Social media privacy settings are supposed to be easily understood and managed, but with the privacy policies for big social networks proving to be something of a moving target, a lot of users have largely given up trying to control their social content. That's unfortunate, of course, since there can be all kinds of unpleasant personal and professional ramifications from inadvertent sharing.

You may have heard of this thing called Black Friday? It's the day after Thanksgiving, where middle-aged women go nuts on each other in a Hobbesian war of all against all in ladies apparel, a Darwinian struggle for survival in kitchen and bath wares? That thing? Well it's not just about hand-to-hand combat in the aisles: people are sharing a lot of information about big retailers via social media, according to a study by social business intelligence provider Shareablee, which released a list of the most-shared retail brands on the Web.

Digital media is encouraging people to have more sex -- or maybe it's less? Either way, it's definitely doing something to our sex lives. Probably. That's according to two new studies of digital devices, social media, and sexual habits by Meredith's Parents Networks and the National Centre for Survey Research in Britain.

We've all seen the reports that jobseekers are losing employment opportunities because of damaging content they have posted online -- but it turns out the practice of snooping on prospective employees' social media profiles is a double-edged sword, as companies which do so risk alienating talented applicants.

With more and more employers researching prospective hires on the Internet and social media in particular, there's been a lot of discussion about the potential for risque or unflattering content to damage jobseekers' chances. And many people (including myself) are inclined to say "too bad" -- is someone chooses to put those compromising pictures or statements up in a public forum, then they just have to live with the consequences. But what about more subtle (and less rational) forms of discrimination?

Men have long suspected the existence of some sort of secret universal network through which women warn each other about men's shortcomings as romantic partners, typically focusing on their infidelity, fear of commitment, and general untrustworthiness. Well now it's a real thing, thanks to the magic of social media. It's called Lulu and it's brutal.

If you have ever wanted to reach across the table, grab a distracted dining companion's mobile device, and drop it in a glass of iced tea, then you will probably sympathize with the 64% of U.S. parents who say they would like to ban digital devices during holiday meals like Thanksgiving dinner.

Seven out of ten marketers expect their companies to increase spending on social media in 2014, according to a new survey of 328 marketing professionals conducted by Decipher on behalf of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association and the American Marketing Association.

With the holidays fast approaching, 'tis the season for travel and all the baggage (get it?) that goes with it: weather delays, talkative seatmates, a succession of airport atria blurring together into one giant tile-and-glass corridor that seems to go on forever. And now, thanks to social media, we can all share our travels travails in real time.

More and more Canadians are using social media to recommend brands to their friends, according to a new survey of 2,858 Canucks conducted by Colloquy, the research arm of LoyaltyOne, which specializes in loyalty and marketing programs, in June of this year; given our strong similarities, it seems safe to assume the existence of a similar trend in the U.S. population.