HOME |
RSS | 
Elderly bloggers and internet junkies in the year 2062 reminisce about the good old days of social media and social networking. I’m not sure how they get the idea of “hipsters” out of these folks. This video was produced to promote Social Media Week 2012. Link -Thanks, Lauren O’Neil!
Is it just too easy typing out 140 characters to fill up your Twitter account? Then maybe you should try slowing down the process by morse coding your way across the micro blogging platform. You can find schematics for your own Tworsekey at the link.
Link via Geekosystem
Remember libraries? You know, the place where they have books you can borrow for free?
Well, the Milwaukee Public Library has a pretty nifty ad campaign poking fun at social media while urging you to read a book. Via copyranter.
From Angry Birds to YouTube, the internet is already addicting enough, but just in case you need a little more motivation to enroll in your favorite time-wasting activities, here are some great propaganda posters.
Comments Off
Maybe. Parts of your brain, anyhow.
According to new research, those who are most active in social media have
larger brain parts than others (even when compared to those who are social
in real life):
How social you are on social networks may depend on the size of your brain, according to new research. Or, at least, the size of your superior temporal sulcus, middle temporal gyrus, entorhinal cortex and amygdalae.
The research, from University College in London, discovered that those who are more social in general tend to have larger amygdalae than their peers, but that those who are more social online also have increased sizes of the right superior temporal sulcus, the left middle temporal gyrus and the right entorhinal cortex. For those curious: The superior temporal sulcus is known to give cues about others' emotions, while the middle temporal gyrus helps us react to said social cues. The entorhinal cortex, meanwhile, has been linked to our memory.
Researchers are uncertain what this information means or, more interestingly, whether the larger brain sections are the cause or the result of the size of the subjects' social networks.
Graeme McMillan of TIME's Techland reports: Link
Forget Justin Timberlake! You know who can "bring sexy back" to Myspace*? According to this clever webcomic by Matt Melvin of Cyanide and Happiness, it's social media hipsters.
After all, bell bottoms came back, so why not vintage social networking?
*Yes, folks - they're previously MySpace, now Myspace ... that website's not only gradually losing capital, its also losing capital letters)
It is certainly no accident that the post-idea world has sprung up alongside the social networking world. Even though there are sites and blogs dedicated to ideas, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Flickr, etc., the most popular sites on the Web, are basically information exchanges, designed to feed the insatiable information hunger, though this is hardly the kind of information that generates ideas. It is largely useless except insofar as it makes the possessor of the information feel, well, informed. Of course, one could argue that these sites are no different than conversation was for previous generations, and that conversation seldom generated big ideas either, and one would be right.
When people get together and cause trouble, it’s very easy to blame the medium of communication instead of looking deeper. That’s why social networking sites get cited as the cause of so many evils. Why, don’t you know that MySpace is “worse than crack”?
Back in 2006, Ron Vietti, Senior Pastor of Valley Bible Fellowship in Bakersfield, CA, made headlines for being a vocal critic of then-popular social networking site MySpace. He argued the site — which he called both “worse than crack, cocaine or meth” and “My Waste of Space Dot Com” — was luring boys into pornography and making young girls targets of sexual predators. As David Burger reported in The Bakersfield Californian, Vietti said the site fostered bisexuality and called the Internet “the devil’s biggest scheme he has ever inserted into our lives.” He urged his congregation to go to places young people hang out (“like bars”) to convince them to delete their MySpace profiles.
I wonder what the telephone was blamed for in the 19th century. Read other stories of social-media-blaming at mental_floss. Link
Aaron Wood created three propaganda posters featuring social media giants Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Excuse me while I head on over to Facebook to help out my friends' farms (I hear that there's also a war against mafia brewing. My help is needed!): Link - via +PeteCashmore
Comments Off 
This Twaggie was a Tweet illustrated by artist Zach Rodis.
If I ever commit a murder and need to somewhere to hide the body, I
have the perfect place in mind…MySpace. – @JordyHamrick
I get it, no one would ever look there. Hmm, isn’t it the nature of social networking for one social site to poke fun at another? Link
Comments Off 
France has finally gotten around to banning the something truly offensive to its populace. No longer will French television and radio broadcasters be allowed to mention the words “Facebook” and “Twitter” on air.
