Studios to Stars: No Twitter for You

Staff / Truthdig Oct 20, 2009 There was a time when Hollywood studios kept their stables of stars on a short leash, keeping close watch over their public personas and even arranging their marriages. Actors at least appear to have more leeway these days, but some studios are requiring that they refrain from broadcasting the minutiae of their daily lives via social media like Facebook and Twitter. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Why Stop at a Web Site When You Can Redesign the Whole Party?

Staff / Truthdig Oct 14, 2009 The Republican Party's new social network wants photographic evidence and an answer to the question "Why are you a Republican?" (good question). Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele brings the hip to this new Facebook for white people with a blog titled "What up?" Update 2: This is more interesting than we realized. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Want to Reach Moviegoers? Go Online

Staff / Truthdig Sep 30, 2009 It's official: Movie marketers can no longer afford to ignore social networking sites. This may strike some as a foregone conclusion (i.e., duh), but those in the industry who are still resisting the all-consuming pull of online vortexes like Facebook and Twitter are doing so at their own peril, according to the new "Moviegoers 2010" report. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Parents: Stalk Your Own Kids on Facebook

Staff / Truthdig Sep 8, 2009 Parents everywhere may feel as if they're losing their kids to the Internet, or more specifically, to those mysterious "social networking" time-suck sites like Facebook and Twitter. However, take it from the chirpy hosts of "today NOW!" -- The Onion's eerily realistic spoof on morning-show blather -- parents can also use these sites to their stalking advantage. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Social Networking for Thieves

Staff / Truthdig Aug 27, 2009 Aren't Facebook and Twitter great? You get to let all your friends know what you just thought about in the shower, take time-wasting quizzes and post fun pix of your summer vacation! Problem with that last part is that people who definitely aren't your friends also get to know your details and whereabouts -- and that might impact insurance premiums down the line. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Facebook to Make Privacy Changes

Staff / Truthdig Aug 27, 2009 Even if we still refuse to thank Canada for Alan Thicke and Shania Twain, we can cheer a recent push by the country's privacy commissioner that will make social networking giant Facebook more transparent and give users more control over the data the site collects about them. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

‘Twitter Effect’ Hits Hollywood

Staff / Truthdig Jul 11, 2009 The time frame for projecting the success or failure of a newly released film has already been compressed to the point of asphyxiation, thanks to the Internet, but with the popularity of social networking services like Twitter, the window of box office opportunity has become even shorter, according to The Wrap's Sharon Waxman. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Lobbying For Privacy 2.0

Staff / Truthdig Jun 26, 2009 If a movie written about Facebook by Aaron Sorkin wasn't enough, the fast-growing social networking site is in the midst of hiring lobbyists in both Washington and Brussels to push for easing privacy regulations, no matter how well-meaning those restrictions may be, "that would keep people from the beneficial sharing of information." Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

‘Creepy’ Karl Rove on Meghan McCain’s Twitter Trail

Staff / Truthdig Apr 21, 2009 You know a social networking trend has gone too far when: (1) Karl Rove has caught on, and (2) Karl Rove attempts to "friend" you -- or, in Meghan McCain's unenviable case, follow you on Twitter. Ew. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Not With a Bang but a Twitter

Staff / Truthdig Apr 15, 2009 Can plugging into online social networks via Twitter or Facebook lead to some kind of computer-aided moral decline en masse? A study out of the University of Southern California's Brain and Creativity Institute seems to suggest that this may be an imminent side effect of living in information-overloaded societies. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

MySpace Spammers Fined $230 Million

Staff / Truthdig May 14, 2008 A Los Angeles judge on Tuesday ordered two Internet spammers to pay a record-breaking $230 million in fines after they sent more than 700,000 unsolicited advertisements to MySpace users. The amount is almost half what Rupert Murdoch spent to buy the social networking site in 2005. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Step Away From the Blackberry

Staff / Truthdig Mar 25, 2008 There's a new kind of addiction out there, to which many of us are currently vulnerable, and from which some of us may be suffering right this moment: According to one Dr. Jerald Block, writing in the American Journal of Psychiatry, excessive e-mailing and text messaging could be a form of mental illness. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )