When it comes to social influence, what type of people lead and who follows? It’s a question pondered by parents and marketing companies alike. Researchers at NYU sought to figure it out by tracking more than a million users on …
Social Media
20%
Why We Talk About Ourselves: The Brain Likes It
Science has now proved what kindergarten teachers, reality-show fans and Catholic priests discover anew every day: humans can’t help talking about themselves. It just feels too good.
Facebook Status Update: Organ Donor
Not content with merely changing the world, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg thinks he can save a few lives too. Users of the site can now post their organ-donor status to their Facebook timeinlines. See the full story on our …
Status: Drunk. Can Facebook Posts Help ID Problem Drinkers?
The next time some blustery college kid boasts on Facebook about how wasted he was last night, don’t just roll your eyes. He may be telegraphing he’s got a drinking problem, according to research published Monday in the Archives …
T.M.I., Mom. Parents and Adults Overshare on Facebook Too, Study Says
Many dire warnings have been sounded about kids using social media, particularly because teenage-sized wisdom tends to mix dangerously with Facebook-sized measures of public display. But a new study suggests that it’s not just …
Introducing the Healthland Podcast
Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Healthland Podcast! Click this little arrow for a lively, off-the-cuff discussion of the week’s health/science news.
In a Way, Haven’t We All Been a Weiner Online?
Rep. Anthony Weiner’s “Tweet cheating” has got commentators falling over themselves to condemn him by pointing out the virtues of his wife, Huma Abedin. Yes, she was gorgeous in Vogue. Yes, she is an accomplished political …
Healthland’s Top 10 Health and Science Twitter Feeds
Of course, we think Healthland has the most happening Twitter feed around, but there’s a whole other world of worthwhile tweeting from the science and health community that we think is too good to miss. In celebration of the …
Edged Out of Times Square and Off Craigslist, Prostitutes Turn to Facebook
A survey of sex workers in New York City finds that 83% of prostitutes have a Facebook page, which accounted for 25% of their regular clientele in 2008.
How Social Networks Spread Eating Disorders
Teens are undeniably influenced by those around them, and by what they see on social media from television to the internet. So what happens when western media infiltrates a remote island society?
Study: ‘Hyper-Texting’ Teens More Likely to Have Had Sex, Tried Drugs
Teens who send more than 120 texts a day are more likely to have had sex or used alcohol or illegal drugs than peers who text less, according to a study conducted at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.
Facebook Says You’ll Break Up Before Spring Break
You know what would be handy? A place where say a half-billion people could record the activity of their daily lives, their highs and lows, where lots of other people could see it. That way, interested observers might be able to …
