Courtesy of Sean O'Connor

47-year-old Scott Widak sorts through mail he'd received from Reddit users.

Even though the Internet, as a whole, is notorious for having a short attention span, a large group of strangers have been showering a man in hospice care with countless letters, drawings, stuffed animals, DVDs and other gifts for over a month. All of this, just because they were told that he loves opening mail and needs to be cheered up.

When his uncle, Scott Widak, was placed into hospice care, Sean O'Connor knew he had to do something to help keep his spirits up. The 27-year-old Boston-based filmmaker knew that Widak — who suffers from liver disease and Down syndrome — loves opening mail. And, as a long-time Reddit user, he also knew that a post on the social linking site can quickly grow into a small movement.

O'Connor explained all those details in a post on a Reddit forum — or " subreddit" — called r/AskReddit about a month ago:

Hey Reddit - my 47 year old uncle, Scott Widak, has Down syndrome and is terminally ill with liver disease. He is currently bedridden and living out his last days at home with my 85 year old grandmother. One of his favorite things to do is open mail … anyone feel like sending him a letter or card?

Since O'Connor included an address, the post was quickly removed (as some Reddit forums maintain strict rules against the sharing of personal information, in any context). Nonetheless, many Reddit users had already seen the information and others privately messaged O'Connor for the contact details.

Reddit

And that's when the Internet's kind side truly shone.

Boxes upon boxes of letters and gifts began arriving. "At first Scotty was extremely confused," says O'Connor. But then the parcels and notes from stranger "started to grow on him."

"Where are the boxes? I'd like to look at the mail," he'd regularly ask. While no one was in the room with him, he once even got out of bed, grabbed a box of mail from where the parcels were stored, and carried it back all on his own. It was as if the messages from strangers gave him a new burst of energy.

The sheer quantity of mail was overwhelming though. "He could appreciate one letter for months …he doesn't even have the time to go through all of it," O'Connor explains.

Courtesy of Sean O'Connor

There were gifts from all over the world.

An Australian man even mailed his lucky coin to Widak. "He'd been holding on to it for 14 years," O'Connor says. Unfortunately the envelope containing the trinket was damaged before it reached its destination and the coin was lost. But the sentiment touched Widak.

Courtesy of Sean O'Connor

Even though he'd seen Reddit users commit all sorts of acts of kindness — such as fulfilling a terminal cancer patient's wish, gathering funds for a child's medical care, and so on — O'Connor was still amazed. "These people have their [crap] together. They're going out of their way to send letters to stranger."

"No one could predict this," he says. "And they're still doing it."

Related stories:

• How Reddit users helped fulfill a terminal cancer patient's wish
• Reddit raises $31,000 for child's medical care — in 12 hours
• Historical sci-fi movie began as Internet comment

Want more tech news, silly puns, or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

Facebook. It's like every hinky relationship you've ever had — you sense something is up, but ultimately, you're going to do a thing about it (until maybe it's too late).

We've long known more than a few Facebook users don't trust the social network to keep their personal information private. We know this because each and every time a new Facebook privacy kerfuffle hits the news, that's all we talk about in our status updates ... on Facebook. You know, that social network we don't trust with our information. Now, a new AP-CNBC poll has the statistics to support our long-held supposition.

Sixty percent of those polled had a Facebook account — even though more than half of the respondents also said they "have little or no faith in the company to protect their privacy," according to the poll. Are you on Facebook, yet still concerned about your privacy? Tell us why you stay!

Related stories:

• We may not trust Facebook, but we don't quit it either, shows poll
• Why Facebook thinks your comment is 'irrelevant or inappropriate' 
• Does your Facebook 'Like' count as free speech

Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about online privacy, then asks you to join her on Twitter and/or Facebook. Also, Google+. Because that's how she rolls.

Photodisc / Getty Images file

By Alan Henry, Lifehacker

If you're thinking about heading outside or to the gym to get some exercise now that the weather is turning warm, you may benefit from an appliance you can wear on your wrist or in your pocket that keeps an eye on your activity level and gives you feedback on how well you're doing, whether you're hitting your activity goals, or where you can improve.

There are tons of these gadgets coming onto the market, and that all make big promises, but which ones are the best to help you get in shape? Here's a look at five of the best, based on your nominations.

We asked you which of this new breed of fitness gadget were the best at helping you get and stay in shape, which ones offered you the most valuable feedback on your activities, and which ones worked with the tools you prefer. You responded, and now we're back to highlight the top five.

Nike+ Fuelband

Nike

The Nike+ Fuelband ($149) is a bracelet you wear on your wrist that, quite simply, keeps an eye on all of your activity, including your steps walked, calories burned, and more, and turns it all into a score of sorts, called your "Fuel."

You can keep track of your activity and your score on your computer or your iPhone, set daily activity goals, measure your progress, and get active feedback both through the apps and through the device itself on how well you're doing and whether you've beat your goal. The Fuelband even includes a mood tracker, so you can keep an eye on your performance and how it relates to your mindset on a given day. You also have the option to share (or not) your progress with your friends on Facebook or Twitter.

FitBit

Fit Bit

If you're looking for an appliance that doesn't just track your activity, but can help you get a more restful night's sleep, the FitBit ($100) is the gadget for you. It's a tiny clip that attaches to your pocket, sleeve, or anywhere else on your person, and keeps an eye on your activity during the day — including your steps taken, stairs climbed, calories burned, and so on — and how much sleep you get and how often you toss and turn at night.

The FitBit collects all of this information and then uploads it to the FitBit webapp so you can track your progress. If you like using your smartphone to monitor your activity, the FitBit even plays nice with popular iOS and Android fitness tracking apps like Endomondo and RunKeeper. Then, you can share as many or as few details as you like with friends, who can support you. You can even use the FitBit's webapp to track your meals and diet, offering a truly complete tool to manage and improve your health.

BodyMedia FIT

BodyMedia FIT

The BodyMedia FIT ($100 to $200) is an armband appliance that wraps around your upper arm, and keeps an eye on your calories burned, your daily activity, and even your sleep quality and sleep patterns. As you wear the armband, it sends data to the BodyMedia webapp (which requires a subscription to access) and syncs with mobile apps for iOS and Android so you can keep an eye on how well you're doing working towards your daily activity goals, and how well you slept the previous night.

You can also pick up optional displays for the armband so you can see the data it's collecting while you move around. Combine the armband with the BodyMedia meal and diet planner, and the combined package offers you a great way to improve your overall health and wellness. Plus, the service has different types of armbands depending on the features you'd like.

Striiv

Striiv

We don't fault the folks behind the Striiv Smart Pedometer ($100) for urging their community to cast their nominations. Those of you who own a Striiv really love it, and while the gadget is part touch-screen pedometer, it also has a number of built-in mini apps that motivate you to walk more often, monitor your progress either on the device or through the Striiv webapp, share your progress with friends (and even compete with them towards daily activity challenges), and even participate in charity walks where donations are made based on how many people reach a certain activity level.

As you progress towards your walking goals, you can share it with friends on Twitter and Facebook, and interact with others who also use the Striiv to stay in shape. The Stiiv even has a built-in game that challenges you to rescue animals on an enchanted island, but to do so you have to get active. The game rewards you for walking, running, and taking the stairs instead of elevators.

