Syria Lifts 5-Year Facebook, YouTube Ban

Guess what? A lot of them should be followed by the general public

(NEWSER) - The US Army has some rules for social media use—but even if you’re not a soldier, you might do well to adhere to some of those rules. From the Atlantic Wire :

• On Facebook: DO “spell check every post prior to posting; the Army’s reputation is at stake.”
• On Facebook: DON’T “use social media (teen) language in professional posts (ex: i wanna b ur bff 2day & 4evr)."

Social network valuations head to the sky

(NEWSER) - Facebook and Google are among the companies circling Twitter and considering a colossal buyout deal, insiders tell the Wall Street Journal . The talks haven't gone anywhere yet, but the price under discussion is somewhere between $8 billion and $10 billion—roughly 100 times the amount of revenue Twitter, which lost money last year as it invested in expansion, expects to earn this year. More»

Racy pics, suicide threats get would-be cops dumped

(NEWSER) - Law enforcement agencies are probing potential recruits’ digital lives for information that might make them unfit for the job, USA Today reports. More than a third of police agencies look into applicants’ social media presence, says a new report conducted for police executives. Reviewing postings to sites like Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube, some agencies require applicants’ online passwords, or want to see their text-messaging and email records. More»

Wired 's UK editor on why he bucks the trend

(NEWSER) - David Rowan knows that shunning social networks will make him sound like an "old dude." But the UK editor of Wired is OK with 'old' if that means avoiding the social and political costs of our "ever-greater enmeshment" in proprietary networks. Here's what turns this techie off:

• People accidentally share too much: Go to youropenbook.org and search for phrases such as 'cheated on my wife,' advises Rowan. "I’ll bet that most of the people whose intimate details you’ll get to read are unaware that their updates are being shared quite so openly," he writes. "Have they genuinely given Zuckerberg their informed consent?" Maybe not.

Users only spend 8.3% of their Internet time on email

(NEWSER) - Social networking websites continue to dominate an increasing portion of the time we spend online, new Nielsen data says. Users are spending 23% of their time on the Internet using sites like Facebook and MySpace, and just 8.3% on email. Only last year, the split was much more even: users spent 15.8% of their time on social sites and 11.5% on email, Technologizer reports. More»