Western society has always had certain expectations of privacy that have been disturbed or reaffirmed at various times in history. We didn’t want this journalist, that politician, or this law enforcement agency trampling on our rights to do what we want (as long as others aren’t hurt as a result) during the personal times in our lives. Things have changed. Privacy is quickly becoming an illusion for many who utilize social media. The somewhat odd part is that very few seem to actually care. If someone were to ask a person if they would be willing to broadcast their physical whereabouts whenever…

Modifying board games has been a “thing” for a couple of decades now but in the last couple of years it has become somewhat of an internet sensation when people change board games to match various internet properties. It’s a fun distraction and relatively common, but this one stood out as exceptionally creative. The folks over at uFunk put it together. You can download a full-size version here. In the meantime, check out this “Social Media Monopoly” if Risk isn’t your game. …

Has Western culture grown too attached to their social networks? It’s possible, according to a recent study led by Wilhelm Hofmann at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. While the nuts and bolts of the study were far from a compelling, comprehensive bit of scientific research (205 adults were put into a heavily-weighted situation and were told to describe their “conflicts” via text) it is apparent just looking at how we go about our lives on a daily basis that many of us are indeed addicted. This video by SourceFed gives us the details of the study. …

Social media and the internet in general had dramatic effects on the election in 2008. This year is proving to give even more influence to online opinions and news aggregation as bumps are going up and down dramatically both with the GOP primaries and with the general public’s opinion of all candidates, including President Barack Obama. This infographic by MDG breaks down how social media has impacted the election so far and what effects it will have come November. Click to enlarge. …

In a great economy, it’s hard to start a retail company and get attention in industries where the major players have already hit the field. Things are rebounding around the country to some extent but it’s definitely not what most would consider to be “great.” That isn’t stopping one Southern California shoe company from making a splash by using the most important ally for growing businesses: social media. There are many huge companies in the women’s footwear industry that make it challenging for new companies to break through. A decade ago, success stories in this industry were few and far between….

They just passed 62 million users by adding 625,000 new users per day. Now, Google+ is predicting that they will have over 400 million users by the end of 2012. Are the numbers reliable? Some say no. Not really. Those who sign up through Android 4 must create or attach their Google+ account whether they intend to use it or not. At last count, there were nearly 700,000 Android devices activated daily. For their part, Google is attributing the holidays, recent television commercials that they’ve been running since Thanksgiving, and celebrity brand appeal for their success. Still, many tech bloggers…

In the past, the best way to review the year was to look back through newspaper headlines and pick out the stories that were thought to be the biggest. It wasn’t an exact science and required intuition and subjective reasoning to decide what was most important to the people that year. Today, social media gives us a relatively-accurate indicator about what the general population finds interesting enough to discuss. 2011 was loaded with major events from falling regimes to natural catastrophes. Celebrities made foolish mistakes. Politicians tanked their careers. Tech companies rose. Tech…

The internet took us by storm and changed the way we live our lives. Social media came along and had nearly the same type of impact. In business, it could be argued that social media is the biggest paradigm-shifting element that has come along in a decade, even more important than ecommerce. Has the way that we use social media completely changed the way that we see and interact with advertising? We certainly hope so. Advertising a business has always been about broadcasting a message to a wide-range of people. It’s always been about exposure, branding, and penetration. Today, thanks to social media,…

When I heard that Google had put out their first Google+ television commercial, I was both impressed and a little excited. “Finally,” I thought, “they’re going to make a push to bring Google+ into mainstream consciousness.” I watched the commercial and immediately facepalmed. Despite clear indications from users and bloggers that Google+ Circles is a nice feature but not the thing that would separate it from Facebook, Google continues to highlight it as something special. “Sharing but like real life.” That’s the message. It’s very Applesque in styling and concept. It’s even delivered in…

The founders of YouTube have begun to breathe new life into social-bookmarking site Delicious. Delicious was just relaunched, combining new features and a new look with classic functionality. YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steven Chen purchased Delicious from Yahoo in April with the goal of bringing the site to a broader audience. Although the relaunched service is very similar to the previous site, a few new features have been added to help users bookmark, find, and share content from around the Web. The new service is just as easy to use as before, and largely functions in the exact same way….