Tweets

Here are some interesting findings about tweets (reported in the NYTimes 7/25/10, p. 4 Weekend). From an analysis of 300 million tweets, researchers at Harvard and Northeastern University found that morning tweets are happier than those posted in the afternoon. Thursday's tweets seem to be the saddest and Sunday the happiest. And tweets from the West Coast are happier than those from the East Coast. Now, what does all this mean?

Social Networking Cautions

Here's another reason for being cautious about what you write on your social networking pages. According to Main Street, 81% of the top divorce lawyers (from a survey of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers) used or faced evidence gathered from social networking pages. Facebook leads the way with 66% saying this was the primary source; MySpace was at 15% and Twitter at 5%. More cautions and lots of provocative examples can be found in "The Dumbest Facebook Mistakes" at www.mainstreet.com.

Taboo language: gender differences

Here's an interesting gender difference reported by Psychology Today (August 2010). In 1996 the percentage of public swearing by men and women was 67% for men and 33% for women. In 2006, however, the percentages were much more similar: 55% for men and 45% for women.

Social Networking and Getting a Job

Here's an article from CareerBuilder that makes a strong case for being cautious about what goes on your Facebook or MySpace site. Their survey reports that 77% of the recruiters run searches of job candidates' social network pages and 35% said they rejected a candidate based on the information on a social network page. Their advice: Be careful of what you put on your site, be discrete, and be prepared by checking your site regularly for potentially embarrassing photos or comments.