Things are not looking up for publicly-traded social media companies, which will almost certainly discourage other firms (Twitter) from going public in the near future. In the most recent round of bad news, Zynga has lost yet another top executive, with the resignation of chief marketing officer Jeff Karp, while Pandora has suffered a brutal stock slide following news that Apple may launch a competing digital radio business, and Facebook's stock price remains in the doldrums.

Prepare for cognitive dissonance: members of the Taliban are posing as bikini babes on Facebook to spy on coalition troops in Afghanistan, according to the Australia Daily Telegraph, which cited pre-deployment briefings by the Australian military for soldiers headed to Afghanistan.

While no one would argue that attracting a billion users in less than a decade is anything less than epic, Facebook's glory days of exponential growth may be ending, as a slowing growth rate in the U.S. appears to be matched by a broader slowdown in global growth as well.

Private equity investors are bullish on social networks for doctors, judging by this week's announcement that Doximity, which allows physicians to connect and share expertise with each other in a secure setting, has raised $17 million in a second round of funding.

Social media has a bigger impact on the political views of Democratic voters than Republicans, according to a poll of 1,407 U.S. adults conducted by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project in January and February of this year -- although social media's impact on both groups is "modest," according to Pew project director Lee Rainie.

So Coca-Cola developed one -- an app -- to, you know, "make the world a happier place." Actually, the app is a new application on Coca-Cola's Facebook page, which may not yield happiness, per se, but it will at least enable the brand's fans to "declare their commitment" to spread happiness around the world.

What's that you say, "Facebook?" Not even close. "YouTube," closer, but still off by a mile. The largest digital social media platform in the world is (drumroll please) email. About 80% of all social interactions between people online is still done via email, and according to Tynt.com, a corresponding percentage of links, content and copy are still spread by good old-fashioned email exchanges.

Anyone who has served on a jury can probably remember the judge's multiple, repeated warnings not to talk about the trial before a verdict is rendered and accepted by the court -- with anyone (even each other), via any means, at all, ever, period. But apparently in the age of social media these injunctions aren't enough for some jury members, who are left wondering, "If I post something on Facebook about the case, does that count?"

Diaspora, the social network founded by NYU students as an alternative to Facebook with funding from Kickstarter in 2010, is continuing to chart a non-Facebook-esque course with its decision to turn the network over to the community -- in other words, giving its members collective control of the platform. Not exactly a move Mark Zuckerberg will be copying anytime soon.

Demands for security are clashing with the need to maintain freedom of expression and open communication in India, where the government is being roundly criticized for online censorship in the wake of a major social disruption that was fueled, at least in part, by digital rumor-mongering.