Considering that Facebook started out as a social network exclusively for college students, it's only appropriate that it's now being used by prospective students to research colleges. According to a survey of over 7,000 high school students by Zinch, which runs a service matching students with schools and scholarships, fully 68% of respondents said they are using social media to research their higher education options.

Oh my. Social media gets blamed -- justly or unjustly -- for a lot of things, but this has to be a low point: health officials in Houston are pointing to social media as a factor contributing to a sharp spike in syphilis rates in Texas' largest city. According to the Houston Department of Health and Human Services, social media is facilitating unprotected sex between men, which is the main cause of new syphilis cases in Harris County, with men outnumbering women by a margin of five to one.

You don't have to be a football fan to know that the NFL is the subject of withering criticism from players, fans, commentators, columnists, and late-night talk show hosts over the performance of replacement referees who it seems were not, as the saying goes, ready for prime time. Complaints were already mounting before Monday's game between the Green Bay Packers and the Seattle Seahawks, when several blown calls by replacement refs at the end of the game gave the Seahawks a potentially undeserved victory, triggering an outpouring of vitriol at the replacement refs and the NFL, which hired them to …

As the violent controversy over "Innocence of Muslims" has demonstrated, content disseminated on social media sites with global reach (like YouTube) isn't always compatible with the religious or cultural sensitivities of specific populations. In order to provide a social media environment sensitive to Muslim sensibilities, a group of Turkish, Russian, and Central Asian businessmen are funding a new social network for Muslims called Salamworld.

What was that about the triumph of new media over old? After a dismal IPO and post-IPO decline, Facebook's stock finally seemed to be getting its mojo back -- when business magazine Barron's slapped it back down into the gutter in rather brutal fashion with an article titled "Still Too Pricey."

Social networks dedicated to particular causes and interests are experiencing a revival, and one natural unifying element is religion. With that in mind, a private group of lay Catholics (i.e., not directly affiliated with the Vatican) have launched a new global social network for Catholics called Aleteia.org; the name, pronounced "ah-la-tay-ah," comes from the Greek word for truth.

Either they didn't realize that the police could see what they were saying online, or they simply didn't care if they got caught -- but either way, I'm going to call them morons. I'm referring to the 49 members of two gangs from East New York -- the Rockstarz, whom I will also judge for their lack of creativity in naming themselves, and their rivals the Very Crispy Gangsters, who may be guilty of many things, but not lack of creativity -- who earlier this week were indicted by the NYPD for a series of ten shootings, including three fatalities, …

Social media is supposed to be revolutionizing journalism, but British journalists don't seem to be feeling the revolutionary spirit. In fact, our colleagues across the pond sound a bit skeptical about social media's impact on their profession, according to a new survey of 769 U.K. hacks conducted by Canterbury Christ Church University and Cision, a global PR and media services company.

One in five job-seekers (19.7%) say they would refuse to work for an employer who didn't allow them to access social media in the workplace, according to survey results in a new white paper titled "Tomorrow's Workforce" published by Hays, a recruitment firm based in the U.K.

It can't have been long after the first cavemen offered up grunts of approval or disapproval that someone had the bright idea of paying for good reviews. It's cheap, it's efficient, and best of all: it's dishonest! Sure you're basically lying to consumers, but tricking the gullible is half the fun, isn't it? Movie marketers have elevated the fake review to an art form.