NextDraft

Tired of Facebook Drama, Teens Log On Elsewhere

The most fascinating news from around the Web on May 22, 2013

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  1. No More Drama

    According to the latest research from Pew, some teens are getting a little tired of Facebook and competitors like Twitter have seen a big boost in teen users. While some of us parents might assume that the migration to other services has something to do with privacy, it doesn’t. Only nine percent of teens surveyed “were very concerned about third parties accessing their data.” Seventy percent of teens are “friends” with their parents, and the adult presence is a factor that makes the service less cool (in defense of adults, we’re Internet adults, not real adults like our parents were). Among the big negative factors that teens mentioned was a feeling of being overwhelmed by oversharers and just being tired of all the drama. Perhaps this will be the Internet’s most amazing legacy. It got teens to be sick of teen drama.

    + Does the move by teens to other social services make Yahoo’s purchase of Tumblr look like a deal?

    + Here’s the whole PewInternet report on teens, social media, and privacy.

    + And here is Gawker’s Nick Denton explaining why invasion of privacy is positive for society.

  2. When the Chips Were Up

    A few years ago, poker seemed to be everywhere. A lot of us were playing in basements or on the Internet (before the Feds shut down most of the sites). When people weren’t playing, they were watching big money matches on television. As states move to legalize online poker, the game should once again see a surge of interest. But it may never be as big as it was. Grantland looks back at “the 2003 World Series of Poker, in which an amateur named Moneymaker turned $39 into $2.5 million and the poker boom was born.”

  3. Put a Cork In It

    Apple was in the corporate taxation hot seat yesterday, but they are far from being the only corporation to look overseas (especially in Ireland these days) to save a few (billion) bucks. The New Yorker’s John Cassidy wonders: Where’s the public outrage? (In the case of Apple, the lack of outrage could have something to with the fact that so many people own the company’s stock.)

    + As the NYT’s Landon Thomas Jr. and Eric Pfanner explain, Ireland’s policy has long had its critics: “The secrets of how Apple avoided billions of dollars in taxes lie in a low-slung building of glass and brick in the hills of County Cork.”

    + This Economist chart sums it up well. Corporate profits soar. Corporate tax-receipts sink.

    + WaPo’s Matt Miller reminds us: “Tim Cook and his colleagues have a fiduciary duty to minimize Apple’s taxes under the law.”

  4. An Early Lede?

    Anthony Weiner has officially announced his candidacy for Mayor of New York. To give you some idea of the challenge he faces, just look at the NYT’s lede: “Anthony D. Weiner, once a rising star of New York politics whose career cratered over revelations of his sexually explicit life online, announced an improbable bid on Wednesday for the job he has long coveted: mayor.” Even without the inclusion of words like rising and coveted, that’s not the opening campaign paragraph you want. Weiner made the announcement via a YouTube video. Question: If you’re Anthony Wiener, do you really want to kick things off using social media?

    + Eric Garcetti has won the race to become the next mayor of Los Angeles. That might be more interesting to you than it is to people in Los Angeles. Only 15% of registered voters showed up at the polls.

  5. Is Xbox the One?

    With the Xbox One, Microsoft is making a massive move to be at the center of your home entertainment experience. According to Slate’s Farhad Manjoo, Steve Jobs’ dream device has arrived. And it’s made by Microsoft.

  6. The Case for Cubes

    If you’re reading this at work, there’s a good chance you’re sitting in an open-plan office space. About 70% of Americans do. Is that a good thing? According to Quartz, these open-plan offices make us less productive, less happy, and more likely to get sick. Interesting. I definitely know a lot of tech company employees who prefer the open office vibe.

  7. The Morality Pause

    In Texas, there is a law that prevents divorced parents “from having a romantic partner spend the night while children are in the home.” That legal provision goes away if the new couple is married. But in Texas, gay marriage is not recognized. And a judge has ruled that a lesbian couple can’t cohabitate because of this “morality” clause.

  8. Old Timer Climber

    Let’s stop for a second and try to wrap our heads around this. An 80 year-old extreme skier is trying to become the oldest person ever to reach the summit of Everest. Oh, and there’s an 81 year-old who is right behind him. And I walked for thirty minutes this morning.

  9. Oh No Sergio

    When a journalist asked golfer Sergio Garcia if he would be inviting his rival Tiger Woods over for dinner at the U.S. Open, Garcia responded: “We will have him round every night. We will serve fried chicken.” Looks like he’s going to need to invite Tiger over to find out what it’s like to lose public support and most of your sponsorship deals.

  10. The Bottom of the News

    A recent study found that people could improve their memories if they clenched a fist. But you need to make sure it’s the correct fist. And no, the idea is not to use the fist to knock yourself on the head because you can’t remember something (for that technique, use both fists).

    + The creator of the Gif will be receiving a lifetime achievement award at the Webby Awards. Steve Wilhite certainly deserves the honor, even though he still insists that the word is pronounced jif when we all know that can’t possibly be right. Basically, everyone in tech is Tweeting about this, but I think Brendan Hay has the day’s winner:

    “It’s pronounced jif.” – inventor of GIF

    “No, it’s not.” – inventor of the letter G

    + From Buzzfeed Videos: Unbelievable facts that are actually true. Avoid this one if you’re currently wearing a lobster bib.