Reuters file

Your smartphone

Many of you pointed out that you didn't need an appliance to help you get and stay in shape. With the help of a smartphone and a few well placed apps, you just slide your phone in your pocket before your workout, and let the app track your speed, movement, and activity. Other apps allow you to log your workout with their own active communities who will encourage you to push harder towards your goals, cheer you on, and offer instant feedback either on the device or on the web. We discussed a number of these types of apps when we showed you how to turn your Android phone or your iPhone or iPad into your personal trainer, if you want to go that route.

More stories from Lifehacker:

• Clean Up and Organize Your Music Library This Weekend
• Put Your Phone in a Drinking Glass to Boost Its Alarm Volume and Avoid Oversleeping
• How to Choose the Best Chart for Your Data

Like her great-great-grandmother and etiquette expert Emily Post, Anna Post strives to make the world politer. She speaks with msnbc.com's Rosa Golijan about smartphone etiquette — and rude phone users.

Post explains that attempting to be a bit more courteous while using our smartphones (and other mobile devices) is quite important as many people list misuse of mobile technology among their top pet peeves. According to a survey sponsored by Intel, 73 percent of people complained about seeing someone use a cellphone while driving, 65 percent were annoyed by people shouting into phones, and 28 percent were irritated by those who use mobile devices while walking down streets.

The guidelines offered by Post in the video above, along with the tips below, should help us all get through our days with far fewer of those annoyances — without having to abandon our smartphones:

• Practice what you preach: If you don't like others' bad behavior, don't engage in it.
• Be present: Give your full attention to those you are with, such as when in a meeting or on a date. No matter how well you think you multi-task, you'll make a better impression.
• The small moments matter. Before making a call, texting or emailing in public, consider if your actions will impact others. If they will, reconsider, wait or move away first.
• Talk with your family, friends and colleagues about ground rules for mobile device usage during personal time.
• Some places should stay private: Don't use a mobile device while using a restroom.

Want more tech news, silly puns, or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

msnbc.com

A mom who dared to share words of encouragement on Facebook to an unpopular reality-show contestant found herself as the target of a hate campaign that's raged for six months. After trolls allegedly set up a fake Facebook page in her name and used it to solicit girls as young as 9, Nicola Brookes decided to sue Facebook to find the names of the unseen people who persist in harassing her.

Brookes, who lives in Brighton, England, has been the target of troll hatred on Facebook since last fall, when Frankie Cocozza, an "X-Factor" contestant, was thrown off the British equivalent of "American Idol" for boasting about drug use. Brookes, whose daughter is a fan of the show, was looking at a Facebook page about Cocozza and saw all the snarky remarks posted to him.

"Keep your chin up, Frankie," she said in her Facebook post. "They'll move onto someone else soon." Move on they did, to Brookes herself.

On the fake Facebook page they created in Brookes' name, the trolls apparently solicited young girls for drugs and for sex, then posted comments on the same page calling Brookes a pedophile. The trolls also later posted Brookes’ Brighton home address and a photo of her daughter, says Brookes.

msnbc.com via Bains Cohen LLP

An example of just one of many attacks on Nicola Brookes that have been waged on Facebook in the past six months.

Facebook removed the fake page, but Brookes wants the social network to turn over the Internet addresses of the perpetrators, hiding behind various identities. She maintains that she did nothing more to inflame their bile than share her "keep your chin up" remark.

"As soon as she posted that comment about the singer, people started hurling awful, nasty comments toward her," attorney Rupinder Bains told msnbc.com in a phone interview. Her London-based firm, Bains Cohen, took the case on a pro bono basis. Brookes, in her 40s, has Crohn's disease and has not been able to work for a while. The Facebook fiasco has made her scared to leave her home, with threats continuing, Bains said.

When the law firm asked Facebook to remove the fake page last fall, it did so quickly — "they were great," said Bains.

"But the trolling hasn't stopped," she said. "The trolls will constantly be on there, making comments about Nicola ... and then they say things on other blogs elsewhere and on their own Facebook pages. We have to take steps to get the identity of these trolls."

Facebook, contacted for comment by msnbc.com, shared this statement:

Nothing is more important to us than the safety of the people that use our service. Unlike other websites and forums Facebook has a real-name culture, which provides greater accountability and a safer and more trusted environment. We are clear that there is no place for bullying or harassment on Facebook and we respond aggressively to reports of potential abuse.

The site gives users "the tools to report abuse on every page and the option to block people from having any further contact with them.   Reports involving harassment are prioritized, reviewed by a trained team of reviewers and removed if they violate our terms."

In a story in the Telegraph, a Facebook spokesman said much of the same, adding that the site responds "aggressively to reports of potential abuse," but declining to comment on the legal action.

Bains believes there may be four or five people behind the harassment/bullying effort on Facebook, but she doesn't know for sure. The law firm plans to request an injunction from the court in Britain to compel Facebook to turn over the computer addresses of those involved in the cruel campaign.

What happens if such an order is granted and the law firms gets ahold of the names? "We would see criminal prosecution once we've identified the trolls," Bains said. Charges could include violations of harassment and communications laws in Britain.

The case, she said, "just goes to show how the veil of anonymity gives an individual so much strength and power," including the power to wound.

Meanwhile, Brookes has been "through times of depression because of this," but she remains on Facebook, Bains said: "She refuses to be beaten by them."

Related stories:

• Teen sues classmates for libel over Facebook page
• Mom's Facebook photo pops up on porn, dating sites
• Girls expelled for Facebook 'Hit List'
• Mom: Facebook flagged photo of Down syndrome son as inappropriate

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Google's Mother's Day gift to moms everywhere is a sweet, short animation on its search home page. You'll see the middle "g" in Google as the mom, complete with pearls around her neck, and the two "o's" in Google as the kids running up to mom to give her hugs and kisses and a flower.

The Mother's Day tribute has been done by Google since 2000, but this is the first time it's using animation for moms' day.

If you're searching for anything online today — including a last-minute Mother's Day gift — Google's doodle is a good reminder that gifts aside, what's really important on this day are matters of the heart.

Related stories:

• More than 114,000 students doodled for Google, but only one will wind up on the homepage
• Google doodle: Alexander Calder's moving mobile
• Google doodle celebrates 'world's largest snowflake'

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Getty Images stock

You've seen her, or maybe you are her: The mother with a phone in one hand, kid in another, and run, run, running to keep up with the demands of work, family, friends. Nearly 75 percent of those U.S. moms visited Facebook in March, and 54 percent of them have smartphones, higher than the national average, according to Nielsen.

Those are some of the stats shared in the research firm's snapshot of "The DIgital Lives of American Moms," released Friday.

"Moms are at the center of their family's offline life, so it's little surprise they're also at the center of many of the biggest trends online as well," said Nielsen.

