What do Google, MTV, Facebook, Howcast, and the US State Department all have in common? They're joining forces to fight terrorism, political oppression, and crime. Inspired by a Colombian Facebook movement against FARC rebels, the US government wants
to take advantage of online youth groups that promote stability, human rights, and democracy.
Pro-ana, or pro-anorexia, sites have been infuriating the Internet for years by proclaiming eating disorders are not disorders at all, but lifestyle choices. Just like my entire high school, they eventually made their way to Facebook, but according to
Newsweek, the
social-networking site du jour isn't having it. Facebook regularly deletes groups, citing promotion of self-harm and harm to others.
Foodies may be serious about eating, but apparently they're serious about computers: Fast-food chains, food companies, and food celebrities are raising their profiles on social-networking platform
Facebook.
Last month, we mentioned that
Pizza Hut was the first fast-food chain to launch a
Facebook online ordering system, so die-hard users never have to leave the site to order dinner. And yesterday, number one fast-food chain
McDonald's launched a Facebook fan site of its own to
honor the 25th anniversary of its wildly popular Chicken McNuggets.
After hearing about the
umpteenth person to lose their job or otherwise get in trouble because they posted something on Facebook, the message is clear: It's not Facebook, you may just be oversharing.
Whether it's the wrong time or the fact that you're flaunting an event that you lied about being at to someone, you are in control over whether you endure the consequences for it — from Facebook anyway. Below, a few common sense guidelines.
The concept of word-of-mouth seems so quaint now. Recently, when a pair of my friends got engaged, I was close enough to be a lucky one who got a phone call; later when I asked mutual friends if they'd heard the news, so many people said, "I heard about it on Facebook!"
I had a thought: Is Facebook the new newspaper?
Well
Election Day is finally here, and to commemorate this special occasion, you can
pick up some yummy voting treats and pimp your Facebook profile page with Gap's influential and colorful "Vote For" buttons.
To add some to your page, just visit The Gap's
Vote For Website, click on the buttons page, then see which ones stand out to you the most. Once you find one that you like, just move your cursor over the button and you should see an option to "Add to Facebook."
If you saw
a real stinker of a movie recently and are still fuming over the dough you lost paying for your tix — I feel you, movie tickets here in SF are upwards of $10.50 now — a new Facebook app can't get your precious time back, but can at least
help you get back your money in the form of free movie tickets.
Called
Payback Time, this app relies heavily on your creative and convincing writing style. Just leave your rant on Payback Time as to why you should get your money back, list the dollar amount you want reimbursed (I'd throw in the cost of popcorn and drinks, but hey, that's just me), then just sit back and leave it to the Facebook community to vote and decide who should get their cash back.
Last week, fast-food chain
Pizza Hut launched an online ordering system on the social networking site
Facebook. Now those of you who are addicted to social networking can order dinner without having to exit Facebook! For extra-quick reordering, the application also remembers your favorites.
