Welcome to my digital home. I believe we all have a purpose and mission that are uniquely our own. Join me in making a difference. Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, and Rooney Mara as his girlfriend Erica in The Social Network How long is a generation these days? I must. Publishers in the advertising field: marketing to consumers, business-to-business, marketing across borders, and the creative world. Use our social media guide for parents: tips, advice, and the latest research to navigate the social media landscape and help keep your kids' online interactions safe.
Apps and Websites Kids Are Heading to After Facebook. Gone are the days of Facebook as a one- stop shop for all social- networking needs. While it may seem more complicated to post photos on Instagram, share casual moments on Snapchat, text on Whats. App, and check your Twitter feed throughout the day, tweens and teens love the variety. You don't need to know the ins and outs of all the apps, sites, and terms that are "hot" right now (and frankly, if you did, they wouldn't be trendy anymore). But knowing the basics - - what they are, why they're popular, and what problems can crop up when they're not used responsibly - - can make the difference between a positive and a negative experience for your kid. Below, we've laid out some of the most popular types of apps and websites for teens: texting, microblogging, live- streaming, self- destructing/secret, and chatting/meeting/dating.
The more you know about each, the better you'll be able to communicate with your teen about safe choices. The bottom line for most of these tools? If teens are using them respectfully, appropriately, and with a little parental guidance, they're mostly fine.
So take inventory of your kids' apps and review the best practices. TEXTING APPSGroup. Me is an app that doesn't charge fees or have limits for direct and group messages. Users also can send photos, videos, and calendar links. What parents need to know. It's for older teens. The embedded GIFs and emojis have some adult themes, such as drinking and sex.
Teens are always connected. Without fees or limits, teens can share and text to their heart's content, which may mean they rarely put the phone down.
Kik Messenger is an app that lets kids text for free. It's fast and has no message limits, character limits, or fees if you only use the basic features. Because it's an app, the texts won't show up on your kid's phone's messaging service, and you're not charged for them (beyond standard data rates). What parents need to know. Stranger danger is an issue. Kik allows communication with strangers who share their Kik usernames to find people to chat with.
The app allegedly has been used in high- profile crimes, including the murder of a 1. There's also a Kik community blog where users can submit photos of themselves and screenshots of messages (sometimes displaying users' full names) to contests.
It's loaded with ads and in- app- purchases. Kik specializes in "promoted chats" - - basically, conversations between brands and users. It also offers specially designed apps (accessible only through the main app), many of which offer products for sale. Watch Armed And Deadly Full Movie more. Whats. App lets users send text messages, audio messages, videos, and photos to one or many people with no message limits or fees.
What parents need to know. It's for users 1. Lots of younger teens seem to be using the app, but this age minimum has been set by Whats. App. It can be pushy. After you sign up, it automatically connects you to all the people in your address book who also are using Whats.
App. It also encourages you to add friends who haven't signed up yet. PHOTO AND VIDEO- SHARING APPS AND SITESInstagram lets users snap, edit, and share photos and 1. It unites the most popular features of social media sites: sharing, seeing, and commenting on photos.
It also lets you apply fun filters and effects to your photos, making them look high- quality and artistic. What parents need to know. Teens are on the lookout for "likes." Similar to the way they use Facebook, teens may measure the "success" of their photos - - even their self- worth - - by the number of likes or comments they receive.
Posting a photo or video can be problematic if teens are posting to validate their popularity. Public photos are the default. Photos and videos shared on Instagram are public unless privacy settings are adjusted. Hashtags and location information can make photos even more visible to communities beyond a teen's followers if his or her account is public. Kids can send private messages. Instagram Direct is like texting with photos or videos and you can do it with up to 1. These pictures don't show up on their public feeds.
Although there's nothing wrong with group chats, kids may be more likely to share inappropriate stuff with their inner circles. Musical. ly – Your Video Social Network is a performance- and video- sharing social network that mostly features teens lip- synching to famous songs but also includes some original songwriting and singing. Musers, as devoted users are called, can build up a following among friends or share posts publicly. What parents need to know. Songs and videos contain lots of iffy content.
Because the platform features popular music and a mix of teen and adult users, swearing and sexual content are commonplace. Gaining followers and fans feels important. Teens want a public profile to get exposure and approval, and many are highly motivated to get more followers and likes for their videos. MICROBLOGGING APPS AND SITESTumblr is like a cross between a blog and Twitter: It's a streaming scrapbook of text, photos, and/or video and audio clips. Users create and follow short blogs, or "tumblogs," that can be seen by anyone online (if they're made public). Many teens have tumblogs for personal use: sharing photos, videos, musings, and things they find funny with their friends. What parents need to know.
Porn is easy to find. This online hangout is hip and creative but sometimes raunchy. Pornographic images and videos and depictions of violence, self- harm, drug use, and offensive language are easily searchable. Privacy can be guarded but only through an awkward workaround. The first profile a member creates is public and viewable by anyone on the internet. Members who desire full privacy have to create a second profile, which they're able to password- protect. Posts are often copied and shared.
Reblogging on Tumblr is similar to re- tweeting: A post is reblogged from one tumblog to another. Many teens like - - and, in fact, want - - their posts to be reblogged. Twitter is a microblogging tool that allows users to post brief, 1. It's not only for adults; teens like using it to share tidbits and keep up with news and celebrities. What parents need to know.