Among the firm's findings, based on statistics from March:

• While Facebook reigns as the top social network or blog for moms, with 72.5 percent of them going on the site in March, next in line were: Blogger, visited by 24.3 percent; Twitter, 14.1 percent; WordPress, 10.8 percent; and Tumblr, 8.3 percent.
• Pinterest, the site that allows users to "pin" info, links and photos onto a virtual bulletin board, was the top "family and lifestyle" site by moms in March, with 4.9 million mothers visiting the site in March. Nielsen said moms are 61 percent more likely to visit Pinterest than the average online user.
• Disney Online was the second-favorite family and lifestyle site, with 4.8 million mom visitors in March, followed by iVillage Network (4.4 million), WebMD (4.2 million) and Everyday Health (3.8 million).

"When using social media, moms are 38 percent more likely to become a fan of or follow a brand online, and moms who blog are more than twice as likely to follow brands and celebrities compared to the online average," Nielsen said. 

Moms also visit blogs more often: They're over 25 percent more likely than the general online populace to hit WordPress and Blogger. In fact, about one in three bloggers are moms, and 52 percent of bloggers are parents with kids under 18 in their household.

While many of us shop online to save time and money, moms "are 35 percent more likely to shop for clothes, 50 percent more likely to buy toys, 29 percent more likely to buy music and 23 percent more likely to purchase e-books online within the past 30 days," Nielsen said. 

That mom who has the phone attached to her palm is not only busy checking on children, schools and schedules, she's also checking social media, Nielsen says: At least half of moms use their mobile devices to do so, compared to 37 percent of the overall online population.

More stories about the crazy digital lives we lead:

• 12 percent of younger moms use cellphone during sex: study
• Study identifies 4 types of cafe Wi-Fi hogs
• Addicted to your cellphone? Nomophobia on the rise
• New bra is made to carry an iPhone

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Getty Images stock

Some moms are more into romancing the phone than romancing their mates: 12 percent use their phones during sex, according to a survey.

It takes a bit of imagination — maybe too much, really — to picture that scene, much less the logistics. And it does beg at least a few follow-up questions: Are those moms texting, talking or playing "Words With Friends" during such intimate moments? And if they're talking, are they hands-free, er, that is, wearing a Bluetooth headset?

Those are answers we'll never learn from the otherwise informative "Moms & Media 2," a survey by Meredith Parents Network, which publishes several magazines including "Parents" and "American Baby."

"When we saw the results we were wondering the same exact thing," a spokesperson for Meredith Parents Network told us. "Unfortunately we don't have any anecdotal data about the how's or the why's."

The tech-centered behavior comes from mothers between the ages of 18 and 35 — dubbed "Millennial moms," born between 1977 and 1994. "There is no part of their lives that is media free," the company said in a statement.

As further evidence, 21 percent of these moms use their phones in the bathroom, although the surprise there is that the figure isn't higher. It's hard to go into any public restroom these days without hearing those of either gender on the horn while they're on the john.

Among the other findings:

• 81 percent of Millennial moms said shopping was the No. 1 way they use their smartphones
• They have an average of 13 apps on their phones, and two-thirds say that fewer than half of those apps are for their kids.
• They have a "love-hate relationship with Facebook." While more than 8 in 10 moms use the social network, 72 percent are frustrated by "all of the recent Facebook changes to its format and privacy policies," and 53 percent said they feel Facebook "wastes their time."
• 55 percent of time-starved moms said they de-friended companies on Facebook, with "too many messages and ads being the No. 1 reason," Meredith Parents Network said.
• Video streaming is on the rise for this group: 23 percent streamed TV in 2011, compared to 16 percent in 2010. 
• Only 41 percent said they watched live TV in 2011, compared to 55 percent in 2010.

"Today's moms are media omnivores," said Carey Witmer executive vice president and president of Meredith Parents Network, in a press release. "Controlling their voracious diet is so important to them that they are constantly creating new rules about how and when media intermingles with their busy lives via their various devices, screens and networks."

The survey was done last November and December by Zeldis Research Associates for Meredith Parents Network. A "nationally representative sample" of Millennial moms, with children from infants to age 12, was taken, and 1,041 complete questionnaires returned.

More stories about the crazy digital lives we lead:

• Study identifies 4 types of cafe Wi-Fi hogs
• Addicted to your cellphone? Nomophobia on the rise
• New bra is made to carry an iPhone

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Devin Coldewey / msnbc.com

It's no surprise to walk into a café and find dozens of people hunched over their laptops, drinks empty, possessions spread liberally about. Many of us have had our share of prolonged coffee shop hangouts, after all. Now researchers at the University of North Carolina have taken a closer look, and identified four different "territorial behaviors" of these Wi-Fi-slurping nomads.

The reasons for working from a café are many: a lack of home Internet access or good coffee-making equipment, or perhaps a desire to get out of the house. But the result is the same: café tables claimed in full by people who in some cases will stay for hours after buying just one drink or scone. Researchers have observed some lingering in a café literally for up to eight hours, or leaving their things behind to save a table while they get lunch or even step out.

The study, part of Merlyn Griffiths' dissertation research at UNC and published in the Journal of Service Research, approaches the familiar café trip almost as an anthropological expedition. Interestingly, the café squatter predicament is a very American one. In more collectivistic cultures like China or India, "sharing public space is not an issue. It's more of a communal thing," Griffiths told me. "People are less likely to feel threatened, or that their space is being invaded."

Here in the U.S., though, people adhere to very different ideas of how public space should be used, and the study finds that they can be roughly be divided into the following four categories — we've applied labels to them based on the study:

• First come, first priority: Simply finding an open seat means you can sit there as long as you like. These people can be found occupying outdoor seats on sunny days or with their things sprawled unapologetically over multiple chairs. For first comers, possession is the end of the question — a philosophy with a certain brutal simplicity to it.

• Rent in perpetuity: Buying a product entitles you to a seat, even well after the product is consumed. These squatters will have their empty cup prominently displayed, or perhaps a crumb-strewn plate, as if to say "Yes, I have paid my dues." They are more concerned with not getting up than with ownership of the space.

• Limited lease: You can sit as long as your drink or food lasts, but no longer. Possibly over-caffeinated from too many refills, this type of café-goer is frequently on the go, as their conscience compels them to leave their seat as soon as their cup is empty.

• Recurring rent: There's a hard time limit on how long one may sit for any given purchase. They may feel obligated to leave or make another purchase after, say, an hour, in order to reset the clock. Some cafes actively enforce this worldview with signs and managed Wi-Fi.

Territorial behaviors are common throughout public spaces, but the researchers found them especially prevalent in these situations. When one of these types encounters another, there can be conflict as they try to work out who gets to sit, who must move and so on. 

Some people "barricade" themselves into a spot by setting out backpacks, books and other personal items, marking that territory as their own. And many squatters engage in what Griffiths calls "territorial rudeness," systematically but subtly sabotaging or deceiving their neighbors in order to gain or keep space.

The researchers found power outlets to be prime territory, of course. Spots near these were occupied for far longer than isolated tables. 

Some smaller cafés, for instance many in New York, have banned laptops and Internet altogether in an effort to prevent people from staking out a valuable position for hours. Panera Bread began first to ask, and then to force its customers to limit their time on the Wi-Fi to half an hour, according to Griffiths. Other cafés observed in the study issued Wi-Fi access codes good for a certain amount of time. No one approach has proven effective, however, and customers often find ways around limitations.

