Tag Archives: facebook

Playing with online privacy

Being aware of the information we share is an increasingly important consideration in our connected lives.  Many of us don’t really think about the digital footprints we leave or what organisations might do with the apparently trivial details they gather when we sign up for new products or services.  Many “free” offers are contingent on […]

Facebook scams

There’s a flurry of Facebook scams going around at the moment. They are irritating but harmless – merely reposting themselves on friend’s walls if clicked.  Their enticement seem to take two forms: the promise of learning who’s been viewing your profile or titillating content. Even though it might be desirable, no-one can see who’s been looking at […]

Who’s looking at you?

One of the most potent aspects of Facebook, and to a lesser extent Flickr,  Twitter and alike, is the opportunity it gives us to pry.  Like looking into curtainless windows after dark, we get a unique insight into the lives of other people.  We know they’re not faking their profiles – there are too many […]

Facebook – Jack of all trades

I have the privilege and pleasure of helping out at the local youth group. On Monday we had our Christmas party.  I took some photos.  And put them onto Facebook – inevitably the online social hub of the group.  I also posted them on Flickr.  I received a note asking why I’d duplicated the effort.  […]

Facebook cartoon meme

You may well have seen the campaign on Facebook to change your profile picture to a childhood cartoon character. The changes were accompanied by a status update like this: Change your facebook profile picture to a cartoon character from your childhood and invite your friends to do the same. Until Monday, December 6, there should […]

Friendship Business

A couple of weeks ago I talked about a piece of informal research I’d conducted with teenagers about their use of Facebook and wondered aloud how their average of 400 ‘friends’ correlated with Dunbar’s number of meaningful relationships? Could those many hundreds of connections translate into a genuine social circle? Likewise, Twitter’s ability to broadcast […]

Raoul Moat’s Facebook Page

There’s been all sorts of hoo-haa about the ‘RIP Raoul Moat you Legend’ Facebook page and its 30,000 fans.  Now it’s been removed by its creator, Siobhan O’Dowd. What the media hasn’t reported is that one needed to be a fan in order to comment.  And most of the comments were virulently anti-Moat.  Evidently most […]

Social Media in Education (Part 1)

I was fortunate to participate in the recent Social Media in Education podcamp at Doncaster College. In the midst of many people highlighting the benefits of social media, I speculated about the reasons so many initiatives from educational establishments fail to engage. Not to ridicule or condemn but to improve. This is about learning, after […]