In a move based on legislation from 1992 that decrees mentioning services by name is a form of advertising, use of the words “Facebook” and “Twitter” will not be allowed on French radio or television, unless part of a news story. France’s Conseil Superieur de l’Audiovisuel (CSA) says the reason for the ban is to avoid giving the American social networking giants an edge over smaller sites.
Though the move does not restrict use of the Facebook and Twitter sites in any way, critics of the legislation argue that banning mention of Facebook and Twitter will confuse the public. “Like us on our social networking site” just doesn’t have the same clarity as “Like us on Facebook.”
Perhaps if our favorite social media websites utilized these propaganda posters as part of their marketing strategy, things would be a little more honest? See link for full gallery of vintage posters of online brands.
In theory this sounds like a great idea. Post an idea and you get an idea back. Freedom of the exchange of information, that’s what the internet is for right? However I could see this posing some problems when someone’s brilliant million dollar idea gets posted on TheIdeaSwap.com.
The Idea Swap lets you take those ideas you got that really didn’t come to any use, and exchange them with actual ideas from other people.
What if social media were a high school? That’s the question Ethan Bloch tries to answer by slotting in the “types” of networks into his “yearbook”. Where would you fit into this system? Link -via Monkeyfilter
Previously: The Cliques of Social Networking
Just like video killed the radio star, are Facebook and Twitter killing blogs? Here’s an interesting article over at The Economist about how the growth of blogging has slowed down and, in some countries, even stalled:
ONLINE archaeology can yield surprising results. When John Kelly of Morningside Analytics, a market-research firm, recently pored over data from websites in Indonesia he discovered a “vast field of dead blogs”. Numbering several thousand, they had not been updated since May 2009. Like hastily abandoned cities, they mark the arrival of the Indonesian version of Facebook, the online social network. [...]
Blogs are a confection of several things that do not necessarily have to go together: easy-to-use publishing tools, reverse-chronological ordering, a breezy writing style and the ability to comment. But for maintaining an online journal or sharing links and photos with friends, services such as Facebook and Twitter (which broadcasts short messages) are quicker and simpler.
Charting the impact of these newcomers is difficult. Solid data about the blogosphere are hard to come by. Such signs as there are, however, all point in the same direction. Earlier in the decade, rates of growth for both the numbers of blogs and those visiting them approached the vertical. Now traffic to two of the most popular blog-hosting sites, Blogger and WordPress, is stagnating, according to Nielsen, a media-research firm. By contrast, Facebook’s traffic grew by 66% last year and Twitter’s by 47%. Growth in advertisements is slowing, too. Blogads, which sells them, says media buyers’ inquiries increased nearly tenfold between 2004 and 2008, but have grown by only 17% since then. Search engines show declining interest, too.
Just a friendly reminder that we’re having a lot of fun over on our Twitter and Facebook pages. So follow @neatorama and Like www.Facebook.com/neatoramanauts!
There you’ll find all kinds of neato things we don’t always feature here on the blog, like special contests! Every week we host a Scrabble tournament for 3 lucky neatoramanauts on Facebook, for instance. If you beat us and the other two players, you win a prize!
Comments Off 
Yesterday, I asked our Twitter followers and Facebook Fans to answer this question: What’s the nerdiest thing you’ve ever done?
Here are my Top 10 favorite responses:
10. Amy Whinston said: I had a job solving Rubicks Cubes in a gift shop to attract customers.
9.Nancie Nguyen said: During bedroom role play, a boyfriend asked me to be a samurai ninja. I agreed hahaha.
8. Mark L. Bajorek said: Probably building a small TV jammer in high school just to annoy my sister at home. Those were pre-cable days though…
7. scared_of_bees said: Once, after an art club social, I spotted
and subsequently collected a large leopard slug specimen to take home
to photograph.6. Eric Johnson said: I once had a (surprisingly heated) argument about the merits of Ewoks vs. Tribbles. I sided with the Ewoks, for the record.
5. hellobrowneyes said: I had a nerd birthday party. Invites on
floppy disks, guess the scientist, and giant microbes as party favors.4. Denise Yazak said: I reserved Bioshock 2 at Toys R’ Us and Gamestop just to get the swag at each store. I went to Gamestop’s midnight release to get the multiplayer downloadable content with my special edition, and took the day off of work to get the figurines with my regular edition at Toy’s R’ Us at 10am the next day. Yep.
