you see a more active role, but of course it depends, and it varies by company.  Facebook so far has not taken an active stance, but Google and Twitter, in these protests (in Egypt) have taken a more active stance,” he said.

Messner notes that in 2009, when protests erupted in Iran, Twitter postponed maintenance on its computer network so there would be no interruption in service for protesters using Twitter.  More recently, when authorities in Egypt shut down the Internet, employees from Google, Twitter and SayNow, a voice technology company Google owns, found a way to help protesters get around that obstacle.

With Facebook boasting half a billion members, Twitter growing at rates of 100 to 200 percent per year and the wide presence on the web of Google and You Tube, Messner says the role of Internet companies cannot be denied.

“They are major players.  When we talk about major media corporations we sometimes forget how big these companies have gotten.  What has to be seen in the future is how much of an active political stand do these companies take themselves,” he said.

Jeffrey Carr, a cyber security columnist for Forbes magazine, says he believes the freedom Google gives its employees enabled them to play a role in Egypt. “Google as a company is very supportive of their employees.  They give them, I think, 20 percent of their time every week to work on independent projects, and I suspect that that’s what this was, not necessarily a formal corporate decision,” he said.

Carr says what Google's employees did in Egypt was their own work and they deserve a lot of credit for that.  “I think that’s where the humanitarian efforts have to stem from.  Not from the company, but from the employees,” Carr said.

In the end, analysts point out that Google and other Internet firms are still businesses - corporations with an obligation to protect their stockholders' interests.

Jillian York, who is with Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, says many Internet companies did not build themselves up with the idea that they would be used for activism.

 

"Each company at some point has to decide whether or not they are going to take a strong stand on these issues.  We’ve sort of seen Google doing that, both with pulling out of China last year and, more recently, they’ve held an Internet freedom conference.  Google seems fairly comfortable in that role.  Facebook perhaps less so.  And then Twitter, I would say, is almost somewhere in the middle," York said.

One thing analysts say is significant is that Google and other high-tech companies have not dismissed employees such as Ghonim and others involved in developing Speak2Tweet - the system linking telephones to the Twitter network that allowed Egypt's protesters to circumvent the Internet shutdown.  Industry analysts say that is a strong statement about the companies' commitment to free-speech issues.

Internet Companies Increasingly Caught Up in Political Events

Article from VOA

Love in Digital Age Offers Opportunity, Dangers - Social Media

Love in Digital Age Offers Opportunity, Dangers

Digital connections can make - and break - relationships

Faiza Elmasry | Washington, D.C. February 11, 2011 - VOA

 

Social media can make it easier to form romantic connections but there's also a down side.

In today’s fast-paced world there are more ways to communicate than ever - e-mail, text messaging, Facebook, Twitter and other types of social media. Relationship experts say such connections can help fuel passion and have already changed the way people date and fall in love. Yet, technology can cause people to fall out of love, too.

Game changer

Digital connections have changed the dating game. As two young, single women from New York City, that's something Olivia Baniuszewicz  and Debra Goldstein learned firsthand.

"First of all we’re flirting more openly, a lot more often," says Baniuszewicz . "Things like your phone for texting, or even just the Internet on your phone just helping you plan a perfect night out."

"So we decided we needed to figure out the world of texting and we wrote a book about how to navigate through this new love connection," says Goldstein.

'Flirtexting: How to Text Your Way into His Heart' explores how texting has changed the dating scene.

The two women named their book, "Flirtexting: How to Text Your Way into His Heart." During the course of their research, they interviewed dozens of people to find out what they thought about flirt-texting.

"It’s become like a convenient way for people to connect through busy, fast-paced lives," says Baniuszewicz. "Also, it eliminates the shyness factor. It makes us a lot more open to saying things that we normally wouldn’t in person."

Goldstein agrees. "It’s really cool. If you are in a long distance relationship, for I actually was, it really, really helps to stay connected."

Relationship expert David Coleman, who's known as the Dating Doctor, agrees - to a point.

"Still with things like Skype or I-chat and texting and phones - just all the things that are available - long distance relationships often don’t succeed," he says. "We really miss the other person’s presence. Up to a point, sure, I can see the other person on the screen, they can see me. We can keep a bit of our passion alive, but at some point in time, if we can’t be in each other’s physical presence, the pain of being in a long-distance relationship will finally outweigh the benefits of being in it."

Revolution

Coleman says technology has revolutionized the way people meet and date.

"You can Google someone, you can go on Facebook, you can go on LinkedIn, you can go on Twitter, you can find out so much about these people before you even say ‘Hello,’" he says. "There should never again be a ‘blind date’, unless someone has completely voided their life of any social media."

That’s why, Coleman says, people should be careful about the image they create for themselves online.

"If you go to most of younger women’s websites on Facebook, you will see their profiles, they got some provocative things put up there. So you have to be a bit careful of the pictures that you’re putting up. Never ever give people your land address and things like that, because you just don’t know who is reading that profile."

Coleman notes that even the older generations are dating digitally and finding love on-line.

"Many of them are finding their ex-high school sweethearts on Facebook or someone they used to date years and years and years ago. And those couples are reconnecting and they are marrying. Now conversely, people are finding past love on Facebook and telling their current spouses, ‘I’m so sorry, I thought I’d never find this person again, but Facebook brought us back together. We had something special and we want to try to have it again.’ I have a friend who is a lawyer. He says in most of his divorce cases now, Facebook is being cited as a reason for that divorce."

Word of caution

Lovers, Coleman warns, should also realize that e-mails and text messages can be a double edged sword.

"Let’s say that I say, ‘I don’t think we should be together anymore. I’m breaking up with you,’ and I text that. The person who gets that text message can read that over and over and over again. And the more they read it, the madder they get. That’s what social media has done. And conversely it can be, ‘I love you, I love you, I love you’ and they can go back and read that 50 times, too. So it works both ways."

With that caution in mind, Flirtexting authors Goldstein and Baniuszewicz have come up with some digital love do’s and don’ts.

"If somebody sends you a text message, you don’t have to respond back right away," says Goldstein. "In fact, we interviewed a lot of guys and they say that response time says a lot about the girl. Also abbreviations, our motto is 'if you don’t want a date, abbreviate.' So we say, spell your words out. You have the time to create a message that says exactly what you want to say in that space. And just because it’s accessible it doesn’t mean you need to be doing it 24/7. You do not want to get a marathon texting situation."

Baniuszewicz adds,"Have a healthy balance between everything; texting, Facebook, Twitter. It's a way to enhance a connection throughout the day. You need to use everything in moderation."

And, they add, even though texting is more convenient, writing a love letter, or sending a poem with a card gives a modern relationship a special personal touch that a message on Facebook just can’t match.

Love in Digital Age Offers Opportunity, Dangers
Article from VOA

Hitting the Jackpot in Oxford, Maryland

Congratulations to John in Winchester, Virginia. He is Sandaway Waterfront Lodging's lucky winner from their Summer E-mail Promotion. John has won a waterfront bed and breakfast weekend in Oxford, Maryland. It is the closest thing to winning the jackpot in Oxford, MD. Thank you to all the guests at Sandaway Waterfront Lodging who participated.

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