The increase in freelancers and work-from-home entrepreneurs means that there is a growing population of people who need a place to work and meet people — a place that isn't their own couch. A laptop and Internet connection form an complete office environment for them, and they can code, chat, email and negotiate all while sipping on a latte. The fact is that technology is changing the way public spaces like cafés are used, and not every space is up to the task.

Let's hear how you feel about this...

Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. His personal website is coldewey.cc.

Rosa Golijan/msnbc.com

A bit over a year ago, Facebook launched a program which aimed to prevent suicide by enabling users to instantly connect with crisis counselors through the social network's messaging system. On Wednesday, the company announced that it will augment those (and other) suicide prevention tools by adding customized services for veterans, active duty military service members, and their families.

Ten percent of military family members and nine percent of service members have considered suicide, according to a Military Lifestyle Survey conducted by the non-partisan, non-profit Blue Star Families. That very same survey also found that "social media use is prevalent throughout military families with over 90 percent of respondents reporting some type of use, of which 86 percent said that they were on Facebook daily."

So it makes sense that Blue Star, a military family assistance organization, is partnering with the social network and the Department of Veterans Affairs to address these issues.

Stephanie Himel-Nelson, director of communications for Blue Star Families, explains in a blog post that, thanks to the partnership — and the Facebook engineering team's efforts —  there is now a "customized solution that could help to identify military families and military personnel, ensuring that family members could send critical military-related counseling information to their soldiers." This information includes, among other things, ways to reach the Veterans Crisis Line, which connects veterans (and their friends and families) to qualified Department of Veterans Affairs responders via phone, online chat or text messaging.

Related stories:

• How to make Facebook look like Pinterest
• Facebook may be causing 'very significant increase' in organ donor registration
• Principal allegedly created fake Facebook identity to befriend students

Want more tech news, silly puns, or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

Rosa Golijan/msnbc.com

Considering that school districts around the country are developing social media guidelines and specifying that teachers shouldn't "friend" students on Facebook at all, one would assume that it's obvious that teachers also shouldn't "friend" students on Facebook using fake identities.

Well ... we all know what happens when we assume. 

Jessica Bock of STLtoday reports that Dr. Louise Losos — the principal of Clayton High School in Clayton, MO — has resigned from her position after a former student alleged that she'd been adding students as Facebook friends using a false identity.

"Whoever is friends with Suzy Harriston on Facebook needs to drop them. It is the Clayton Principal," a post in a public Facebook group declared at the beginning of April. Harriston, whose profile showed a photo of penguins and that she had more than 300 friends (many of them from Clayton High School) vanished from Facebook almost immediately following that claim.

"[A] search of public records in Missouri found no results for anyone named 'Suzy Harriston,'" Bock points out. And the school district "confirmed that no student by the name of Suzy Harriston was enrolled at the high school in the last two years."

The day after the allegation and mysterious disappearance, Losos took a leave of absence. Several weeks later, she handed in a resignation. 

Chris Tennill, Chief Communications Officer for the School District of Clayton, couldn't elaborate on the alleged connection between Losos and the mysterious Suzy Harriston who'd been friending Clayton students, but he did confirm that Losos "has resigned as Clayton High School Principal effective June 30, 2012." She will remain on a leave of absence "for personal reasons" until that time.

He added that the School District of Clayton and Losos had "had a fundamental dispute concerning the appropriate use of social media" and provided me with a link to the district's Employee-Student Handbook. 

While the handbook does not appear to address social media specifically, it does have a section dedicated to electronic communications between staff and students:

Staff members may use electronic communication with students only as frequently as necessary to accomplish an educational purpose.  Communication for an educational purpose would include communications related to a staff member’s position, including but not limited to teaching, counseling, athletics, extracurricular activities, treatment of a student’s physical injury, or other purposes related to a staff member’s job duties. [...] The district discourages staff members from communicating with students electronically for reasons other than educational purposes.

It's possible that the disappearance of Suzy Harriston — who only seems to have existed online — and Dr. Louise Losos' social media-related resignation coincidentally happened in the same timeframe. But if we apply Occam's razor and consider that the simplest explanation tends to be the best one, odds are that the principal had been covertly befriending students on Facebook — without letting them know who she is.

Related stories:

• How to make Facebook look like Pinterest
• Facebook may be causing 'very significant increase' in organ donor registration
• Facebook wants you to donate your organs

Want more tech news, silly puns, or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

We use cellphones every day. But for a growing number of people, staying connected is an obsession.

According to a study by SecurEnvoy, a company that deals in mobile phone technology, the fear of being apart from your cellphone is on the rise.

Read more on NBCMiami.com

It's called Nomophobia, as in "No mobile phone phobia," and 66 percent of the people surveyed said they have it.

That number is up from a similar study four years ago, where 53 percent of people admitted to a fear of losing their cellphones.

Dr. Mitch Spero, director of child and family psychologists in Broward County, said it was common to see problems arise because of cellphone use.

"Cellphones are tools that should be used to enhance our lives," he warned, "not to destroy our interpersonal communication skills with those that we love."

The study by SecurEnvoy shows that people check their cellphones an average of 34 times a day. But for Karla Campos from Pembroke Pines, that's nothing.

Campos estimates that she checks her phone closer to 50 times a day, and she even sleeps with it.

"Before I go to sleep, I put it under my pillow," said Campos, who owns a web services company called Gig Logo.

No matter what, 'it goes with me'
According to the study, 75 percent of people use their cellphones in the bathroom.

Scott Miller-Farrugia from Coral Springs admitted to being one of those people.

"I bring it into the bathroom instead of the newspaper," he said.

Scott's wife Shellie is such a cellphone addict, her nickname is "Celly."

"No matter where I am, it goes with me," she said.

Campos takes "everywhere" to the extreme, bringing her cellphone into the shower, "just in case it rings and somebody needs me."

For the record, Campos said she placed the phone on a ledge where it stays dry.

She also uses her cellphone to communicate with her 10-year-old son. But not necessarily when they're apart.

"He doesn't talk to me, I see him and pass by and he just says 'Hi Mom,'" Campos explained, "but when I have real conversation with him, it's on the phone, through Facebook."

Campos argued that any form of communication is better than none at all, and said she believes the cellphone connects her family.

Spero disagreed. "What I recommend is to keep your cellphone there for emergencies, but when you're with someone make them the priority in your life," he said.

The study showed that the younger you are, the more likely you are to be afflicted with Nomophobia. Women are also more likely to have it than men.

Wondering if you have Nomophobia?

The warning signs include: Obsessively checking your phone, constantly worrying about losing it even when it's in a safe place, and never turning it off.

More on how we live with smartphones:

• Report: Smartphones get more time on Facebook than computers 
• Discount cellphone sites come with double dose of termination fees, hassles
• DOJ official: Warrant requirement for location data 'cripples' law enforcement

TechNewsDaily

Moving on after a breakup has gotten a lot tougher since technology has become such an integral part of our lives. It used to be just a matter of tossing out his toothbrush and throwing out the six-pack you kept in the fridge for him. Now it also requires a bit of typing. But it can be done. Dry your eyes, log on and tune him out.

