It's hard to think of an annual event that beats New Year's Eve for inherent sociability, and it's no surprise that big brand marketers are unveiling all kinds of social media programs for the big day (or rather, night). One of the high-profile campaigns centered on the New Year's festivities comes from MasterCard, which is using social media to bring images from celebrations around the world to digital billboards around New York's Times Square.

All the rumors, hunches, and anecdotal evidence got some confirmation this week: Facebook's growth among teenagers and young adults is stalled and possibly on the decline, according to the latest figures from the Pew Research Center, which show that Facebook's growth in that age demo has flattened out, albeit at a high level.

Here's another one of those headlines about social media that would have been completely incomprehensible ten years ago. According to The Drum, which first reported the story, a group called Surf Live Saving Western Australia has combined location data from transmitters attached to sharks with its Twitter feed to enable live, automatic alerts when the big toothy fellas get a little too close to popular beaches.

If you feel like you've been seeing more scammy spam on social media, it's not just your imagination: social media scammers redoubled their shady efforts as 2013 drew to a close, according to online security firm Bitedefender.

Attention-grubbing, self-centered egomaniacs journalists are supposed to be natural power-users of social media, and broadly speaking, they are -- but that doesn't necessarily mean they like it. In fact a survey of 412 Australian journalists by Newsmaker, which distributes press releases, found some decidedly mixed emotions about social media's impact on the gathering and dissemination of news.

Some would say that the history of Facebook has been one long, uninterrupted succession of tweaks -- additions, subtractions, new features, new formats and looks, new advertising units, and of course let's not forget new privacy policies. Twitter had also been through an impressive number of revamps in its somewhat shorter life. And while many of these changes have stirred users to high dudgeon, so far there doesn't seem to be any evidence of long-term alienation of users, who typically complain about the new look for a while and then forget it was ever any other way.

Cats may dominate the world of memes, what with their agility, misplaced dignity and general inherent absurdity, but if you really want to grab a person by the heartstrings and just yank 'em until they cry, you need a dog. And as it's the holiday season and I am in an appropriately maudlin mood (and I know I'm not the only one) I hope you're prepared for some syrupy sweet social media dog stories. It's Kleenex and Bailey's time, people.

I guess it's some sort of comment on American society that a fictional newscaster famous for his clueless preening is both better known than his real counterparts (also famous for their clueless preening). That's according to some amusing, if slightly depressing, data collected by Marketwired's social listening software, powered by Sysomos.

As a self-centered, self-absorbed blogger (oh wait, that's redundant) I am more than happy to air my opinions about all and sundry. But on a topic like Facebook's new auto-play video ads, whose success will rise or fall depending on how they are perceived by a wide variety of consumers, I am more curious to hear what you, gentle reader, think of them -- both as a social media user and also from a marketing perspective. So: if you've seen one of the new video ads (or merely seen them demonstrated), what do you think? Please share your thoughts in …

Ah, it's that time of year again: the air is crisp, snow is falling outside, and inside the fire is crackling. Yes, children, it's time to get cozy and gather round with cups of cocoa, to hear stories about how cannibals are using technology to find people to eat.