One of social media's many unexpected applications lies in what might be called "communal wellness," in which groups of people with shared medical conditions or concerns come together to lend each other mutual support, advice, and encouragement. This week brought news that social media may be able to help prevent two related conditions whose spread in the U.S. is setting off alarm bells -- diabetes and obesity.

As if college students weren't already spending enough time on social media, they can now pursue it as part of their coursework -- even major in it, at one school in South Carolina. Newberry College, in Newberry, SC, is introducing an undergraduate major focused on social media.

Different ethnicities tend to have different attitudes towards social media, which shape different usage patterns, according to new data from Nielsen and NM Incite. Marketers who are aware of these differences may want to approach consumers from various ethnic groups in different ways via social media.

Did you know that social media allows people to "over share?" That people post all kinds of irrelevant, trivial, and generally silly stuff about themselves online? It's true! In fact, there's an epidemic of over-sharing out there! And if you pay attention to it, it's kind of annoying!

Authenticity reigns supreme in social media marketing, or at least it should -- which is why Socialbakers has created a new "Fake Followers" tool to figure out how many of your Twitter followers are fake (or simply inactive).As Socialbakers notes, fake followers can ruin a brand's reputation and decrease engagement, not to mention spam your news feed with scams and all manner of unwanted content.

"On Monday, the Vatican announced that the 85-year-old pontiff would begin posting messages on Twitter next week..." -- New York Times To: Pope From: Brad Callow, founder, CEO, visionary, rock star, guru, and evangelist, PopSkank.com Re: social media outreach

Zynga is losing its special status as a preferred game developer on Facebook, following a decision to revise the terms of their high-profile alliance, raising the possibility that Facebook --much the larger of the two partners -- may find its relationship with the casual gaming company a bit tiresome.

Depending who you ask, social media is either leading or lagging the Internet in general in terms of its growth rate, but one thing's for sure: they're both growing like crazy. In a recent, much-discussed forecast, BIA/Kelsey predicts that social media advertising spending will jump from $4.6 billion in 2012 to $9.6 billion in 2016, for a cumulative annual growth rate of 19%, with social display advertising of various kinds increasing from $3 billion to $5.4 billion over the same period.

All you Web-savvy social media mavens out there be warned: being really good at using social media to communicate will not exempt you from doing something really, really stupid. In fact, it may increase the chances.

"Facebook will hold a vote, possibly later this week, in which it will ask users to abolish their right to vote on changes to the social network's privacy policies." -- CNN.com An official communiqu from network headquarters, Palo Alto. Facebook members will doubtless have noticed numerous growing threats to our social network, including issues surrounding the stock price, difficulty establishing an effective mobile advertising model, and even the possibility of government regulation. In these uncertain times, our network needs strong leadership more than ever before.