A new study by Pew Internet suggests that more old people than ever are using social networks. Now, before the nethers of some of Techi’s most well-aged readers get all puckered, I’m defining ‘old’ as 50 and up. Come on now, that’s fair. You’re old. Deal. Last year, it was approximated that only 22 percent of internet users over the age of 50 were using social networks to stay in touch. (Frankly, us in the twentysomething demographic didn’t mind that at all – those who have their grandparents on Facebook know what I’m talking about – but you didn’t hear that from me). But fast forward 13 months, and that…

What do you do while watching TV? People watch TV still, right? I guess I mean it in the classic sense. Like, in your living room, on an actual television. Do you multitask? If and when I find myself in front of the tube, I’m generally on Facebook. That I’m on Facebook all the time anyway is besides the point. Apparently, I’m not alone – a study by YouGov of over 2000 people has found that folks tend to do the social network dance while watching TV. A lot of folks. YouGov calls the phenomenon ‘media stacking’, and revealed that 86% of those asked in the 18-24 demographic have combined their two vices, watching…

I promise you, this will be both the cleverest, and, simultaneously, the most useless social media experiment you’ll see all day. Continuing the proud tradition of Twitter’s inconsequentiality,  Graphic designer Shelly Peleg and Mizbala.com cofounder Guy Dayan have seen fit to turn Guy’s Following list into a large bird. Surely, organizing this must have been a bit more of a nightmare than the video lets on – not only would Dan have to coax 36 people into switching their Twitter display pictures to slices of bird, but he’d have to follow them in that order, not to mention subsequently follow…

So Twitter’s rolled out a new feature to beef up its SMS functionality. Now, immediately, this sort of begs ‘why’, as those with a smartphone tend to use a Twitter app, and those without don’t really use phone Twitter at all, but after having read how this works, it would not prove unhandy for the unfortunately-phoned gentleman. Seriously, can you imagine me tweeting up a storm on this thing? But the new ‘Fast Follow’ (which sounds like a basketball term to me, oddly enough) is unique in that it allows a user not to have to sign up for Twitter in order to receive tweets. Simply text “follow Username” to…

Reading the headline there’s few surprises here for those bothered to read on. Someone has invented the Paper Tweet. You know those notepads that every office buys in the hope that phone messages will be taken more efficiently that no one ever, ever uses? Well, now there’s another kind that no one will ever use as the makers intended. The note takes all the features of Twitter, and removes every single ounce of usefulness from each and every one of them. You can direct message someone, or simply tweet. Which predictably in paper format become the same thing. In offices all around North America, childish…

Click the image above for a larger version. Check out also the Facebook, YouTube and Skype advert here: http://i.imgur.com/xyr0x.jpg…

About an hour ago, Twitter just hit the big two-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh. For those of you who would rather not be confused, that’s twenty-effing-billion, and scientifically speaking, that’s a hell of a freaking crap ton of dadgum tweets. The milestone has been hit a mere two months after everyone’s favourite microblogging platform hit 15 billion tweets, and five since 10 billion, which means one definite thing: no, not that Twitter’s growth is still accelerating – that we, as a species, certainly have an awful lot of nothing to say. I’d have captured a more on-the-nose photograph,…

A study by the Center for the Digital Future at USC has done us a great service. Polling a selection of 1981 internet users, the study found that 49% use micro-blogging services such as Twitter. And 0% would be willing to pay for it. No, I didn’t forget a digit. Zero percent, as in nobody, would be cool with paying for social networking. Considering the average Joe’s Twitter account has five tweets four months apart, most of which are about how stupid Twitter is, I think I’m feeling that. “Such an extreme finding that produced a zero response underscores the difficulty of getting Internet users to…

The other day, while digging around for the day’s news, I chose not to cover an iPad app that seemed to be grabbing a bit of attention. This iPad app was Flipboard, the social news doodad that presents your Twitter and Facebook accounts as a sexy analog of print media. ‘So what,’ I said, ‘it’s an app. Whatever.’ Boy, do I have egg on my face. Colour me all kinds of mistaken. Hype for the app has reached a fever pitch, and an ocean of users attempt to log in. ”Due to overwhelming interest,” the app’s error message reads, “we are currently limiting the rate at which we are accepting new Facebook and Twitter…

Twitter has always had problems keeping its service up. Although twitter only deals with tiny amounts of information, the number of constant reoccurring requests, particularly by third party clients via Twitter’s API. The Fail Whale sees way more action than he should these days, but Twitter has a plan to fix the problem once and for all. A new data center in Salt Lake City will power Twitter’s unique needs, and with more data centers planned for the next 24 months, it’s possible the whale will disappear to the depths, never to be seen again. Apparently, there are over 300,000 people signing up for…