Emotions Can Be Contagious on Online Social Networks

     Facebook revealed that it had manipulated the news feeds of over 689,003 users randomly selected users to change the number of positive and negative posts they saw. It was part of a psychological study to examine how emotions can be spread on social media.

      Facebook's terms and conditions, which all users agree to, allow them to carry out research of this kind without telling users they're being experimented on.

     The researchers found that moods were contagious. The people who saw more positive posts responded by writing more positive posts. Similarly, seeing more negative content prompted the viewers to be more negative in their own posts.

     The study concluded emotions expressed by friends, via online social networks, influence our own moods, constituting, to our knowledge, the first experimental evidence for massive-scale emotional contagion via social networks.

 

Reference:

Mcneal. G. (2014). Facebook Manipulated User News Feeds To Create Emotional Responses. Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregorymcneal/2014/06/28/facebook-manipulated-user-news-feeds-to-create-emotional-contagion/  [Last accessed 30th June 2014]

Wei Ru

Twitter VS Facebook

  
     Social medial is at the heart of every person's online life today. If you are exploring the world of social media for the first time, all of the different options can seem a bit confusing. The most asked question that people seem to have, however, what is the difference between Twitter and Facebook?

 

     Facebook users are encouraged to enter their real personal information and connect to friends, family members, and other people that they care to keep in touch with. They update status, share commentary, interesting content (articles, video, etc.), send private messages to friends and engage in Facebook activities such as games, polls, and more. Inside of Facebook you will Like or Share something.

     Twitter is a "micro-blogging" tool, meaning you can share clever comments and content, but you must keep it brief (under 140 characters to be exact). Twitter allows people to follow important topics, people, and conversations that are relevant or interesting to them. Inside of Twitter you will ReTweet or Favorite Something instead of like or share.

     The similarity between facebook and twitter is both of them allow the use of hashtag.

     In a conclusion, there are plenty of differences between Facebook and Twitter, but the bottom line is that Facebook is more of an ongoing social relationship builder. Twitter keeps people updated and topics and trending conversations are constantly changing.

Reference:

Webtegrity. (2014). What’s the difference between Facebook and Twitter? Retrieved from http://webtegrity.com/our-blog/social-media-marketing/whats-difference-between-facebook-and-twitter/
[Last acccessed 30th June 2014]

Wei Ru

Retrieved from

The Pros & Cons of Using Instagram !

The well known photo apps - instagram is now the most popular photo apps available. As 
children watch their friends and family using this mobile apps,  they begin to start using it in order to feel trendy. It is good for children to keep up with the latest technology, but it is to be advice to weight the pros and cons before using it ! 


PROS 

• Privacy Setting 

One of the greatest features of instagram is that there is a privacy setting where it is to ensure the outsider user who are not following you have to ask permission of you in order to view what you post. This help because you are able to know who can actually see what you post and wards off potential offenders that could cause harm through comments. 

• Boost Self Esteem 

Children may sometime get negative feedback and comment on what they had post. However, if we use instagram wisely, it can be a positive and self - reinforcing application ! The number of likes and comments help boost a child's self esteem. Besides, by using instagram can help you maintain either friendship or long distance friends ! 


CONS 

• Location Tagging 

Location tagging can be very useful in the field of business and to those who in charge of travelling. Location tagging make it extremely handy for those who want to know exactly when and where the picture had taken but it can be dangerous in minor because predators and those with bad intention will use it in a worst way .

• Photo Sharing App 

Most of the parents do not aware that instagram do provide a features where we can send private picture to a certain individual where we name this direct photo messaging. This can be a prime spot for sexting because the public cannot view what photo had been sent. 


Reference :
Woda.S. (2014). Top Pros and Cons of Using The Photo Sharing App Instagram. Retrieved from :
http://resources.uknowkids.com/blog/top-pros-and-cons-of-using-instagram

Eddie Eng

Popular Instagram users affecting the growth of its user base.

