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"Crime news got far greater play in the Times' and Strib's online editions, Maier and Tucker found, while their print editions "provided more front-page coverage of government, politics and education than did their online counterparts." Both gave more attention to sports online, and the Times had more business news online than in print, they found. Only by clicking into the depths of an online news site is an avid reader likely to find the same news stories featured online as on the front page of his or her local newspaper. These results have significant implications for the news industry and the reading public. "

"Tinder may well have helped save marriage as an institution, simply by bringing us more of them. Not to mention faster. Again contrary to conventional wisdom, researchers say online meeting-based marriages happen more quickly after the first date. The jury is still out on whether online-based marriages are more or less likely to end in divorce; there are studies that point in both directions. Call it a wash.  Either way, this is our new romantic landscape. At least one third of all marriages in the U.S. are now between partners who met online. That's more than 600,000 couples every year who would, in any other era, have remained total strangers.  The influence of these internet-minted couples on the dating world isn't over when they marry; it is just getting started. Internet marrieds get to play yentas. They can set up friends on dates with each other - still a thing, even in this day and age.  Who knows how far out the ripple effects go, how many people who would never dream of being on Tinder and Bumble have the course of their lives changed by swipes and matches regardless.  "

"The internet once seemed to promise an endless, uncensored repository of memories. In high school, I dreamed about one day revisiting Myspace and LiveJournal, my online haunts, where every good and bad night was documented in something close to real time. I thought I would be in the first generation to remember everything. Lately, the possibility sounds more like a nightmare. Old tweets now sour the fortunes of people who have something to lose. Director James Gunn was fired after pedophilia jokes from 2010 and 2011 were resurfaced by a right-wing smear campaign. Brewers reliever Josh Hader was forced to apologize before his inaugural All-Star game appearance after he was caught being racist online as a teenager. WWE wrestler Cedric Alexander did the same after an old one-liner about rape was dredged up from the ether. So, I asked a few people why they decided to obliterate their online pasts - which once lived so clearly in stream-of-consciousness Twitter timelines - in hopes of understanding what's going on here."

"A change in the Child Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) means that children under the age of 13 can be shown ads targeted toward them when they're online. This could lead to Facebook lowering its age of admission. Drafted in 1998, well before MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and other social networks burst onto the scene, the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday updated COPPA. The amendments work to protect children online, noting that certain information cannot be collected without parental consent, such as geolocation information and photos. However, the act also notes that it's now OK to advertise to children under the age of 13 (which is Facebook's minimum age requirement):"

"From NSA sweeps to commercial services scraping our Web browsing habits, to all kinds of people tracking us through our smartphones, Angwin says we've become a society where indiscriminate data-gathering has become the norm. Angwin has covered online privacy issues for years, and in her new book she describes what she did to try to escape the clutches of data scrapers, even to the point of creating a fake identity."

"In the lead-up to tonight's film, Generation Like, we've been asking our Facebook and Twitter communities to tell us why you use social and how it's affecting your lives. Hundreds of you have told us about the choices you're making - and why you're making them. We've asked a few writers who've thought a lot about social media to read your comments and reflect on them in the context of tonight's film. We also want to hear from you! Share your reactions below in the comments. Does Social Media Empower or Exploit? Douglas Rushkoff, Generation Like correspondent Douglas Rushkoff: Does Social Media Empower or Exploit? Generation Like correspondent Douglas Rushkoff is the author, most recently, of Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now, as well a dozen other books on media, technology and culture. He was correspondent on three previous FRONTLINE films, The Merchants of Cool (2001), The Persuaders (2004), and Digital Nation (2010). Follow him on Twitter @Rushkoff. In the lead-up to Generation Like, FRONTLINE has been asking questions about social media on social media. As I wade through the many responses, I am reminded of my own questions about these platforms when I began making this documentary. Like me, many of you are thrilled by the opportunity for connection and self-expression that social media offer.   Calum James Facebook is the best communication tool ever created. February 12 at 7:02pm   But many of you also share a sense of skepticism about what it is that social media - and the companies behind them - ask from us in return.   We all know this has something to do with our data. We create consumer profiles for the unseen companies on the other side of the screen, and enter into a relationship with them that isn't entirely clear. "Who is doing what for whom, and to what end?" The need to understand this better - and what it means for the young people using this stuff - is what set us on our journey to explor

"The Federal Trade Commission revealed today that only 20% of 400 mobile apps aimed at children included any privacy disclosures before or after downloads. The agency said it is investigating whether certain companies have violated laws protecting children online by failing to disclose the types of data gathered through apps and how those data are used. As the year draws to a close, regulators and lawmakers seem increasingly motivated to impose some clarity on the murky world of mobile apps. The FTC is expected to unveil an update to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act to require more transparency on data collection by mobile-industry players soon. In addition, the Department of Commerce will discuss a code of conduct for mobile privacy notifications next week."

"Here's a tool for vetting news and information in the digital age. The "SMELL" test won't make you foolproof, but it can help you become a savvy information detective. Apply it to any content purporting to be factual from any source -- face-to-face, to Facebook, to Fox, the New York Times, and online "to infinity and beyond." On some major issues, fact-checking websites will sniff out bias for you, e.g., Factcheck, Politifact, and Snopes. But most of the time, you're on your own."