3. xadrian said: Built a Lego ship based on an obscure starship from a Star Wars comic – photos of it here
2. Our own John Farrier said: When I was in high school, a hot girl once came up to me and seductively (and teasingly) asked “Is that a calculator in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?” I immediately pulled a calculator out of my pocket.
And my number-1 favorite: Kevin Sexton said: My wife and I calculated the date that our niece turned 3.14, and we had a fancy apple pie delivered for her pi birthday. Next day on Twitter, her mom said about us, “They’re nerds, but they’re pie-sending nerds”
Yesterday I posed this thought to our Twitter and Facebook users: The world can be divided into two types of people: Those who squeeze the toothpaste in the middle (or anywhere, randomly), and those who must squeeze from the bottom.
Then I asked for additional examples. Dozens poured in. Here are my Top 10 Favorites:
10. Heather Griffin said: one that calls any type of cola SODA, and the other that calls it POP.
9. Kristen Leigh said: Those who hang the roll of toilet paper over, and those who hang under.
8. Liz Kim said: those who pour the cereal in first and those that pour the milk in…!
7. Ferris Weston said: 1) Those who do not understand dichotomies.
6. Jane Daugherty Martin said: People who read the instructions and those who do not
5. Kathryn Kamowski said: Those who like Journey, and those who lie.
4. Rammy Meyerowitz said: There are two “types” of people, the “touch-typists” and the “hunt and peckers”
3. Norbert Smith said: Those who think there are two types of people, and those who don’t.
2. Charlotte Holden said: those that understand Lost and those that appreciate all this free time on their hands
And my number-1 favorite, which is an old math joke, but one I’d never heard before: Amy Dyer said: There are 10 types of people: Those who understand binary and those who don’t
Here’s my answers, what are yours?
10 – soda, 9 – over, 8 – cereal, 6 – do not read, 5 – Journey rocks!, 4 – touch, 3 – two types!, 2 – time on hands!
Don’t forget to Follow us: @neatorama and Fan us: www.Facebook.com/neatoramanauts
Bena Dam, who follows us on Twitter, and Lisa Richardson, who’s a Facebook Fan, each won a $20 shopping spree in our store (with free shipping!) by answering yesterday’s riddle correctly.
I know, you’re all jealous, right? Well guess what? You don’t have to be for much longer because the Facebook/Twitter contest was such a success, we’ve decided to run a similar shopping spree contest EVERY month! So be sure to Twitter follow or Facebook Fan us now and stay in the loop.
Here’s some more info on this month’s winners:
Bena: I’m an art student, percussionist, and I like cows.
Lisa: I am a 54 year old SAHM with 3 wonderful sons. My hubby and I have been married for 16 years. I have been a fan of Neatorama since I first stumbled on it, years ago. At first, I didn’t pay too much attention to the contest because I figured it was going to be a difficult one that I couldn’t think through. But I saw your post on the second hint and remembered that I had read once that the term “messed up” in a puzzle like this usually meant an anagram. So I figured why not give it a try. It was that second word that I got first. Once I got the word, par, the rest just fell into place!
We’re going to be running two great contests over on our Facebook and Twitter accounts this coming week! You won’t find them here on the blog, just on the Facebook page and by following us on Twitter. So if you haven’t yet, please become a Neatoramanaut Fan now: www.Facebook.com/neatoramanauts and/or follow us on Twitter: @neatorama.
The prizes this week are extra special, as we’ll be giving away shopping sprees in our store (with free shipping!). Get all the deets over on FB and Twitter…
We’re going to be running a FUN contest over on our Facebook page this coming Friday! You won’t find it here on the blog, just on the Facebook page. So if you haven’t yet, please become a Neatoramanaut Fan now: www.Facebook.com/neatoramanauts. The contest will have something to do with our pals, nerdfighters John and Hank Green. If you don’t know anything about the famous brotherhood who vlog back and forth daily, you can get to know them a little in the below video. And check out all their action here on their YouTube page.
Oh, and if you haven’t heard, we’ve disabled the auto-update on our Twitter account and are accepting new followers @neatorama.