  

  The addictive app of Instagram gives followers the opportunity to peek into someone else's world through pictures prettified using a number of light filters. Most Instagrammers opt to leave their accounts open to the public; thus, users have flocked to celebrity accounts created by teen idols and reality TV stars who don't mind broadcasting their lives to the masses. 

  Most celebrities now have Twitter and Instagram accounts where they may connect with their fans and other celebrities as well. For example, Justin Bieber has over 17 million followers to date and about a thousand media uploaded on this Instagram page while Taylor Swift has 9 million over followers. 

Pictures from Taylor Swift's instagram of over 9 million followers.

  Many Instagram users have made accounts just to follow celebrities, TV show accounts and many more showbiz accounts. More importantly, 50 million of those users signed up in the last six months, which means Instagram grew by roughly 100% in the last year. The 200-million figure is for monthly active users as mentioned by Instagram (Chris, 2014). 

  This active growth is largely contributed by fans who want to keep up with singers', actors' and other celebrities' daily lives via this social media app. On my own personal Instagram account, I follow celebrities as well such as Taylor, as mentioned above to keep track with latest updates or just random pictures posted by celebrities.

Reference: 

Chris, T. (2014). Instagram hits 200 million users. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2014/03/25/instagram-200-million-users/

Tessa

Innovation: Introduction of video-sharing on Instagram!

Video on Instagram

  Facebook had announced last year that it had added video recording, editing, filtering and sharing capabilities to Instagram, the popular photo sharing service Facebook bought last year for $1 billion (Stenovec, 2014). Kevin Systrom, the co-founder and CEO of Instagram said that they wanted to do things to videos as much as they could with photos and hence; the additional feature for videos on instagram, otherwise also known as instavideos.

  The newly updated app allows Instagram's 130 million monthly active users to record 15-second collages of video clips. Users can delete and re-record clips as they wish, and it also features Cinema, a video stabilization tool. Like photos that are shared on the app, videos on Instagram will have 13 custom filters for videos as well. 

Below is the clip to introduce video to its app released by Instagram:

  According to Stenovec (2014), it's logical that Instagram would borrow technology and features from other apps and services because it's worked so well for Facebook.

  Their strategy of borrowed innovation has largely been successful for them and has contributed to their overall success at a service (Instagram). All of a sudden you have very compelling video content creation platform hence it's no surprise to see Instagram following its new parent's lead.

Reference:

Stenovec, T. (2014). Video On Instagram: Facebook adds 15-second videos to photo-sharing app. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/20/video-on-instagram_n_3473532.html

Tessa

Mobile devices to rule over desktops for easier access to social media; the growth of user base of Instagram

  According to research published by the GlobalWebIndex, Instagram is the fastest-growing social app among all of the social media sites worldwide, increasing its active user base by 23% in the last six months.

Changes in active usage of social apps

  Based on the chart above, it can be seen that Instagram has increased in its activity of its users by a huge margin compared to others such as LinkedIn and Sina Weibo. 

  According to Lunden (2014), when it comes to social networking services, mobile handsets are now the most popular form of access, with 66% of users saying they use mobile devices to access them. Instagram, being the most well-known app for photo and video sharing, thus has gained popularity due to its ease of media sharing as photos can be uploaded as soon as they are taken. Besides that, it also allows one to share the media not only on Instagram, but also via Facebook and Twitter.

Chart of the usage of PC, mobile and tablets

  A survey from 2013 was taken to sample the usage of three different ways of access to social media apps and it can be seen mobile usage is increasing compared to PC, which is falling. This may largely be due to convenient on-the-go apps for media sharing and social networking, the most popular being instagram.

A lot of young adults spend most of their time browsing social media apps due to its convenience and fast connection to friends and family. I personally prefer to spend my time browsing social media app; one of it being instagram to keep up with the new posts of my close friends compared to using the PC.

Reference: 

Lunden, I. (2014). Instagram is the fastest-growing social site globally, mobile devices rule over PCs for access. Retrieved from http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/21/instagram-is-the-fastest-growing-social-site-globally-mobile-devices-rule-over-pcs-for-social-access/

Tessa