Mediaboss Marketing

Post Workout Accountability

By: Hailey Hilliard

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Post Workout Accountability - Video

The Birth of Datafication
Kenneth Cukier describes datafication, the fact that daily interactions of living things can be rendered into a data format and put to social use. Transcript...

By: bigthink

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The Birth of Datafication - Video

Apr. 11, 2013 The widespread use of media among college students -- from texting to chatting on cell phones to posting status updates on Facebook -- may be taking an academic toll, say researchers with The Miriam Hospital's Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine.

According to a new study, freshmen women spend nearly half their day -- 12 hours -- engaged in some form of media use, particularly texting, music, the Internet and social networking. Researchers found media use, in general, was associated with lower grade point averages (GPAs) and other negative academic outcomes. However, there were two exceptions: newspaper reading and listening to music were actually linked to a positive academic performance.

The findings, reported online by the journal Emerging Adulthood, offer some new insight into media use in early adulthood, a time when many young people are living independently for the first time and have significant freedom from parental monitoring.

"Most research on media use and academics has focused on adolescents, rather than new college students, or has only examined a few forms of media. So we were curious about the impact of a wider range of media, including activities like social networking and texting that have only become popular in recent years," said lead author Jennifer L. Walsh, PhD, of The Miriam Hospital's Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine. "We also wanted to know how media use related to later school performance, since there aren't many longitudinal studies looking at media use and academics."

Walsh and colleagues surveyed 483 first-year college women at a northeast university at the start of their freshmen year. Researchers asked students about their use of 11 forms of media (television, movies, music, surfing the Internet, social networking, talking on a cell phone, texting, magazines, newspapers, non-school-related books and video games) on the average weekday and weekend day during the previous week. In January and June, participants reported their GPAs for the fall and spring semester, and they also completed surveys about academic confidence, behaviors and problems.

The study yielded some interesting findings, Walsh said. In addition to data suggesting that college women use nearly 12 hours of media per day, researchers found that cell phones, social networking, movie/television viewing and magazine reading were most negatively associated with later academic outcomes, after accounting for their fall academic performance.

But exactly how are media use and academic performance linked? "We found women who spend more time using some forms of media report fewer academic behaviors, such as completing homework and attending class, lower academic confidence and more problems affecting their school work, like lack of sleep and substance use," said Walsh, adding that the study was one of the first to explore mechanisms of media effects on academic outcomes.

Researchers also believe the findings demonstrate the central role of social media in the lives of college students, and suggest these forms of media are used more on campus than off.

"Given the popularity of social networking and mobile technology, it seems unlikely that educators will be able to reduce students' use of these media forms," said Walsh. "Instead, professors might aim to integrate social media into their classrooms to remind students of assignments, refer them to resources and connect them with their classmates."

Academic counselors might also consider assessing college students' media use and encouraging them to take breaks from media, particularly while in class, studying or completing assignments, the researchers also noted.

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Texting, social networking and other media use linked to poor academic performance

We all know about the king of social networking: Facebook with its billion plus users. Then there is Twitter, Linkedin, Google+ and the major Chinese social networks like Renren and Sina Weibo. Then there is are the outsider social networks, the medium sized ones but have strong brand recognition thats where StumbleUpon plays.

Most people wont be able to explain what a discovery engine is, but you might find that some of those people are part of StumbleUpons 25-million users. Though the platform works a little like a search engine, its algorithm is just a bit different.

StumbleUpon finds and recommends content that is personalised to its users based on their tastes and interests using peer-sourcing and social-networking principles. Started in 2001 as a way to create a virtual community for people online, things have changed quite a bit for the company. In August 2011, StumbleUpon announced that it had reached the 25-billion stumble mark, at which point it said that more than one-billion stumbles were being added per month.

It hasnt always been smooth sailing at the company though. It was bought by eBay in 2007, then bought back by its founders in 2009. Last year founding CEO Garrett Camp stepped down leaving the company CFO Mark Bartels to take his place as CEO. Earlier this year, the company laid off 30% of its staff from 110 to 75 employees.

But it seems things are starting to get mainstream for the discovery engine platform. According to the Hollywood Reporter, film studios are beginning to use the platform to promote their content.

Studios using StumbleUpon to market and distribute their content is a relatively recent phenomenon, StumbleUpon product VP Cody Simms told the Hollywood Reporter.

On a recent trip to Silicon Valley, we chatted to the new CEO to get a better idea of where the discovery engine is today and what plans are in place for its future. Bartels believes that personalised discovery is an interesting challenge as evidenced by the number of resources that are currently being put toward it.

Mobile is a crucial playing field for the company and, according to Bartels, smartphones have been great for the company. Mobile stumbles, he says make up 35% of all stumbles on the platform.

Memeburn: Weve seen discovery play an increasingly important part in social networking and search. Do you feel that Stumbleupon was ahead of the curve?

Mark Bartels: Personalised discovery is a very interesting challenge and more and more companies are now dedicating a large amount of resources to it. At StumbleUpon weve always been committed to serving you the right content at the right time on the right device. Discovery is a precursor to Search. Search recommendations are based on specific user requests, while Discovery recommendations are based on the users tastes and interests without a specific request. In other words we recommend the most appropriate content to you before you asked for it. Thats an interesting challenge

Originally posted here:
Personalisation and social discovery, Q&A with StumbleUpon CEO

Comes as Google rumoured to be preparing to launch its own chat service called Babel Facebook last week revealed Home, an Android 'skin' that includes a powerful chat app

PUBLISHED: 13:02 EST, 11 April 2013 | UPDATED: 13:04 EST, 11 April 2013

Chat and messaging apps are increasing replacing social networking sites such as Facebook and Teitter, new figures have claimed.

A study of 5,000 US teens by PiperJaffray found 10% fewer named Facebook as their 'most important' site compared to a year ago.

The teens surveyed were also less interested in Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Flickr, and Tumblr - with only Pinterest showing growth.

A study of 5,000 US teens by PiperJaffray found 10% fewer named Facebook as their 'most important' site compared to a year ago

The sites teens are talking about, according to PiperJaffray

The study also looked at which services teens were talking about - and found messaging services such as Kik and Snapchat were popular, alongside Vine, Twitters video-blogging service, messageboard 4chan and shopping site Wanelo.

The report is the latest to claim that Facebook and Twitter face major competition from char setvice.

Google has this week played down rumours it is set to buy the WhatsApp service for a reported $1bn, while it is also believed to developing its own chat app called Babel.

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The social networking teen turn-off: MORE evidence chat apps are set to take over from Facebook and Twitter