Comments Off 
I’m going to be microblogging from the set of Big Bang Theory this coming Tuesday night. The taping starts around 6:00pm PT, so tune in to our Facebook and Twitter pages starting a little before then. So long as my iPhone isn’t confiscated and there’s reception in the soundstage, we’ll be holding at least one contest, perhaps two. Details as they unfold, but I already know what the prizes are going to be:
1. A 2-Disc Collector’s Edition of Disney’s Atlantis – The Lost Empire
2. Matt Groening’s The Simpson Futurama Crossover Crisis, a deluxe slip-cased hardcover
3. Any t-shirt from our the Science T-shirt section of our store.
If you want a chance to win, make sure you’ve Fanned us over on our Facebook page and are following us on Twitter.
We’re popping the tops off our Facebook and Twitter accounts this weekend with some cool contests. Think of it as our official social media coming out party with a chance to win some neato door prizes. We’ve disabled auto-update over on our Twitter account so go follow us @neatorama to stay up-to-date with all the neatoramanaut activity. We’re running a contest already! If you get a friend to follow us using your own hashtag + @neatorama, we’ll enter you into a drawing to win a T-shirt from our store. (Use your twitter handle as your hashtag.)
But that’s not all! Fan us on Facebook over on our new page: www.Facebook.com/neatoramanauts and watch for another awesome contest coming real, real soon for a chance to win even more!
Yes, we’re getting serious about our community and we want you to have a voice.
Rapleaf, a company that specializes in analyzing trends in social media, has an interesting study on the popularity of four artists, namely The Beatles, Elvis, Madonna, and Michael Jackson, across major social networks. They randomly sampled 1.1 million fans, and found some surprising results (the study was done 2 weeks before Michael Jackson’s death, which explains some things):
* The Beatles’ dominating popularity online — The Beatles’ online celebrity may be bolstered by both their music’s enduring appeal and the success of their recent compilation album 1 released in 2000, which has become one of the best-selling albums of this decade with over 31 million in worldwide sales. While all the artists in this study are period icons, The Beatles’ prominence on social media may suggest their ability to better transcend generations, which is in part evidenced by them having the second-youngest fans.
* Michael Jackson’s lack of internet prominence — This is particularly bewildering given Michael Jackson’s younger – and presumably more tech- and social media-savvy – fans and his status as one of the most influential entertainers and musicians to ever take center stage. His 1982 album Thriller remains the best-selling album of all time with over 100 million sales worldwide (more than twice the second best-selling album).
Link – Thanks Michael Hsu!
As if we needed further proof of the vast reaches of the internet, and the frightening reality that what people put on the net stays on the net, comes the story of the Smith family of St. Louis.
Danielle Smith had taken a photo of her family last year and sent it to friends, as well as posted it on social networking sites. The photo shows her and her husband holding two kids.
About 10 days ago, one of Smith’s college friends was driving through Prague when he spotted their huge smiling faces in the window of a store specializing in European food. He snapped a few pictures and sent them to a flabbergasted Smith.
“It’s a life-size picture in a grocery store window in Prague — my Christmas card photo!” said Smith, 36, who lives in the St. Louis suburb of O’Fallon.
Mario Bertuccio, who owns the Grazie store in Prague, said the photo was from the Internet. Details were sparse, but he said he thought it was computer-generated. When told it was a real photo — of a real family — he said he started taking steps to remove it.
“We’ll be happy to write an e-mail with our apology,” said Bertuccio, who said he would send the Smiths a bottle of good wine if they lived in his eastern European country.
The Smiths and photographer Gina Kelly hadn’t authorized anyone to use the pictures. Kelly said she has asked a professional photographers’ organization to help figure out how her image wound up in Prague.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.
A Venn diagram showing the psychological forces at work among users of social networking tools — a new shirt from the comedy geniuses at Despair, Inc.
In this little country ditty, Social Media Blues, Scott Rodgers described his futile attempt of getting the attention of a girl through web 2.0 shenanigans.
Twitterphobics: don’t watch it, it’ll just make you mad! Link [embedded YouTube clip]
If you’re interested in joining an online community yet don’t know which one is right for you, Brainz has done the legwork. Here is a completely unscientific (yet surprisingly accurate) look at social networking and media sites, including digg, reddit, MySpace, Facebook and Twitter: Link – via The Presurfer
