You! – Compared to Everyone Else in the History of Civilization.

The Pew Research Center has published a survey titled “Teens,Social Media & Technology”. In it you will find statistic after statistic describing the technology that the teens of today use to communicate with each other and entertain themselves. The remarkable thing about all of these statistics is that they are describing activities that were impossible for the teens of just a few tears ago to carry out. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. did not exist until after every teenager alive today was born. Even the idea that teens could spend any time online is relatively new. As late as 1997 only 18% of US households reported accessing the internet. Social Media doesn’t really exist until the 21^st century. What does it all mean? What will change? My guess is everything.

Sex! Drugs! Social Media!

Sex! Drugs! Social Media!

How are sex, drug addiction and social media alike?

According to a study by the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, the theory is that individuals place high subjective value on opportunities to communicate their thoughts and feelings to others and that doing so engages neural and cognitive mechanisms associated with reward. In other words when we post about ourselves our brain releases the same chemical, (Dopamine) that is released as a result of rewarding experiences such as food, sex, and the neutral stimuli that become associated with them.

You can see a short video about how Social Media changes our brains here.

Everybody and their mother is online (almost)

Today, 72% of online adults use social networking sites according to The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. While this may seem obvious to those of you reading this on line, it still is an extraordinary fact that a majority of adults are communicating via platforms that simply did not exist a few years ago. According to the report the percentage of internet users who are on Twitter has more than doubled since November 2010, You can read more about the report here.

Republican and Democratic parties say, "Please Like Us".

 

The upcoming Republican and Democratic National Conventions will be more intertwined into the fabric of Social Media than any other political conventions in the nation's history. If you doubt that then consider this - Google is the "Official Social Media Platform" at the Republican National Convention. Got your attention? Yahoo! will team with ABC to stream live coverage of the event online. There will not only be a media "War Room", but a "Social media Green Room". Teams from Facebook and Google will be roaming the floor to help people upload content and interact over the internet. Does this bode well for the American political process? I'll Google the answer and get back to you.

Where's Waldo (Web 2.0 Edition)

Here is an interesting way to display data and information. It's a map that showcases the incumbents and upstarts in the network economy, gathered around various territories that represent the Web 2.0's Points of Control. According to the web2.0 summit blog it was designed to create at least an approximation of the web2.0 industry’s vibrant economy. The map was produced in conjunction with the Web 2.0 Summit, produced by Federated Media, O'Reilly Media and UBM TechWeb. The Web 2.0 Summit is moderated by Federated Media CEO John Battelle and O'Reilly CEO and founder Tim O'Reilly.

Tumblr tumbling up to the Top

According to a new Nielsen Report on Social Media Tumblr is an emerging player in social media, nearly tripling its audience from a year ago. In addition social networks and blogs continue to dominate Americans’ time online, now accounting for nearly a quarter of total time spent on the Internet. According to the report we are going mobile at an increasing rate. Nearly 40 percent of social media users access social media content from their mobile phone.

Achtung! Germany Doesn't Like You!

Now that I’ve got your attention what the German state of Schleswig-Holstein is actually saying is that Facebook’s “Like” button violates German privacy laws. I have always thought that by joining Facebook you were signing away any shred of privacy that had not been previously shredded in the vast machine that is today’s complex online world. Apparently they do things differently in Schleswig-Holstein.

Fun Facts to Know and Tell

Here are some social media facts. By the time you read these they will have changed. Its still a good starting point for a discussion on Social Media.

The New Face of Marketing

Here is an article published in "Marketing Daily" discussing new trends in marketing. If you can wade through the buzz words here is what you should learn.

•There will be a shift from buying impressions to acquiring user data.


This translates into marketers mining your data acquired from
registration forms, Facebook/Open ID plug-ins, web searches etc. and delivering that information to marketers and producers.
•Seamless experience across multiple media.
According to a recent Nielsen study 32% of all mobile activity is related to social media. Marketers will design advertising campaigns to find you no matter where you are and what media device you are using.
•Growth of Apps
The article talks about the change from a wide open web to semi closed platforms. Marketers will try to get you to use the web in the manner that benefits them, not you.

Browser beware!