Your phone
Delete text messages. Phones clog up with banal messages: "C U," "Be there in 5." And even "luv u" missives. Same goes for voicemail — you do not need to listen to his voice again. Look at it this way: You're making room for someone new. But don’t delete his contact information. Consider changing his name to "Do not answer." Once you've listened to the voicemail — who can resist? — delete. 

Email
The longer you've been together, the more email you'll have buried pages back. Instead of deleting each one, type his email into your search, select all and delete them. If your contacts aren't synced with the changes you just made on your phone, delete him from your email address book — no chance of seeing his address as an autofill option. 

Facebook
The great thing about Timeline is that you can "hide" items rather than delete them. There may come a time when you'll be glad things didn't work out, but until then, you don't need the reminders. Plus, what if "new guy" starts digging into your profile? He doesn't need to see you smooching another man. 

Instagram
Go to your Instagram profile and select "Photos" and open each one with your ex in it. (But if there's a great picture of you that he took, save it — could be perfect for a match.com profile picture.) Use the box with the three dots to access your options. That's right — it's the big red delete button. 

Pinterest
Chances are he's not on Pinterest, but if you succumbed to pinning romantic visions of your future, delete the pins that will only remind you of what might have been. 

Spotify or other music services
Log on and delete "your song" and tracks by artists that you never listened to before meeting him. Like ripping off a Band-Aid, this process is best done quickly and all at once.

Now go back online, tweak your dating profile and move on. If we've missed something, don't hesitate to let us know on the TND Facebook page. Or drop me an email at lesliemeredith@technewsdaily.com.

• How Dating Rules Differ for Men and Women
• Spring Cleaning for Your Computer in 4 Steps
• Top Facebook Privacy Tweaks: How to Unfriend, Delete & Untag

Copyright 2012 TechNewsDaily, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Spotify

Considering that President Barack Obama's staff has already incorporated Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, Instagram and just about every other social media service you can think of into his reelection campaign, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Spotify's been thrown into the mix as well.

As Evolver.fm's Eliot Van Buskirk points out, Obama (or "more likely his staffers"), put together a Spotify playlist and tweeted about it a while ago. While the playlist is no longer accessible, Buskirk explains that it was full of "laughable nonsense" rather than some proper campaign music.

Twitter

Well, now the Obama team is soliciting song suggestions via Twitter and putting them onto a new Spotify playlist, which is already filled with songs from Bruce Springsteen, Curtis Mayfield, KT Tunstall, Arcade Fire and more. According to the playlist's description, it will be modified throughout November.

So ... are you going to suggest some songs to POTUS? If so, which ones?

Related stories:

• The Spotify iPad app is finally here — what took so long?
• Spotify partners up with Coca-Cola, still doesn't release iPad app
• Spotify gets makeover, Pandora-like radio stations

Want more tech news, silly puns, or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

Technology can make a perfect Mother's Day gift, whether it's filling a need or pampering mom. Here are some great ways to show how much you care:

Belkin

Belkin Chef Stand + Stylus
If mom likes to spend time cooking, she'll love the Belkin Chef Stand + Stylus. It will let her consult recipes and operate her tablet without getting it dirty. The stand and stylus will work with any tablet and can be washed with mild soap and water.
Price: $29.23 on Amazon.com

Shoes of Prey

Design Her Own Shoes Gift Card
Not only will mom have lots of fun designing her own shoes on the Shoes of Prey site, she'll receive a beautiful custom-made pair of shoes in about 5 to 6 weeks. She'll start with one of 16 basic shoe designs and then choose toe, back, decoration, heel and height options. Or she can customize one of the 177 pre-made designs, a feature I love. For materials, the selection includes cotton, leather, patent, pony, suede, glitter, snake, fish, silk and sequins. Shoes come in European sizes 31 to 49 and you can select narrow and wide widths.
Price: Starts at $165 plus shipping on ShoesofPrey.com

zero1.tv

Zero1 VooMote Zapper
Any mom with an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad will enjoy gaining control of the family TV. When she plugs the VooMote Zapper into her iOS device, it turns into a universal remote. After selecting the TV, cable/satellite/FiOS box and any other components in her home theater system, she'll be ready to take charge.
Price: $69 on Amazon.com

Barnes & Noble

B&N Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight
Mom can read anywhere with this e-reader. Its e-ink display works well in bright sunlight, and a built-in light makes it possible to read late at night with the lights off so she won't disturb hubby. With the light on, the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight lasts a whole month before needing a charge, or two months with the light off.
Price: $139 on BarnesandNoble.com

Striiv

Striiv Activity Monitor
If mom is looking to become more active, Striiv makes it fun and rewarding. This key-chain pedometer not only tracks your movements, it delivers bonuses and game rewards to help motivate. For example, for every step mom takes, her movements could power activities on an enchanted virtual island or cause Striiv to make a donation on her behalf toward providing clean drinking water.
Price: $99.95 on Amazon.com

Sony Electronics

Sony DPR-WA700 7-inch Wi-Fi Picture Frame
This is the perfect solution for mom's desk, night table or anywhere she'll enjoy seeing photos and videos of the kids. She'll get wireless updates of your latest photos from Sony's PlayMemories site, Facebook and email.  In addition, the photo frame can play Internet-based radio and pull in the weather from AccuWeather.com. The 7-inch touchscreen (800 x 480) frame has 1GB of internal storage, which holds up to 1,000 photos.
Price: $159.99 on Store.Sony.com

Nikon

Nikon Coolpix AW100
A rugged 16MP CMOS camera that’s waterproof down to 33 feet, freeze-proof down to 14 degrees F, shock-proof from s 5 foot drop, and is dust-proof — in a word, it's family-proof. Mom will get a 5x zoom lens (28-140mm equivalent) with optical image stabilization, Full HD 1080p video, a 3-inch display, a digital compass and built-in GPS with maps, so she can pinpoint the spots chronicled in photos. Comes in orange, blue and black. For more camera options, check out our Digital Camera Buying Guide.
Price: $291.01 on Amazon.com

Edward Macharia/The IRC

Assiyah Dagane Osman holds her son, Minhaj Gedi Farah, about two months after he was admitted to the IRC stabilization center in Hagadera camp, Dadaab, Kenya.

Rescue Gift
If you want to avoid the consumerism, give an online donation in mom's name to the International Rescue Committee to benefit mothers in need. Choose from options like Emergency Care for a Child, A Safe Delivery and Maternal Health Care, among others. Mom will receive a personalized print or digital card to let her know how her Rescue Gift is making a difference.
Price: Gifts start at $18 on Gift.Rescue.org

More stories on Techlicious:

• Great Gift Services for Expectant and New Mothers
• The Best Photo Gifts
• Barnes & Noble Nook eReader Can Be Read in the Dark

Get Suzanne's free daily Techlicious Newsletter or chat with her on Facebook.

Thierry Roge / Reuters file

When is it OK for your child to have a Facebook profile? Let us know what you think.

When is it OK for your child to have a cell phone? Have a Facebook profile? Log onto YouTube? James Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media and the father of four children, tackles those questions and more in a new book, "Talking Back to Facebook: The Common Sense Guide to Raising Kids in the Digital Age."

