Social Media

Generation Z (roughly those born between 1995 and 2015) connects much more with Instagram than Facebook, some of them even having multiple Instagram accounts, Taylor Lorenz says in an article in Digiday . "Influencers are here to stay," she says, and points to the powerful engagement influencers have with followers, making  Gen-Z the latest object of marketer fascination. Teens use digital media in a very different way than other generations, even having their own language, and there are clear differences across generations when it comes to the Internet and social media consumption.

Thinking about giving up Facebook? A new study that evaluated users deactivating their accounts says that giving it up could give you more in-person time with friends and family, but less political knowledge. A small bump in one’s daily moods and life satisfaction was also observed and, for the average Facebook user, an extra hour a day of downtime. Critics say the effects may be different for different age groups, particularly teens.

Wish you hadn’t sent that? Facebook has finally made good on its promise to let users unsend chats after TechCrunch discovered Mark Zuckerberg had secretly retracted some of his Facebook Messages from recipients. Recently Facebook Messenger globally rolled out “Remove for everyone” to help you pull back typos, poor choices, embarrassing thoughts or any other message. For up to 10 minutes after sending a Facebook Message, the sender can tap on it and they’ll find the delete button has been replaced by “Remove for you,” but there’s now also a “Remove for everyone” option that pulls the message from recipients’ inboxes. They’ll see an alert that you removed a message in its place, and can still flag the message to Facebook, which will retain the content briefly to see if it’s reported. The feature could make people more comfortable having honest conversations or using Messenger for flirting since they can second-guess what they send, but it won’t let people change ancient history.

Facebook, Pinterest, Snapchat, and even Twitter have one thing in common. They are all looking for users. Snapchat, once the darling of teens everywhere, lost 3 million daily active users in the second quarter of 2018. That’s the first time that the company has reported a decline since it went public. And what accounts for these losses? Security issues, charges of misinformation, foreign hacking and misuse of user data, all issues that teens sometimes seem to be more aware of then adults. And what does that mean for parents? Still unknown, but it may mean that teens will be changing “favorite” apps more quickly, so stay on your toes and keep your ears and eyes open for what’s next.

Twitter, YouTube and Facebook are seeking input from conservative-leaning groups to determine the types of posts that should be identified as unacceptable and eliminated from their platforms, write Kirsten Grind and John McKinnon in The Wall Street Journal. The move is partly a response to allegations that the social platforms have a liberal bias and indicates an effort on the part of the social media giants to counter that criticism.

A Pew Research Center survey has found that while 74% of US adult Facebook users didn't know that Facebook kept track of their interests and traits for ads, just over half were uncomfortable with the practice. Facebook knows your age, gender and location, along with what you post, the pages you like and the businesses you check into on the social network. All that information helps the company determine what ads to show its 2.3 billion users. "Americans, being Americans, say that it matters, but they behave in a way that doesn't indicate that it matters," said Pew's Lee Rainie.

What can you do about it if you are concerned? Facebook users can view their "ad preferences" page to see what the social network thinks their interests are and why they're seeing a given ad. This list can include users' political leanings, hobbies and even the type of smartphone they use. Facebook users can also remove an interest from that list to change the type of ads they see on the social network.

An article from EdSurge  describes how high-school students in Connecticut have used design-thinking (a form of brainstorming) to help develop solutions to problems they encounter on social media. Jacquelyn Whiting, a high-school library media specialist, describes how students used the approach to consider remedies to hate speech, digital permanence and inauthenticity, among others. Here, from the article, are some things they ask you and your family to consider:

• Do all of your social media posts show only your best, brightest, happiest moments? Considering joining the #badday and #authenticself campaigns, and celebrate authenticity by posting about frustrations or setbacks you experience.
• Have you ever totaled the amount you spend shopping in response to ads targeted at you on social media? Would you consider paying a fraction of that amount to join a social media platform that protects your private information and is ad-free?
• Have you stopped to think about the language you use on social media? Stay on the lookout for machine learning that will prompt people to reconsider the vocabulary in their posts if they use offensive language, and warn you if you are about to friend someone who does

A poll of more than 1,000 Americans, done by community platform Tapatalk , showed that 4 out of 5 people trust online forums for information more than they do social media sites such as Facebook. Only 27% would ask a question on a Facebook group, as opposed to 47% who'd consult Quora or similar sites. The results indicate that consumers are growing frustrated with the inability to find trusted information on mainstream social media, but also raise large questions about where people should be going for vetted information and the spread of misinformation.

Teen girls and boys who used social media more than five hours daily had higher depressive symptoms compared with peers who had one to three hours of daily social media use. The finding indicates a stronger link between social media use and depression in girls over boys (50% and 35% respectively), United Kingdom researchers reported in the journal EClinicalMedicine.

So what can parents do? Experts say one tip is to set up a charging station somewhere in the house instead of charging phones in the bedroom which can lead to distractions and sleep interruptions. Don’t fall for the line that teens need to use their phone as an alarm - get them an actual standalone alarm clock instead. This will help to limit nighttime usage. As one expert put it, "It's a balance, because there are benefits to engagement with media. There are so many ways in which social media is important and has positive features, but there's also ways in which social media can replace social support and connection from people you are living with in person. So it's finding that sweet spot."

A new Pew Research study has found that after years of steady gains, social media has edged out newspapers as a news source for adults in the US in 2018. The survey reveals that 20% of adults access social media for news, topping the 16% for newspapers, although TV remains the leading source.