Tag Archives: social media

Internet Banging: Gangs Use Social Media to Trade Insults, Threats

ANN ARBOR — Gangs now occupy two spaces: the streets and the Internet.

A new University of Michigan study reports that, in addition to carrying guns, gang members have armed themselves with social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to incite dares, trade insults or make threats that may result in homicide or other crimes.

Researchers have described this new interaction as “Internet banging.” They examine several factors, including the role of hip-hop music in this phenomenon and urban masculinity’s influence on social media behavior. (more…)

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Facebook Activity Reveals Clues to Mental Illness, says MU Researcher

Analysis of social media use could give therapists more complete view of patients’ health

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Facebook activity provided a window into the psychological health of participants in a study at the University of Missouri. Social media profiles could eventually be used as tools for psychologists and therapists, according to study leader Elizabeth Martin, doctoral student in MU’s psychological science department in the College of Arts and Science.

“Therapists could possibly use social media activity to create a more complete clinical picture of a patient,” Martin said. “The beauty of social media activity as a tool in psychological diagnosis is that it removes some of the problems associated with patients’ self-reporting. For example, questionnaires often depend on a person’s memory, which may or may not be accurate. By asking patients to share their Facebook activity, we were able to see how they expressed themselves naturally. Even the parts of their Facebook activities that they chose to conceal exposed information about their psychological state.” (more…)

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Is Social Media an Effective Instrument for Qualitative Education?

Learn about the reasons why social media can be efficient and easy tool in education process!

Students breathe social media; it’s like a drug spreading its tentacles over the younger generation. However, parents and teachers have begun to realize the importance of social media for the younger generation. For instance, they use the Internet databases and social media collaboration as homework writing help tools. (more…)

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Advancing the Digital Humanities

Bryan Carter, a UA assistant professor of Africana studies, is among faculty members in the arts and humanities more readily employing consumer-based technologies in educational, creative, interdisciplinary and engaging ways.

Take a guess – what are the most common uses for devices like smartphones?

Earlier this year, the UK-based mobile network O2 reported that, on average, people use their smartphones to access the Internet, communicate via social media and listen to music. Other popular uses, as explained by an article in The Telegraph, include playing games and making phone calls. (more…)

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The Relationship between Consumer Behavior and Facebook

We spend a lot of time on Facebook. No joke, right? So it should really come as no surprise that companies have turned to Facebook to appeal more directly to consumers. But how much does business marketing on Facebook affect us?  Recently Chadwick Martin Bailey, a custom market research company, teamed up with Constant Contact to conduct a study on the relationship between Facebook and consumer behavior, polling 1,491individuals 18 and older.

According to some of the highlights from the study:

1. 52% of Americans over 18 spend at least an hour on Facebook each week. That 52% can be further broken down into 29% spend 1-5 hours on the site each week, 11% spend 6-10 hours there, 6% spend 11-20 hours perusing the site, and 6% log 21+hours on Facebook each week. That’s a lot of time on Facebook! (more…)

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Beyond Bieber: Twitter Improves Student Learning

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Twitter, best known as the 140-character social-networking site where Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga chit-chat with fans, has become a new literary format that is improving student learning, a new study argues.

Christine Greenhow, assistant professor of education at Michigan State University, found that college students who tweet as part of their instruction are more engaged with the course content and with the teacher and other students, and have higher grades.

“Tweeting can be thought of as a new literary practice,” said Greenhow, who also studies the growing use of social media among high-schoolers. “It’s changing the way we experience what we read and what we write.” (more…)

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Documents that Changed the World: The Internet Protocol, 1981

Global communication platform and nexus of social media to some and just “a series of tubes” to others, the Internet certainly revolutionized communications. But how exactly does it work, and how did it get started?

Joe Janes, professor in the UW Information School, takes up the questions in the latest installment of his podcast series, “Documents that Changed the World.” (more…)

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IBM X-Force 2012 Mid-Year Trend and Risk Report: Rising Attacks Focus on Browsers and Social Media Networks

New global security operations center in Wroclaw, Poland helps clients stay ahead of threats

ARMONK, N.Y. – 20 Sep 2012: IBM today released the results of its X-Force 2012 Mid-Year Trend and Risk Report, which shows a sharp increase in browser-related exploits, renewed concerns around social media password security, and continued challenges in mobile devices and corporate “bring your own device” (BYOD) programs.

To further protect its clients from emerging threats like those reported in the IBM X-Force Mid-Year Trend and Risk Report, IBM is today announcing the opening of a security operations center in Wroclaw, Poland. This newest IBM Security Operations Center is the 10th worldwide facility to help clients proactively manage these threats, including real-time analysis and early warning notification of security events. Data for the bi-annual X-Force report comes from IBM’s security operations centers which monitor more than 15 billion security events a day on behalf of approximately 4,000 clients in more than 130 countries. (more…)

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