Steyer will talk about the potential pitfalls and payoffs relating to kids’ use of media and technology on the TODAY show on Wednesday. We’d like to hear how you handle these issues with your own children. Please answer the four questions below, and we’ll share the results during the broadcast segment.

More about kids and online issues:

• Docs warn about teens and 'Facebook depression'
• Teen girls as the Internet: 'Am I ugly?'
• A little bird told me your teen is on Twitter
• Mom who used Facebook to discipline teen has no regrets

milk & honey

I love shoes and shop for them at least once a week online. Fortunately for my bank account, I'm usually not satisfied with what I find. I'll like the material, but not the heel height. I'll like the style but it won't be available in the right color or size.

For shoe-aholics like me, if you're a woman with extra small or large feet or if you need the perfect shoe for a special occasion, designing your pump, sandal, wedge, bootie or flat online may be the way to go. Shoe design sites let you design a shoe from scratch, selecting colors, materials and components to make a one-of-a-kind shoe. Some will also let you tweak an existing design from a design gallery.

When you order your shoe, it will take two to eight weeks for delivery, so make sure to check the delivery schedule. And If the shoe's not quite right, all of the sites will make alterations and some will accept returns. You can also consult with a stylist if you need some help.

The shoes are pricey, coming in on average between $200 to $300, but they are custom-made for you.

milk & honey

milk & honey

On milk & honey you can design your own pump, flat, sandal, wedge or bootie. Once you choose your basic style, you can customize it with toe shape, straps, piping, embellishments, platforms, heel style, straps and backs. Materials include leather, patent leather, pony, snake, printed snake, glitter, metallic, croc, suede, stain, velvet and printed fabrics — quite a selection when you consider there a several choices for each material type. Milk & honey also has pre-designed shoes, some of which you can make simple modifications to, like color or heel height.

Shoes take 6 to 8 weeks for delivery and you can return or exchange them within 30 days if they're unworn; exceptions are special order shoes — fabrics or features not offered on the shoe builder app, wide or narrow shoes and shoes below European size 35 or above size 41.

The Shoe Design Studio

The Shoe Design Studio

The Shoe Design Studio has four basic styles: pump, sandal, t-strap and mule. From there you choose the front, back, middle, heel height and platform. Once you have the design done, you select your materials for all of the shoe parts. Choose from glazed, metallic, patent, nubuck, lace, pony, fabric and snake in a variety of colors. The selection isn't huge, but there are some fun options. You can also choose the "Play of Colours" option, which provides more design guidance, and you can chat with a stylist, if you need help.

The Shoe Design studio doesn't accept returns, but they do offer a complimentary alteration and remake service, if you're unsatisfied. They'll also pay for alteration costs at a local shoemaker. Shoes take 4 to 6 weeks to make.

Shoes of Prey

Shoes of Prey

Start with one of 16 basic shoe designs on Shoes of Prey. Then choose toe, back, decoration, heel and height options. You can also customize one of the 177 pre-made designs, a feature I love. For materials, you can choose from cotton, faded leather, patent, pony, leather, shiny leather, suede, glitter, snake, fish, silk and sequins. There's no live help, but once you've selected your first material, the app will make matching, contrasting and neutral material recommendations. Shoes come in European sizes 31 to 49, and you can select narrow and wide widths.

Shoes take about five weeks to make and you can return or exchange them within a year if they're unworn — the one exception being if you order different sizes for each foot. They also offer a complimentary alteration and remake service, if you're unsatisfied. Or they'll pay for alteration costs at a local shoemaker.

More stories on Techlicious:

• 5 TSA-Approved Laptop Bags That Aren’t Ugly
• Bridesmaids Dress Rentals Give You the Designer Look for Less
• Save Money on Kids Clothes by Renting or Swapping

Get Suzanne's free daily Techlicious Newsletter or chat with her on Facebook.

It may be a myth that criminals (other than arsonists) return to the scene of the crime, but plenty enjoy bragging about it on Facebook. 

A 27-year-old woman in Lexington, South Carolina joined the Facebook-busted hall of fame last week after trashing her ex-boyfriend's house and memorializing her efforts on Facebook, WISTV.com reports. According to the Lexington County Sheriff's Department incident report, the accused entered the 30-year-old victim's home under the pretense of retrieving her belongings — an important part of any breakup — and proceeded to leave her mark.

It seems the ex-boyfriend's pool table was the focal point of her destruction, as she reportedly doused it in vegetable oil, snapped the pool cues and threw the billiard balls. Several doors were also broken. This she boasted about in Facebook posts the victim showed the deputies who responded to the man's civil disturbance call. The damage is estimated at $500, and the incident is still under investigation.

Should the woman's Facebook bragging lead to an arrest, she won't be in good company, but she'll have plenty of it.

Most notably, there's the "stupidest burglar" of Washington D.C. who, in 2010, who posted photos of himself on his 15-year-old victim's Facebook account, holding the cash he took from the boy's desk. "I've seen a lot, but this is the most stupid criminal I've ever seen," police officer Kyle Roe said.

Since then, we've all heard plenty of other examples. Why, just last month, an 18-year-old in Iowa used his Facebook wall to boast about "shooting up a house." He didn't mention the part about one of the bullets hitting a 13-year-old girl, ImperfectParent.com notes:

On Dkystra’s Facebook page, he lists his favorite activities as "partying" and "wrestling." He might want to add, "getting arrested" to that list.

Here's another April tale from the News Herald of Panama City, Florida:

Jonathan Appleby, 23, of Panama City, was arrested Tuesday after Bay County Sheriff's Office investigators found pictures of him and a friend on his Facebook page holding bottles of expensive Dom Perignon champagne, with the caption, "Hey, we're having Dom in the morning!"

The champagne had been stolen from a local hotel for which Appleby had previously worked, police said. And there's plenty more where those tales came from (the Internet).

Sigh.

Doing something stupid and posting it on Facebook — some people can't seem to do one without doing the other.

Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about online privacy, then asks you to join her on Twitter and/or Facebook. Also, Google+. Because that's how she rolls.

More on the annoying way we live now:

• Mom's Facebook photo pops up on porn, dating sites
• Don't 'friend' students on Facebook, NYC teachers told
• Bar bouncers using Facebook to verify IDs? 

Scott Barbour / Getty Images, file

The eyes have it when it comes to teens and online video: 27 percent of them say they've recorded and uploaded videos to the Internet, compared to 14 percent of adults, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project.

In 2006, the last time Pew surveyed 12- to 17-year-olds about online video behavior, 14 percent of teens said they were putting video online on sites like YouTube and Vimeo.

In the "Teens and Online Video" report, issued Thursday, Pew said video chatting is also popular with 37 percent of teens, who say they use programs such as Skype, Google Talk or Apple's iChat. 

Girls "are more likely than boys to have such chats," with 42 percent of girls saying they have used video chat compared to 33 percent of boys, Pew said.

Boys and girls are equally likely to record and upload video, another change since 2006, when "online boys were nearly twice as likely" to do so than girls.

Teens on Facebook and other social media sites are more likely to be among those shooting and posting video, Pew said. What those videos were was not part of the report. But that kind of activity on Facebook, whether it's well-meaning or otherwise, has led a growing number of parents to spy on their children's Facebook activities.

