Happy Fall-tastic Monday Everyone

Here’s something short and comical that a co-worker of mine sent me. It’s hilarious and so fitting for an upcoming blog post. Since I don’t have time for many details, I’m leaving you with this:

Via The Oatmeal.

Is EVERYONE Updating Their Features?

It sure seems so. I’m not sure which happened first (because my iPhone, Pickle, was having a teenaged meltdown last week during the stream of App updates) but all our favorite social networks made some serious updates and changes. Most notable among them, Facebook; I’m not going to go too deep into that one right now—Mashable has done an amazing job of keeping everyone in the loop with updates. As I hear it there is going to be a second wave of update in the next couple weeks.

The timeliness of all these changes really is astounding—On the 20^th, Instagram gave mobile photographers their new and improved, hi-res, user friendly Instagram 2.0. Reactions online seem to be positive, although some of the opinions of avid Instagrammers weren’t so great. My Foursquare told me there were some updates to the ‘lists’ section of the mobile app on the 20^th as well. Then the changes to Facebook hit, and all hell broke loose.

I’m just putting this out here to say, I’m watching how these social networks feed off each other. What does it mean for users? What does it mean for developers? I’m just saying, watch them, they kind of move together.

Check out this blogpost from  Sam Lessin at Facebook, it's a perfect post about profile timelines.
If you don't have Instagram (sorry Android users) here's a great Mashable 'Top Users' review.

The Growth of Social Media 2011 [Infographic] via DigitalBuzz

Check it out here.

Absurdity and Subtlety

I’ve been hovering over a theory for weeks: Millennials generally lack the ability to understand subtle cues and changes in inflection and tone.  Obviously the theory needs serious testing, though I have some anecdotal evidence to support the theory—ultimately it needs academic style testing, one with a ‘control’ and all that science-y good-stuff but here’s how I landed at my current conclusion:

For years I’ve had friends who would rather text, IM, or Facebook me when they have a problem. Very rarely do I get a confrontational phone call; I can count on two hand the number of negative conversations I’ve had in person. An uncomfortable conversation normally manifests via text or Facebook message. A week ago I noticed two Facebook friends stirring up an online feud, escalating into a ridiculous Twitter battle, which finally ended with a phone call, I’m told, and ‘unfollowing’. Now, there are three things at work here:

1.     Communication is lost, or misinterpreted via online medium; in other words the lack of subtle tone, inflection, and physical cues is leading young people to hyper-react.

2.     The inability to communicate one-on-one about sensitive subjects, i.e. rent, cleaning the dishes, passing notes in class, anything that potentially causes an argument, big or small, in person. In essence, avoiding confrontation until it erupts.

3.     The socio-cultural weight of ‘unfriending’ or ‘unfollowing’ among young people. (Which is a larger post coming soon)

"Why not?"

It seems absurdist executions are “working” well with Millennials; why else would this DQ spot keep happening? I’m circling on a hypothesis driving this phenomenon: Millennials generally lack the ability to understand subtlety. More to come. 

The Science of Social Timing [Infographic] via David Larson

Formerly @Tweet_Tips, currently @TweetSmarter. This infographic breaks down when to tweet and (generally) who is tweeting. Please note this is very general and can potentially be demographic specific.

Study finds:

"Nearly half of all social-media users check Twitter or Facebook on their smart phone after going to bed and/or before getting out of bed in the morning. The proportion increases to 76% for [millennials], 19% of whom check their phones when they wake up during the night."