LIVE- STREAMING VIDEO APPSHouseparty - Group Video Chat is a way for groups of teens to connect via live video. Two to eight people can be in a chat together at the same time. If someone who's not a direct friend joins a chat, teens get an alert in case they want to leave the chat. You can also "lock" a chat so no one else can join. What parents need to know. Users can take screenshots during a chat.
Teens like to think that what happens in a chat stays in a chat, but that's not necessarily the case. It's easy for someone to take a screenshot while in a chat and share it with whomever they want.
There's no moderator. Part of the fun of live video is that anything can happen, but that can also be a problem. Unlike static posts that developers may review, live video chats are spontaneous, so it's impossible to predict what kids will see, especially if they're in chats with people they don't know well. Live. ly – Live Video Streaming poses all the same risks that all live- streaming services do, so poor choices, oversharing, and chatting with strangers can be part of the package.
What parents need to know. It's associated with Musical. Because of the parent app's popularity, this streamer is all the rage, and "musers" (devoted Musical.
Privacy, safety, and creepiness are concerns. Because teens are often broadcasting from their bedrooms to people they don't know, sometimes sharing phone numbers, and often performing for approval, there's the potential for trouble. Live. me – Live Video Streaming allows kids to watch others and broadcast themselves live, earn currency from fans, and interact live with users without any control over who views their streams. What parents need to know. Kids can easily see inappropriate content.
Facebook's New Watch Tab Does Not Look Like a You. Tube Killer at All. On Wednesday, Facebook announced the rollout of Watch, what it is calling “a new platform for shows on Facebook.” It’s yet another foray by the social media company from the business of distributing other people’s content into producing and licensing its own, and differs from its existing video content in that it looks a lot like Netflix or You. Tube’s apps. Watch content will be “produced exclusively for it by partners,” who will take 5. That content will be spread via channels like “Most Talked About” or “What’s Making People Laugh” categories that will be determined by how users interact with it.
Watch will offer both a live comment feed where users can interact with the wider Facebook audience—something that already exists with Facebook Live streams—and the ability to “participate in a dedicated Facebook Group for the show.”Here’s a few shots of what it will look like on various formats, as shown in the press release. It definitely looks slick and polished, but even this initial glimpse hints that Watch is not the You. Tube or Snapchat killer Facebook wants it to be. Facebook’s launch programming for the new video section is, uh, not exactly the A- list talent one might think a company worth hundreds of billions of dollars could secure. It includes Nas Daily, a show from a guy who quit his job to make one- minute travel videos “together with his fans from around the world” (a preview clip is titled “We Bought 1. Burgers”); a live show where motivational speaker Gabby Bernstein will interact with Facebook users; a cooking show where children will attempt to make a recipe; and in probably Facebook’s biggest grab, one live game of Major League Baseball a week.
Another show mentioned in the launch is Returning the Favor, where host Mike Rowe “finds people doing something extraordinary for their community, tells the world about it, and in turn does something extraordinary for them.” Yet another focuses on “the passion and community of big- time high school football in Texas.”There’s a few more interesting options, like a NASA science show, and a live Nat Geo Wild safari program. But none of this seems particularly edgy or hard- hitting. It’s the definition of safe.
This is the kind of generic filler that forms so much of You. Watch Shrek The Third Tube Free there. Tube’s bread and butter—but if that’s all they have lined up, what could possibly lure people from You.
Tube itself, which has long been pumping out much more interesting content tailored to virtually every niche interest and community? Facebook’s content strategy is almost certainly to prove functionality and its ability to drive users to the service, and then try to lure other content producers to the service. But like a number of Facebook products before it, it’s unclear why publishers would want to use the platform.
For example, Facebook Live already allows publishers to stream content like protests or post- Game of Thrones commentary live to their pages. They can also push regular video content wherever they want without an exclusive deal, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter or You. Tube, and all three of these channels can be embedded elsewhere. Another goal could be to compete with Snapchat, which lots of publishers have started using to push short- form video content. But it’s not clear how Watch will get those users to return by replicating some of Snapchat’s functionality, especially since the latter company’s video content tends to be in reality or unscripted formats which seem nicely in tune with its overall aesthetic. This looks a lot like Facebook’s attempt to push publishers into the same kind of walled garden they built with Instant Articles. Large sections of the media were spooked it was a prelude to Facebook choking off traffic to other websites—why would Facebook let you link out when they can force you to live in the garden, right?—but the concept has stalled somewhat, as Instant wasn’t driving enough additional traffic to offset its lower advertising revenue.
Facebook has a tendency to build platforms it just loses interest in. Instant is still around, but in a diminished role as Facebook tweaked its algorithm to drive users to friends’ posts, video content and most recently another story format to compete with Snapchat. In the past few days, it’s killed off its standalone Facebook Groups app and Lifestage, a “high schoolers only” Snapchat knockoff that ended up ranked #1,3. App Store’s social media category. It’s certainly possible Watch will help Facebook swallow more and more of the internet into its ever- expanding gullet. But supplying a nice- looking video platform does not automatically create demand, and Facebook has repeatedly stumbled to create a business model that will keep both users and publishers inside of it instead of clicking out.
We’ll see. No word on whether Donald Trump’s “real news” program will get a slot, but we doubt it.[Facebook]* Correction: Wednesday, not Tuesday.
Recent Posts