"Social network site users ... are more likely to record and upload video than teens who do not use social media," the organization said in the report.

The same is true for Twitter, with 16 percent of teens using the site, and 46 percent of those teens saying they record and upload video to the short-messaging blog.

While such social media sites aren't supposed to be used by those under age 13, the reality is they often are. Some safe-haven social websites are being created for the youngest of teens and even those under age 10. Among them are KidzVuz, which lets children share their own video reviews about movies, books and toys. With online video becoming a daily part of life for many children, such sites are a good place to start.

Related stories:

• 60 percent of US parents spy on teens' Facebook accounts: survey
• Skype security hole shares Internet addresses
• Safe social networking sites for kids
• YouTube channel offers hope to gay teens

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Facebook

On Tuesday, Facebook announced that its users can now declare that they are registered organ donors by adding an "organ donor status" to their timelines, in the same way that they'd add a relationship status. The social network said it hopes this new feature will raise "broader awareness about organ donation" and encourage people to officially register as organ donors.

It's peer pressure at its best — and it might just be working.

Read: For organ donation, Facebook beats the DMV, bioethicist says

A Facebook spokesperson informed me that "as of late [Tuesday] afternoon, more than 100,000 people had stated on their Facebook timelines that they are an organ donor." As this number may include users who were registered organ donors before the new status feature was added or people who aren't actually officially registered as donors, it is not particularly indicative of what's happening.

But data collected by Donate Life America — a not-for-profit alliance of national organizations and state teams committed to increasing organ, eye and tissue donation — gives us a better idea of what may be happening.

A spokesperson for the alliance informed me that Donate Life America has heard from most of its members and that they "have seen a very significant increase in both traffic to their registry websites and actual registration." She added that the exact numbers are still being gathered, but did offer a look at the preliminary data.

As of Wednesday morning, Donate Life America had seen more than 18,000 click-throughs from Facebook to state organ donor registries. It also saw a "dramatic increase" in likes on its Facebook page (which jumped from barely over 50,000 on Monday evening to about 70,000 by Wednesday afternoon).

These details suggest that awareness about organ donation saw a boost, but what about actual donor registrations?

Well, there are definitely some big jumps. The team from Minnesota, which normally gets about three new organ donor registrations per day reported that there were 285 new registrations on Tuesday and another 90 before breakfast time on Wednesday. North Carolina had 578 new registrations on Tuesday and 121 by Wednesday morning. Indiana reported that it was "just shy" of 300 new registrations on Tuesday. 

California alone saw 3,904 new registrations on Tuesday — which was a 5,000 percent increase of the prior day's numbers.

The data for other states follows a similar pattern: A huge jump in registrations on Tuesday and no drop in sight.

While this initial data doesn't mean that the trend will continue or that Facebook has solved a major medical issue, it does give a bit of hope. It also shows the power of social media. Whether we love or hate Facebook, the social network plays a role in many of our lives. And when an issue is promoted on the site, it's hard to avoid it.

We now see the option to add an organ donor status when we edit our Timelines, we see our friends adding such statuses, and we see links encouraging us to officially register as a donor. Odds are that eventually we'll idly click on something, perhaps just to learn about organ donation. Perhaps that will lead to us deciding to become donors (if we aren't already) ... at which point we'd update our Facebook statuses and promote the issue all over again.

Want more tech news, silly puns, or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

Social media is old news to the digital natives currently enrolled in K-12 education, but as the news reveals on a semi-regular basis, a few adults overseeing education still can't wrap their heads around it. For all the Facebook pages set up for classroom discussion and homework help, there's a sordid tale like that of the New York City teacher who wrote "this is sexy" under the Facebook photos of his female students.

So, no surprise that on Tuesday, the NYC Department of Education joined the more than 40 national public school districts with its first official set of social media guidelines for DOE employees. Most notably, teachers are advised that approved Facebook pages and similar online outlets are permitted for classroom conversation, but there is to be no friending" or other such communication with students via personal accounts.

"In an increasingly digital world, we seek to provide our students with the opportunities that multi-media learning can provide — which is why we should allow and encourage the appropriate and accepted use of these powerful resources," reads the Rules & Policies notification on the NYC's DOE website. "As we challenge our students with new methods of learning, we will ensure that these tools are used responsibly, and serve to enrich the learning environment in our schools."

To ensure teachers use social media tools responsibly, the new guidelines note that any school employees who use Facebook and other social media with their students should use a separate, professional email address connected with the accounts, one that is not used for personal emails.

Say a teacher gets lazy and continues to use personal email for school-related social media projects, or professional email for his or her Facebook profile. Then that teacher can expect to have all that digital communication considered "professional," and as such, "have no expectation of privacy." That "professional" label means principals and other officials are free to monitor for "questionable behavior."

What kind of "questionable behavior?" According to the guidelines, "If a particular type of behavior is inappropriate in the classroom or a professional workplace, then that behavior is also inappropriate on the professional social media site."

Other school districts are more restrictive, some barring unmonitored digital contact between students and teachers altogether. Last month, the Board of Education in Paramus, N.J., prohibited any digital communication with students outside unless it took place over school computer, email and telephone accounts.

Last year in Missouri, legislators repealed a law that barred teachers from using websites such as Facebook and Twitter that allowed "exclusive access" with students -- restrictions educators protested. The state now advises districts to implement their own social media guidelines.

For some NYC teacher representatives, however, the city's new guidelines do more to hinder education than help. In an interview with the New York Times, Michael Mulgrew, president of the teachers’ union, the United Federation of Teacher, told New York Times he had concerns over the guidelines. "The DOE is basically telling the people who have gone above and beyond to make education more interactive, 'Hey, if you want to do it, you do it at your own peril.' "

Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Tell her to get a real job on Twitter and/or Facebook. Also, Google+.

• How to avoid getting unfriended on Facebook
• Mom's Facebook photo pops up on porn, dating sites
• Girls expelled for Facebook 'Hit List'

Google

Cynthia C., an eleventh-grader from Edison, NJ, writes "If I could travel in time, I'd visit the age of the Vikings. Though their tales of monsters may not have been entirely true, they were some of the greatest explorers in history. It would be a remarkable experience to share adventures and discover new lands with them."

Google's annual "Doodle 4 Google" competition encourages students to create redesigned versions of the search engine giant's logo. The motivation? A scholarship, a trip to New York, some gadgets, a shirt and the chance to have a drawing appear on the Google homepage for a day. 

This year over 114,000 drawings were entered into the contest — and you get to choose the winner.

Google

Cory H., a ninth-grader from Durham, CT, writes that he'd travel to the era "of the U.S. Industrial Revolution because it was a time of prosperity and renewal for the nation's economy and its population. The new found inventions and machinery replaced manual labor with more efficient and sped up production sparking the dawn of a new age."

To make things simpler, a panel of Google employees has narrowed things down to 250 state finalists. From those finalists, 50 state winners were selected. And now your vote could affect the list of national finalists, as well as the national winner — whose drawing will appear on the Google homepage. 

