Social media encapsulates different aspects of human nature -- the good, the bad, and the ugly -- which seem to defy rational explanation. Case in point: Formspring, a relatively new social network that has spread, plague-like, among American youth. Launched in November 2009, it has quickly grown to about 14 million users per month. Formspring's twisted appeal is based on curiosity stemming from adolescent insecurity: it allows members to pose questions which acquaintances answer anonymously, and with brutal honesty. For example: does my butt look fat? Who is talking about me behind my back? What are they saying? The answers …

I try not to make a habit of giving up the mic, but sometimes I come across something so good it needs to be shared (all social media-like). Thus today I am proud to direct your attention to 25 signs that your social media consultant might be a hack, composed by bona fide social media expert Peter Shankman and his partner Sarah Evans and first posted on Shankman's blog. If you have additional warning signs that you'd like to add, I believe you can do so in the comments section of Shankman's blog, and of course here as well. IA …

Twitter has grabbed the imagination of a sizeable subset of professional Americans, and it has garnered a huge level of name recognition in the U.S. population, with 87% of respondents to a recent Arbitron-Edison Research study saying they were aware of the site. But the number of Americans who use Twitter at least once a month remains relatively small, at 17 million, or about 7% of the total. Separate figures from Nielsen and ComScore suggest the site has been attracting an average 20-22 million unique visitors in the U.S. in the first months of 2010.

In terms of bad PR, it doesn't get much worse than BP's continuing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico: starting with an explosion that killed 11 employees, getting worse with the company's complacency regarding the possibility of a spill, now reaching new lows with harsh criticism of the company's response -- and about to head even lower with a huge environmental disaster as the oil comes ashore in sensitive tidal wetlands and prime commercial fisheries. Obviously BP's first priority is stopping the torrent of oil coming from the ocean floor a mile down in the Gulf of Mexico; the second …

The social media backlash is in full effect. Unsurprisingly, the push to stem the social networking tide is beginning in schools, where teachers and administrators can witness the ill effects of online bullying firsthand. Needless to say, these efforts will fail utterly. The real question: is there a more effective way to deal with cyber-bullying? Can it be dealt with, at all?

One of the great things about the Web, from the consumer's point of view, is that it's highly conducive to complaint: where a company could just shrug off your customer service issues in the old days, with the Web in the mix they pretty much have to pay attention lest it blow up into a horrible fiasco. Of course, while they put the best face they can on it ("no, we're thrilled to have a new channel to resolve customer service issues!") big brands are probably less enthusiastic about this part of the Web.

"Hugo Chavez is starting to use Twitter... forcing a president who often talks for hours to sum up each thought in 140 characters or less..." - Jorge Rueda, the Associated Press, Wednesday, April 28, 2010

It was inevitable, really: between the need of Congressional Democrats to rattle the media cage, and the need of Facebook to turn itself into a viable ad platform at any cost, there was bound to be some kind of collision. Predictably, the issue is privacy. Equally predictable is the outcome: Facebook will have to offer at least a few real concessions to hold on to the basic core strategy.

Huey Lewis will have to keep on looking: Social media appears to be as addictive as any chemical compound, and while it satisfies some of his key criteria for a new drug -- "one that won't spill, one that don't cost too much, or comes in a pill" -- it fails to meet some of his most important demands.Specifically, social media withdrawal leaves individuals "nervous, wonderin' what to do," according to a new study.

Sometimes you come across an online social network based on an idea so totally foreign and bizarre that you have sit there for a minute or two, awestruck, and just take the time to wonder: "WTF?" I know people have a remarkably wide range of interests and goals they may want to share with each other, not all of which I will necessarily understand. But then I come across something like Blippy -- the social network that instantly updates all your friends on what you're buying on your credit card -- and I am frankly at a loss. Wait, who...? …