Yes, of course they are. But now we have cold, hard evidence to prove it. This infographic outlines some of the basic traits of narcissism, before revealing some worrying correlations between heavy social media use and narcissism.
It was oddly comforting how on 6 December, not even the most pugnacious troll reared his twisted face. For once, Twitter seemed to unite gracefully. Until people discovered the account of the Westboro Baptist Church
Most of us with a brain and an internet connection already figured that third-party spying via a laptop webcam was entirely possible – but we assumed that the hardware would at least indicate it was in use. Boy, were we wrong about that one.
You would think that entertainment journalist and Deadline.com founder Nikki Finke would do better to avoid social media faux pas like “don’t try and endorse a movie whilst also paying respect to the dead”.
There were whispers in the air on Friday afternoon claiming that a certain Kanye West had overstepped the line once and for all. Local newspapers sparked a furious outrage on Twitter, when they claimed that West had promised to become ‘the next Mandela’.
Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield paid tribute to Madiba on behalf of NASA, as he and many other astronauts took to twitter to share their condolences, and celebrate his life.
This is actually unfathomable. Fitness blogger, fooTball wife and new mom, Caroline Berg Eriksen, has sent the internet into a frenzy after posting a selfie.
Dan Bilzerian, 32, describes himself a an “actor/astronaut/asshole” to his 100,000 Instagram followers. He’s a professional poker player, and you could pretty much sit motionless on your couch, follow his Instagram updates everyday, and live a very full life vicariously through him.
This six minute animated film was created by six students from The Animation School in Cape Town. Within 24 hours of it appearing on Vimeo, it had garnered 90,000 views. That’s a big deal.
It seems like those who have opposed the ‘selfie’ in all its forms will have to put their prejudices aside. It’s a thing now. A big thing.
In this week’s installment of “Well, What Did You Expect?” we profile a man named Jack Vale, who people are calling a ‘psychic’ .
We tend to forget the privilege that is Freedom of Speech. Countries like China, who are ruled by an oppressive one-party regime, face daily instances of censorship – especially on their social media sites.
Video currently accounts for less than six percent of internet traffic across Africa, according to the Sandvine Global Internet Phenomena Report, but that number is expected to grow faster than it did for any other region before it.
Instagram just isn’t the fun, family-friendly service that it used to be. The Facebook-owned platform had some problems a few weeks ago when it was found that users were selling guns via the photo-sharing app. Now though, if you wanted to buy a little bit of drugs to go with your guns, you need not even leave the Instagram app – it’s all there.
A while ago we broke the news that Instagram would soon be placing ads in your news feed. Many people were miffed, but many applauded Instagram for allowing users to close the ad once they’ve seen it, and for allowing feedback about how to make ads more aesthetically appealing and personally valuable. The first of what will be a long line of instagram ads appeared on users’ screens last friday, and it was an ad for American designer Michael Kors.
In the past, girls would compare themselves to persons in their vicinity – checking to see who the skinniest girl in the room is, and seeing how they match up. Now, they have the internet for that – and the girls on the internet are way skinnier than anyone you might ever really meet. The proliferation of photo-sharing sites like Pinterest, along with the concept on ‘thinspiration’ has caused mass hysteria as girls across the world attempt to get as skinny as possible – and maybe one day achieving the infamous ‘thigh gap”.
Some of you might have noticed the hashtag #phonebloks flying around the social media world yesterday, and wondered where the hell it all came from so suddenly. The answer? It was a social media ‘thunderclap’ initiated by Phonebloks. Phonebloks started out as a simple idea just over a month ago. Dave Hakkens, the man behind the idea, basically wanted to create a phone that produced less waste – a phone we could keep.
Yoh – residents of the suburb of Glenwood in Durban are getting angry. They’re so fed up with the prostitutes that stand on their streets, they’re going the extra yard to identify their clients, name them on Facebook, thereby disrupting business as usual. The concerned residents wrote to the local community paper to announce that they would set up “surveillance cameras and a registration service on Facebook for free”.
This piece of hosiery is equipped with BlueTooth, so every time there’s an unclasping of the clips, the bra communicates wirelessly to your Twitter account, triggering a tweet that reminds women to go for a medical examination. By extension, everyone will know that you have your bra off.
Slowly, surely and inevitably, our social media spaces are becoming commercialised. We all knew it was coming – it’s just a matter of coming to terms with it, getting used to the new layout and trying to make the best of it. This time, it’s Instagram’s turn to start earning some cold hard cash.
Cerebra, a brand-focused South African strategic communication agency, recently did a massive survey of how the best African companies utilise social media. Ever since the advent of sites like Facebook and Twitter, everyone wanted to know how these sites could work in business, and whether more followers really does mean more money.
Twitter is the modern day gangland. The social media network is being used by gang members and criminals to boast, recruit new members and promote their gangs all in 140 characters or less.The most recent and shocking use of Twitter by a group of criminals happened last week when the terrorist group, al-Shabaab live tweeted about their take over of Westgate Mall in Kenya.
The path to fame in the age of the internet can be dizzyingly short. Obi Nwosu planned to get there by jumping over a car. Instead he got hit by said car, and got famous anyway.
We’re well passed the heady days of excitement, when we marvelled at the power of this “social media” thing. Yes, that was 2012. It’s 2013, and we’re all about the cold, hard data now.
The man responsible for Facebook chat, News Feeds and the layout of Facebook as you know it is taking his creative “genius” to Instagram. Star product manager, Peter Deng, has joined Instagram as its first director of product, and sees a lot of the same issues with Instagram that Facebook experienced in 2007.
Aa new study by Domo and CEO.com determining Fortune 500 CEO’s presence on social media platforms; LinkeIn, Google+, Twitter and Facebook has released these results.
Facebook wants to take on television advertising, hard. The social networking platform wants to sell advertising space on the site in the form of a “TV-style commercial”. Advertising in this format could set you back as much as R25 million a day for a 15 second spot.
Don’t lie, we’ve all wondered what it would be like to be a fly on the wall inside the White House. Pete Souza is giving us the in we’ve been looking for. The official White House photographer has launched an Instagram account dedicated to the “behind-the-scenes” action of the president of the United States. […]
If you’ve ever wanted to increase your browsing speed, then we’ve got just the thing for you. This infographic created by Quintly will get you social media fanatics cruising from one page to another in no time. The image titled Social Media Shortcuts has everything you need to make your posting time shorter by the […]