Feature Channels: Social Media

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New initiative provides tools and resources to help suicidal people and concerned observers

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Using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to spread information during campus emergencies can help keep students safer, according to new research from the University at Buffalo School of Management.

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Penn State College of Medicine researchers contend that professional medical societies must update or amend their Internet guidelines to address when it is ethical to "Google" a patient.

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UC San Diego researchers say they can predict the spread of flu a week into the future with as much accuracy as Google Flu Trends can display levels of infection right now.

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Analyzing every marijuana-related Twitter message sent during a one-month period in early 2014, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine have found that the “Twitterverse” is a pot-friendly place. In that time, more than 7 million tweets referenced marijuana, with 15 times as many pro-pot tweets sent as anti-pot tweets.

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The more time college students, particularly freshman, spend on Facebook, the more their grades suffer. But an Iowa State professor says the problem is not Facebook -- it's an issue of self-regulation.

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According to recent research from the Arnold School of Health at the University of South Carolina, use of social media sites like Facebook can be associated with a significant drop in pounds, especially during the critical maintenance period of a weight loss journey.

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he picture isn’t pretty for guys who post a lot of selfies on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. A new study showed that men who posted more online photos of themselves than others scored higher on measures of narcissism and psychopathy.

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Technology may be the key to helping college-age adults make healthier choices when it comes to food and physical activity. The Youth Adults Eating and Active for Health project found that participants in the intervention groups ate more fruits and vegetables and were more physically active than those in the control groups. The 15-month U.S. Department of Agriculture study involved researchers from 14 institutions, according to lead researcher Kendra Kattelmann, head of the dietetics program at South Dakota State University.

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In an era when consumers have a wealth of information at their fingertips, where do consumers go for recommendations on meat-purchasing? A pilot study by consumer economist Kuo-Liang “Matt” Chang and a team of researchers from South Dakota State University showed that websites and social media are sources of information about nutrition and cooking that then may lead to recommendations on meat purchasing.

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Computers scientists are tracking tweets to gather important information about common mental illnesses.

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The serious air pollution problem in China has attracted the attention of online activists who want the government to take action, but their advocacy has had only limited success, a new study has revealed.

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The recent explosion of social media in our lives and domination of the air waves by so many "experts" are among the reasons people don't feel free to live their lives as they wish, according to Philosophy Professor John Lachs.

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There is no significant difference in the prevalence of verbal abuse in the workplace between men and women, according to a systematic review of the literature conducted by researchers at the Institut universitaire de santé mentale de Montréal and the University of Montreal.

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University of Wisconsin-Madison computer science researchers have developed a method for using social media posts to estimate air pollution levels with significant accuracy.

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In September, a group of UW-Madison professors and their colleagues published a study in the journal Journalism & Mass Communications Quarterly showing a connection between “h-index” — a measure of the quality of a researcher’s work and influence — and whether the scientists interact with reporters and get mentioned on Twitter.

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Social media marketing strategies present both challenges and opportunities for public health professionals. It’s an effective way of reaching large audiences, but social media can also be used to spread misinformation. That’s the findings of a situational analysis by researchers at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis of a recent social media campaign by the Chicago Department of Public Health. The study suggests that public health organizations need to pay close attention to how they disseminate information, and also to the response the campaign gets.

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One billion Facebook users generate 2.7 billion “likes” per day (or 1,875,000 every minute). Increasingly, social media has become a form of social and political engagement, and 47 percent of Facebook users have “liked” political cause-related comments. Protected free speech is a luxury the Western world has long enjoyed.

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The 5th annual Civility in America survey from global public relations firm Weber Shandwick and public affairs firm Powell Tate with KRC Research looks at civility through a generational lens to better understand what the future holds for society. Although Americans are unanimous about the bleak state of civility, the Millennial generation seems less convinced of a more uncivil future.

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Hayeon Song, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, analyzed existing research on the impact of Facebook on loneliness. She concluded Facebook didn't make people lonely, but lonely people were more likely to use the popular social media site.

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A new study from the University of Utah confirms that substantial numbers of teens are sexting – sending and receiving explicit sexual images via cellphone. Though the behavior is widely studied, the potentially serious consequences of the practice led the researchers to more accurately measure how frequently teens are choosing to put themselves at risk in this fashion.

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Contrary to the notion that social networks are time-wasters, they could improve project management and the spread of specialized knowledge in the healthcare sector and possibly other large organizations, according to new research from Missouri University of Science and Technology.

