New Facebook Buttons: Read, Watched, Listened

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)."

Get ready for even more of your actions to be shared

(NEWSER) - Get ready for lots of groaning to show up on your Facebook news feed: The social network is once again looking to make major changes to what you see on its home page. Currently, Facebook filters the information that shows up in your news feed, so you don't see absolutely every action your friends take. The new news feed would be real-time and unfiltered, more similar to what users see on Twitter and Google+, reports the Wall Street Journal . A Facebook spokesperson confirms that the new feed is being tested and may be expanded to more users. More»

Experiment proved greetings are fake: David Plotz

(NEWSER) - Nothing illustrates the "fakery" of Facebook and its so-called friendships quite as much as the "Facebook Birthday," that one day each year when you are bombarded by "exclamation-point-polluted" Wall posts from people you barely know. That's why Slate's David Plotz decided to engage in a little social experiment this year, by celebrating his birthday (which is really in January) on July 11 ... then again on July 25, and yet again on July 28. By the end of his experiment, 16 of his 1,557 "friends" had been fooled into wishing him a happy birthday on all three dates. More»

Highly-wired country crowdsources new document

(NEWSER) - The council drafting Iceland’s new constitution is out to bring new meaning to the term “by the people.” They’re essentially crowdsourcing the document, the Guardian reports, using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to solicit ideas and get feedback from citizens. “I believe this is the first time a constitution is being drafted basically on the Internet,” one council member said. More»

Test running in New Zealand only

(NEWSER) - Want to make sure your friends see your latest uber-important Facebook update? Now you can—if you live in New Zealand and are willing to drop a couple bucks. Facebook is testing a service in the country that allows users to pay between about 40 cents and $2 to highlight posts, the BBC reports. A user who spotted the offer and reported it to the media thought he was being conned at first. Nope, said a Facebook rep. More»