Facebook undertake psychological survey without users knowledge:

Facebook has carried out a vast psychological survey on over 689,000 of its users without their knowledge. The study looked at the transference of emotions via emotional contagion resulting in people feeling the same emotions without their awareness. Facebook altered their news feed algorithm for test participants to favour positive or negative status’s on their news feeds; resulting in higher numbers of positive status’s from those exposed to the positive news feeds and vice versa.

The study supports previous research that has shown Facebook can have positive and negative effects on user’s mental health.

Google + has it’s third birthday:

As Google + reaches it’s third birthday the jury is still out as to whether this is a useful social network on not. There is definitely a bias in the air, even with Google who no longer refer to Plus as a social network but as a ‘social layer’. Many people are still very sceptical of the site, one critic likening it to a “state-of-the-art super-city in the middle of nowhere, where nobody cares to live, irrespective of whether anyone actually wants to — or is — living there.” Whether Google + begins to make any kind of marked improvements over the coming year still remains to be seen.

Twitter now supports animated GIFs:

Animated GIFs (short video clips that play and repeat) were the most shared content type on Google + and now Twitter has taken up the mantle and decided to support the medium as well. Twitter have recognised the importance of supporting multimedia content, which is three times more likely to be engaged with than any other form of content. Their focus on engagement levels was demonstrated earlier this year with the roll out of their new profile style, favouring large visuals and a Facebook-esque demeanour.

‘Yo’ makes us question our digital lives:

A new app ‘Yo’ has brought everything back to basics. The app simply lets users send a ‘Yo’ to each other. And that’s it. However, the app got an initial $1 million investment, have over 50,000 users and 4 million yos have been sent. Despite launching on April Fools Day, it is for real and it has social media buffs scratching their heads…is this what it’s come to? Surely there has to be more to life than just ‘yo’?

What do you think? Let us know in the comment box below.

By Harriet Thacker

Harriet is a marketing expert, social media enthusiast and Shake Social’s champion blogger. Struggling to maintain your own blog? We can help!