"Google is reportedly readying its entry into the online TV industry with a YouTube service by the name of "Unplugged," which would feature a skinny bundle of TV channels."

the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), currently making its way through the House of Representatives, and its sister legislation in the Senate, the Protect IP Act (PIPA), which are supposedly intended to combat copyright violations on the Internet. Unfortunately, these bills are written so broadly so as to not only eliminate Internet piracy but replace the innovative and democratic aspects of the Internet with a tangled bureaucratic mess regulated by the government and corporations.While holding companies accountable for their role in copyright infringement is important, this legislation threatens to turn the whole Internet on its head, disrupting innovation in business and technology and muting democratic dialogue, by allowing copyright holders to unilaterally impose sanctions on companies accused of copyright infringement without due process. Based solely on an accusation (not a conviction, mind you) of a copyright violation, the U.S. Attorney General, and sometimes the copyright holding companies themselves, will be able to block access to and business transactions with websites accused of such violations. Financial institutions will be forced to stop transferring legal funds to accused websites, search engines will be forced to block accused websites, and advertisers will be forced to stop placing ads on accused websites. Moreover, the bill is written so broadly as to override the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which allows social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to operate freely. Unfortunately, under SOPA, if a user on YouTube or Facebook were to mistakenly or unintentionally upload copyrighted material to the sites, those websites could also be shut down

"We, as human beings, think that through social networks, we've somehow become more social creatures. The problem with this theory is, the more we "connect" online, the less actual human interactions we have, making us actually fairly unsocial. A new video breaks down exactly how the social aspects of human beings have evolved and transformed, showing how we've regressed from a social standpoint."

"here's a tool for vetting news and information in the digital age. The "SMELL" test won't make you foolproof, but it can help you become a savvy information detective. Apply it to any content purporting to be factual from any source - face-to-face, to Facebook, to Fox, the New York Times, and online "to infinity and beyond." On some major issues, fact-checking websites will sniff out bias for you, e.g., Factcheck, Politifact, and Snopes. But most of the time, you're on your own."

"Teaching Copyright provides lessons and ideas for opening your classroom up to discussion, letting your students express their ideas and concerns, and then guiding your students toward an understanding of the boundaries of copyright law. In five distinct lessons, students are challenged to: Reflect on what they already know about copyright law. See the connection between the history of innovation and the history of copyright law. Learn about fair use, free speech, and the public domain and how those concepts relate to using materials created by others. Experience various stakeholders' interests and master the principles of fair use through a mock trial. Teaching Copyright will require your students to think about their role in the online world and provide them with the legal framework they need to make informed choices about their online behavior."

"As newspapers and magazines struggle to survive, you'll probably be hearing a lot about "native advertising." It's a purposefully vague way of saying that online ads will look more and more like articles, making it harder for readers to tell the difference. And you'll likely see more and more cases of marketers getting caught trying to trick people. This week, the Federal Trade Commission announced its first-ever enforcement action involving native advertising. The clothing company Lord & Taylor reached a settlement with the agency over deceptive-trade charges concerning a story about the company's duds on the fashion site Nylon. The story was actually a paid ad. Lord & Taylor, owned by Hudson's Bay, also was accused of paying thousands of dollars to dozens of so-called online influencers - a.k.a. Instagram users with big followings - to plug a dress without revealing that they'd been compensated. "Consumers have the right to know when they're looking at paid advertising," said Jessica Rich, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection."

"Smartphone ownership has become a nearly ubiquitous element of teen life: 95% of teens now report they have a smartphone or access to one. These mobile connections are in turn fueling more-persistent online activities: 45% of teens now say they are online on a near-constant basis. The survey also finds there is no clear consensus among teens about the effect that social media has on the lives of young people today. Minorities of teens describe that effect as mostly positive (31%) or mostly negative (24%), but the largest share (45%) says that effect has been neither positive nor negative. These are some of the main findings from the Center's survey of U.S. teens conducted March 7-April 10, 2018. Throughout the report, "teens" refers to those ages 13 to 17."

"Parents, teachers and schools worry about teenagers posting their lives (romantic indiscretions, depressing poetry and all), leaking passwords and generally flouting social conventions as predators, bullies and unsavory marketers lurk. Endless back-and-forthing over how to respond effectively - shutting Web sites, regulating online access and otherwise tempering the world of social media for children - dominates the P.T.A. and the halls of policy makers. But as Dr. Boyd sees it, adults are worrying about the wrong things. Children today, she said, are reacting online largely to social changes that have taken place off line."

"Technology is fundamentally changing the nature of relationships in America, and online dating sites are an important part of that story. See how your views about online dating stack up with the rest of the population by first answering a few questions, then compare your responses with the 2,252 randomly sampled adults who took part in a nationally representative survey conducted by the Pew Research Center."

"How LGBT daters approach online dating."

"Last year the shop's 27-year-old owner, Gangadhar N., joined thousands of other small Indian retailers in partnering with Amazon.com Inc. While cows and roosters ramble outside on the dirt lane and women walk by with bales of hay balanced on their heads, Gangadhar, who uses only a single letter as his last name as is common in India, displays Amazon's selection to villagers on a smartphone and shows them how to find things and get the best prices. "I'm the person between Amazon and the people who shop online," he says proudly."

"Author danah boyd, who has been spending lots of quality time with teens over the past few years, attempts to demystify teens' online actions and behaviors and provide some insight into their motivations in this excellent Science Friday interview (press the play button to hear the full interview). Boyd articulates a nuanced understanding of young people's mindsets that may help translate their actions for befuddled adults."