Facebook: the final frontier. A place where politicians and mustached Greenpoint loft-dwellers alike can join in social networking bliss while some kid who didn’t even graduate from Harvard makes billions off of their personal information. That’s right. Facebook isn’t reminding you to watch the new Kelsey Grammer series Boss because it loves you, it’s advertising it to you because your favorite television shows are Cheers, Fraiser and, for better or worse, the one and only season of Grammer’s failed post-Fraiser sitcom Back to You.

If you haven’t already noticed, here at BlogDailyHerald we like to overanalyze things. So when we found out that Katherine Bergeron (aka KBerg) had an actual Facebook page, we just had to take Berg Watching to a whole ‘nother level. What we found will probably not amaze you, but you can find our close reading of KBerg’s Facebook page after the jump.

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We know you know. Ruth is stepping down. Reactions have been mixed: some cried, some nodded their heads respectfully, some went into hysterics (I am guilty of this one). What brought us all together, however, was not the community announcement listserv. It was the need to express our emotions, vent our frustrations and share the joy of having had the opportunity to see Ruth at the Blue Room… through the Internet.

The mass of Facebook status updates which resulted from the news of Ruth’s impending resignation began at circa 10:50 a.m., just minutes after the email from Ruth was sent out to all Brunonians. Here are some of our favorite updates:

First, the shock. And the rhetorical questions.

Then, the panic.   [Read more →]

The computer: helping college students procrastinate since 1990.

Attention Brown Students: It’s about to be finals period, and chances are, you’re looking for a new way to put off writing those 10-15 page final papers and contributing to group Google Doc exam study guides. As if they knew it was crunch time on college campuses, according to recent articles from the New York Times’ Bits blog and The Wrap, YouTube and Facebook —probably some of the most frequented procrastination sites–are both about to expand their services by launching new ventures that may look somewhat familiar.

According to the The Wrap, YouTube has plans to offer instant movie streaming services, much like Netflix Instant or Apple movies. Depending on how it goes, our Netflix Files may be turning into YouTube Files.   [Read more →]

Attention all college applicants! It appears that your nightmare has come true. According to a recent Kaplan survey of admissions offices, more than 80 percent of college admissions officers consider an applicant’s social media presence. In short, your Facebook is under scrutiny. The degree to which your Facebook profile really influences your admission chances, however, varies per school and per officer. See what a Brown admission officer has to say and read up on precautionary steps to take all after the jump! [Read more →]

From taking exams to taking shots, from attending section to having sexction, from smoking Buddha to learning about Buddha, college is defined by a variety of experiences. Whether you know it or not, all of these experiences affect your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This new series hopes to explore and discuss the psychology behind phenomena you might otherwise overlook. Item one on the menu is the depressive nature of Facebook:

Let’s be real. When was the last time you were stalking that person’s Facebook whom you secretly admire (be patient, Valentines Day is near!) and found yourself thinking, “Wow. This person has a lot of friends and seems to be having an inordinate amount of fun in every one of his/her photos.”

According to a recent article in Slate Magazine, Facebook may be, in fact, making us feel crummy. And seeing as depression is on the rise in college students, is it possible that Facebook is to blame? [Read more →]

Changed your Facebook profile picture to a cartoon character recently to raise awareness about child abuse?  A post published today on Gawker’s ValleyWag blog shows us just how much of a difference we’re all making:

GAWKER: So, abuse any kids today?
CHILD ABUSER: Nope.
GAWKER: Why not?
CHILD ABUSER: It’s this cartoon thing. I guess I never realized people cared so much about child abuse that they would go to the trouble of changing their Facebook avatar for a day.
GAWKER: Actually they’re changing their profile pictures for the whole weekend.
CHILD ABUSER: Dear God…

Read the full post here.  Don’t forget to check out the cause’s Facebook page and change your profile picture to an image of Squidward.  Guilt-easing Facebook trends don’t come along just every day, and you don’t want to miss out before the next let’s-change-the-world meme takes hold.

Don’t forget to install the Social Media Sobriety Test on your computer before you do.  The folks over at Webroot have developed a new tool that will block your Facebook/Twitter/Myspace during a select few hours of the evening/early morning when (drunkenly) logging onto your various social networking accounts can do some serious damage (and lead to major regrets in the morning).  When you first install the program, you can select which sites you want to regulate and the hours that you want it to be active.  When you try to go to a site that you have set up regulation on during the hours that you specified, you will be redirected to a sobriety test which you must pass before you can continue.  The only problem is that some of the tests that they use are nearly fucking impossible even while sober.  [Read more →]

From a study of over 10,ooo Facebook status updates, we are able to learn crucial information about just when we can anticipate a break up.

This graph demonstrates when throughout the year those relationship status changes appeared on your newsfeed.

Mathias Mikkelsen / mathiasmikkelsen.com

Notable trends:

— Right before spring break, hold onto your man. Cancun is, based on the data, a big incentive to live the single life

— Just another Manic Monday. Remember what accidentally happened over the weekend? Yeah that’s gonna be a factor — break ups peak early in the week.

— Christmas Day is the safest day of the entire year — but if you can make it to that point. Break ups skyrocket in the weeks leading up to the holiday season. An aversion to buying presents, perhaps?

— Don’t let your roommates have your Facebook password anymore. April Fool’s Day sees a spike.

While taking a quick study break this afternoon, I stumbled upon a subtle new feature on Facebook called “See Friendship,” which now sits next to the “Comment” and “Like” tabs on certain Newsfeed items.

"See Friendship" / Facebook

Considering the name alone, one can only imagine the sketchy possibilites surrounding this little tab — and of course curiosity led me to click it. The result was something reminiscent of the most horrifying aspects of an Orwellian future: an individual page organizing the entirety of the two friends’ interactions on the social network – sort of like a beefed up Wall-to-Wall.

The implications of this button are even more terrifying. Now Brunos can closely examine fellow students’ entire friendships on Facebook. Now their personal chronicle, from chance encounter at FishCo to a trip to the mall (this is all, of course, hypothetical), can appear as a neatly laid out biographical page. Thus, Facebook continues its longstanding tradition of wholly unnecessary features that further broadcast each and every move a person makes on the network.

Admit it, you totally judge people based on their Facebook profile pictures. Judge doesn’t have to be used in the negative way here, but we all know that your Facbeook profile picture does say something about you. You obviously picked it for some reason. You chose it to “represent” you and your Facebook being on your page, to track your markings in the Facebook-sphere and on Facebook chat. So if you’re debating changing your profile picture to that one where you’re making an ugly face or of you going wild at FishCo, or even if you’re just wondering what others might be thinking, you might want to consider “what your facebook profile photo says about you.” Lucky for us, our friends at Gawker have broken it down in a recent post.