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When people are in a bad mood, they are more likely to actively search social networking sites like Facebook to find friends who are doing even worse than they are, a new study suggests.

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The use of social networking sites like Facebook may have implications for accessing online health information, finds a new longitudinal study from the Journal of Health Communication.

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Binghamton University and researchers at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), a division of Xerox Research used 500 million tweets to develop algorithms that not only paint a picture of everyday human dynamics, but can predict an individual's behavior hours in advance.

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The explosion of the Internet and social media has literally put the world at our fingertips, revolutionizing the way people connect and share information. However, for all the positives social media provides, it can also open the door to deception, potentially wreaking havoc on people's lives both personally and professionally.

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It’s not the person posting 10,000 pictures a week of their cat who’s the big-time Facebook user. Instead, it’s the quiet ones who are logging in longer, says research from The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH).

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Reynol Junco is using Facebook and Twitter to help college students succeed. Instead of seeing social media as a distraction in the classroom, Junco says it helps him engage and connect with students.

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An estimated 55 million to 105 million people in the United States suffer from foodborne illnesses each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), resulting in costs of $2-$4 billion annually. What if Twitter could be used to track those cases and more quickly identify the source of the problem? A new analysis by a researcher at Washington University in St. Louis’ Brown School and colleagues shows that new technology might better allow health departments to engage with the public to improve foodborne illness surveillance.

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For aspiring college students, the traditional scholarship essay long has been the go-to method for finding “free” money to help offset the swelling costs of an education.

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Research shows connection between relationship-contingent self-esteem and Facebook activity.

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Parental advice once given to college-bound students that they should “Phone home” may not be followed by today’s busy students. Their fundamental communication question today: Do I call or text? New communication research at North Dakota State University, Fargo, investigates how college students decide which method to use when contacting their parents. Study results show most students in almost daily contact with parents and efficiency is a determining factor when it comes to technology choice.

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A UALR assistant professor has received military grant funding that could provide insight into the crisis in Ukraine, using social media tracking tools

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Leading science communicators will share their latest strategies on how to capture the coveted attention of young students, the public and policymakers to strengthen the scientific enterprise. They will speak at the 248th National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society, taking place Aug. 10 to 14 in San Francisco.

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Email phishers have spread to social media sites where they engage in new scams researchers call 'farcing'

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States that allow officers to pull over a driver for texting while driving saw fewer deaths than those that use secondary enforcement of texting bans.

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Twitter and other social media should be better utilized to convey public health messages, especially to young adults, according to a new analysis by researchers at UC San Francisco.

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A new study, led by Jenine K. Harris, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, examined the use of the hashtag #childhoodobesity in tweets to track Twitter conversations about the issue of overweight kids.

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A new study by Dr. Tracy Alloway, assistant professor of psychology at the University of North Florida, investigated the relationship among adult Facebook users and found that some Facebook features are linked to selfishness and some Facebook activities may encourage empathy.

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Hundreds of thousands of American youth are following marijuana-related Twitter accounts and getting pro-pot messages several times each day, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. They said the tweets are cause for concern because young people are thought to be especially responsive to social media influences, and patterns of drug use tend to be established in a person’s late teens and early 20s.

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Some people find it easier to be their 'true selves' online, a new study says, but posting too much information on Facebook doesn't get users the validation they seek.

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Social scientists’ analysis of 290,119,348 tweets from 193,522 “politically engaged” Twitter users during the 2012 presidential campaign conventions and debates found little creative thinking, and a slavish blitz of retweeting “elites” like @billmaher and @seanhannity, according to a new study.

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According to a new study by social scientists at Cornell University, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and Facebook, emotions can spread contagiously among users of online social networks.

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Though Twitter boats 645 million users across the world, only 14 percent of health policy researchers reported using Twitter – and approximately 20 percent used blogs and Facebook – to communicate their research findings over the past year, according to a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. In contrast, sixty-five percent used traditional media channels, such as press releases or media interviews. While participants believed that social media can be an effective way to communicate research findings, many lacked the confidence to use it and felt their academic peers and institutions did not value it or respect it as much as traditional media and direct contact with policy makers.

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Tweets are short, but amass enough of them, and researchers can deduce a great deal about subjects ranging from disease outbreaks to social unrest. Researchers have proposed guidelines to make sure data mined from Twitter data is used ethically.

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Having regular positive interactions with family and friends and being involved in several different social networks can help older adults be healthier, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.

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Complex networks researchers at Indiana University have developed a tool that helps anyone determine whether a Twitter account is operated by a human or an automated software application known as a social bot.