Move over Facebook. Where teens are concerned, Instagram reigns supreme, according to a recently published survey. Piper Jaffray has been tracking how teenagers use the internet for nearly twenty years, and the second report of this year has some interesting findings indeed. Here are the highlights: 85 percent of teens report using Instagram at least once a month, up from 79 percent in the fall of 2016. 84 percent of teens report using Snapchat at least once a month, up from 80 … Read more
Major Facebook Breach May Have Affected Your Account
Facebook got hit hard by a currently unknown group of hackers. If you recently found yourself inexplicably logged out of the social media site, Facebook did it in response to the breach. The breach resulted in the theft of data pertaining to more than fifty million of the site's users. Here's what we know so far about the attack: The hackers pulled off their heist by taking advantage of three different vulnerabilities. Facebook detected the breach after spotting an unusual spike in … Read more
The Internet May Be Hurting Your Sleep
Can you imagine life without the always-on internet? If you're like most people today, it's a simply indispensable tool, and the thought of suddenly being without it makes you shudder and brings images of the Dark Ages to mind. It's glorious, no doubt, and it really is a remarkable tool, but unfortunately, it's not all upside. A recent study funded by the European Research Council has concluded that access to broadband internet access costs you as much as 25 minutes of lost sleep every … Read more
New Tools Help You Limit Your Social Media Time
Facebook and Instagram are rolling out new tools designed to help manage how much time you're spending on those two social media platforms. On Facebook, the new feature is called "your time on Facebook," and on Instagram, it's called "Your Activity," but both features do essentially the same thing. They monitor and report on how much time you're spending on the platform and can be fine-tuned by users to temporarily mute your push notifications. The changes are being rolled out in an … Read more
Massive Breach Affects 21 Million Users Of Timehop App
Do you use Timehop? If you're not sure what that is, it's a popular, clever little app that reminds social media users about posts they've made in the past. It can be quite handy, especially if you're active on numerous social media accounts. Unfortunately, the bloom is off the rose for Timehop. Recently, the company announced that it had suffered a breach on the Fourth of July, which gave the hackers virtually unfettered access to the company's cloud servers for more than two hours. … Read more
Facebook Messenger Getting Feature To Help With Fake Accounts
It's no secret that there are legions of scammers and spammers haunting the virtual halls of Facebook. As the world's largest and most influential social networking site, it's a natural target, making its masses of users natural targets, too. Facebook is taking steps to counter the threat posed by these nefarious actors, after being somewhat slow to act initially. This resulted in a series of Congressional hearings that saw CEO Zuckerberg in the hot seat earlier this year. While the … Read more
Bug In Facebook May Have Unblocked People You Blocked
Facebook recently announced a site bug that impacted the privacy settings of more than 800,000 of its users. If you're one of the unfortunate souls who has been affected, then people you had formerly blocked may have become unblocked, and can now see your posts. For many people, that's not a huge deal. In some cases, say for example, if you blocked your ex-girlfriend, boyfriend, or wife and were impacted, they may be able to see things you don't want them to. Facebook's official statement … Read more
Some Private Posts On Facebook May Have Been Exposed
Facebook is in hot water again. Recently, the company admitted that while testing a new feature on the site, they inadvertently made public the posts of more than fourteen million users. The incident occurred between May 18th and May 22nd and occurred when Facebook was testing a new "Featured Posts" enhancement. The goal was that users could selectively make posts visible to everyone. Unfortunately, the error created a situation where any posts users in the test group made were … Read more
Facebook Is Adding New Features, Including Dating
At this year's F8 Developer's conference, Facebook announced a raft of changes and updates it will be rolling out later this year. Some are fun, others practical, but they're all interesting. Here are the highlights: Get Ready for "FaceDate" This announcement is interesting. Not so much because the idea of using Facebook to meet someone is new, but because of what the announcement did to the stock prices of existing companies. The new feature will look and feel a bit like Tinder, with … Read more
Facebook Post Removals May Soon Get An Appeals Process
There are some big changes coming to Facebook, which may have some serious unintended consequences. In a recent interview, Mark Zuckerberg indicated that he's considering allowing users to independently appeal to the content moderation team if their posts get taken down for violating various community policies. On the surface of it, this seems like it would be a good thing. Zuckerberg said that the move is designed to give people in the Facebook communities what they want, rather than … Read more
