A new study has found that it’s not just cat pictures that can spread virally through social networks, but moods can too.
A study by researchers at loads of different universities in the US examined rainy days (a particularly talked about topic here in the UK), and found that for every one person directly affected by rain, one to two other people would also feel that impact.
To test whether emotions spread, they looked at how updates changed when it rained and found that negative Facebook posts increased by 1.16 per cent and positive posts decreased by 1.19 per cent. They then looked at the posts of people who were friends with those impacted by rain, but who lived in places where the weather wasn’t necessarily as bad, and found that every sad post generated 1.29 more negative points than normal among friend’s posts.
However, they also found that positive posts spread faster. If a user posted an upbeat status, an extra 1.75 positive points were generated.
So get rid of those negative Nigels from your Facebook feed everyone. They’re not doing you any good.
NFL player finds out his team want to trade him via Twitter
Darren Sporles, a running back for the New Orleans Saints, found out via Twitter that his team were planning to trade him, resulting in what I imagine was a bit of an awkward conversation.
Whilst Sproles knew that he wasn’t going to be re-signed next season, he was under the impression that he was going to be released as a free agent. However, when the Saints’ management realised the high level of interest, they decided to trade him instead of releasing him.
Crimes on Twitter soar by 390 per centCrimes linked back to Twitter have increased almost fourfold in the past three years, according to new figures.Offences range from terrorism to sex attacks to, bizarrely, shoplifting, and have increased from 174 in 2011 to 852 in 2013. Reports of crimes on Facebook increased by a quarter in the same period, to a whopping 12,803.Obviously this brings up the debate that’s raging at the moment about online privacy. Do social networks need to be policed more vigorously, or would this count as a violation of people’s privacy?I’ve said before that I’m never entirely clear about why people are so nervy about authorities seeing what they’re doing online (I mean, obviously, it’s less than ideal), but if it came to a choice between people seeing me sending hilarious gifs to my friends and colleagues, and some sort of online law enforcement to prevent people being stupid, anti-social morons on social networks, I know which one I would choose. Enjoy my cat gifs, government snoopers!Google to produce its own games console?Internet giant Google has opened up a gaming can of worms after purchasing a games controller firm. Rumours of it launching its own games console abound.Google has bought up much of Green Throttle Games, which is a firm that creates ‘gaming peripherals’ (whatever that means). It hasn't bought the entire firm outright, but has bought certain ‘elements’ of it. As part of this deal, two of the company’s co-founders will reportedly join Google as well.Aside from a games console, other rumours doing the rounds are that Google is planning to develop its own TV set top box, which could be used to play games on Android. Arnie rules the internet with a tankAfter buying a tank at the suggestion of a Reddit user (specifically ipeeinyourshower. What a user name.) in an effort to raise money for his charity, Arnold Schwarzenegger is inviting people to dontate to the charity for a chance to go to LA and crush things with him using said tank.