Google

Herman W., a sixth-grader from West Covina, CA, writes "If I could travel in time, I'd visit Retro City. A future city made of robots and humans. A wide variety of different mechanical arms are laid out on the page. Extra Robotic Designs are spread for the background and the Google is made from buildings to robotic designs."

You can cast one vote for each grade group (K-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9, and 10-12) and all of the candidates can be found in a neat gallery page created by Google.

Google

Eileen P., a fifth-grader from Alexandria, VA, writes "If I could travel in time I would visit the 70s so I show alot of objects or trends that were big in the 70s, especially peace."

The theme of this year's competition — and the selected drawings — is "If I could travel in time, I'd visit...," so you'll probably notice some rather quirky drawings. I've included some of my favorites in this post.

Google

Marianne L., a first-grader from Sandy, UT writes "If I could travel in time, I would visit the age of the dinosaurs. I would get to see great big mommy and daddy dinosaurs, baby dinosaurs, and maybe some eggs. I could even swim wtih a Cryptoclidus. It would be awesome to meet the greatest creatures of all time."

Related stories:

• New Google account users forced to join Google+
• Google thinks this lady browses like a dude
• Google+ adds meme-generating tool

Want more tech news, silly puns or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

Duane Hoffman / msnbc.com

LiveScience

Want to stay in your friends' good graces on Facebook? A new study suggests that you should start by responding to posts on your wall.

The research reveals some of the unspoken rules of Facebook — the social dos-and-don'ts that keep the site humming more or less happily. Fortunately, most of these rules are pretty simple: Respond to messages, avoid disrespecting people, and don't post photos that are going to get your friends in trouble with their bosses.

"If you're trying to project yourself as very professional and you're trying to get a job and your best friend comes on your page and posts something like, 'Oh what a crazy weekend, I saw you do those five keg stands,' then your friend has hurt your reputation,'" said study researcher Erin Bryant, a doctoral candidate at Arizona State University.

Many of the "rules" people live by on Facebook are designed to prevent such awkward situations, Bryant and her Arizona State colleague Jennifer Marmo found in their new study, published online April 25 in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.

Facebook's rules of engagement
It may seem that maintaining a bit of discretion on Facebook is a no-brainer, but in fact, it's these sorts of unspoken rules that make the social world go 'round. Research on these so-called "interaction rules" is relatively rare, but studies in the 1980s found that people can articulate their friendship dos and don'ts when asked. Important friendship rules include standing up for a friend in his or her absence, sharing confidences, showing trust and support, and volunteering to help in times of need.

In the social network world, however, "friend" can mean anything from your mom to your mom's second cousin to that guy you met at a party one time. With so many different relationships under the umbrella of "friend," Bryant and Marmo were interested in whether real-world friendship rules and Facebook friendship rules would look very much alike. With 483 million Facebook members around the world checking into the site on a daily basis, Bryant said, the site has clearly become an important part of the social landscape.

Not wanting to impose their own conception of social-networking rules, the researchers set up focus groups of Arizona State undergraduates to develop their own list. A total of 44 students, ages 19 to 24, participated. They averaged about 200 Facebook friends each and spent nearly 40 minutes a day, on average, on the site. [Inside Facebook (Infographic)]

The focus groups came up with 36 rules big and small, from "don't post anything that will hurt a friend's image" to "monitor your photos to make sure they are flattering."

"They were very adamant that you needed to wish people happy birthday," Bryant told LiveScience. "If it's your close friend, you have to call them or text them, you can't just say it on Facebook. But everyone else, if they're an acquaintance, you should at least say happy birthday on Facebook."

Friends versus "Facebook friends"
Next, the researchers created a questionnaire to figure out which of these rules really mattered. They gave the questionnaire to 801 undergraduates, randomly assigning the students to think of a real-life Facebook "close friend," "casual friend" or "acquaintance." Close friends were defined as someone the student would consider a best friend, casual friends were defined as a person they would hang out with offline but not consider close, and acquaintances were people the person had met but did not regularly interact with.

Students who did not show enough differentiation between these three categories in their friend circle were eliminated, leaving a final sample of 593 students. The students then completed the survey about whether each of the 36 focus-group rules would apply to their relationship with the Facebook friend or acquaintance.

The results revealed that overall, reciprocity was the most important ingredient for a successful Facebook friendship. People generally agreed that if you post something on a friend's Facebook profile, a response is expected. It was also important to avoid posting anything disrespectful of a Facebook friend and to consider how posts might affect other people's relationships. [See the Top 10 Rules of Facebook]

The researchers also found that the closer the friend, the more Facebook communication channels were open to them; acquaintances wouldn't use the Facebook chat feature, for example. Acquaintance relationships were understood to be for "passive Facebook stalking," Bryant said.

"Even though I'm letting you see these things [on my profile], I don't expect you to suddenly try to IM me on Facebook," she said. "It creeps me out if you come post on my wall."

Close friends were also more aware of the need to protect each other's reputations on Facebook. They might choose to leave a photo unposted if it reflected badly on a close friend, for example, but they were less likely to take such pains for acquaintances.

Interestingly, however, Facebook rules related to maintaining a relationship, such as saying "happy birthday," were ranked as most important for acquaintances, but least important for close friends. That's likely because Facebook is only a portion of any given best-friend relationship, but it may comprise the entirety of an acquaintance relationship, Bryant said.

"We use it less with [acquaintances], but what we do holds more importance, because it's one of the few modes of contact we have with them," she said.

The only category of rules that did not differ by friendship type was the category related to Facebook's role in one's own reputation. Everyone is careful not to hurt themselves on the site, Bryant said. For example, people were equally likely to say that they would not post information that could be used against them, regardless of whether it was a friend or an acquaintance who might consider using that information for evil.

"People are starting to be aware of all the negatives" that can come with posting on Facebook, Bryant said. "They are aware of it whether it's a close friend, a casual friend or acquaintance."

New social landscape
Many of the Facebook friendship rules echo real-life friendship dos and don'ts, Bryant said, especially in the sense that we're supposed to watch our friends' backs and avoid hurting them. Because college students tend to spend more time on the site than older people, and tend to use it in a more tell-all capacity, rules might differ slightly among different age groups, she said. [Top 10 Social Networking Sites]

But the study highlights the complications of Facebook's one-on-one interactions in a public sphere. Many students complained of seeing "emo poetry" from acquaintances in their Facebook Newsfeed, for example. It seems wrong to read raw emotions from someone you may have had a class with two years ago but barely know, Bryant said. Other issues come up when in-jokes or pictures of a fun night out get posted publically, perhaps alerting a friend who was left out of his or her exclusion.

"The public and private component is something that becomes huge with Facebook," Bryant said. "And that's what gets people in trouble, too."

You can follow LiveScience senior writer Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

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Facebook

After successfully making the "relationship status" a significant issue in our lives, Facebook now brings attention (and peer pressure) to something else — our posthumous fate. On Tuesday, the social network announced that users may declare that they are registered organ donors by adding an "organ donor status" to their Timelines. While declaring your donor status on the social network isn't legally binding, Facebook hopes it will inspire people.

Facebook's latest feature is an attempt to save lives by raising "broader awareness about organ donation," according to a press release signed by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg. The two "believe that by simply telling people that you're an organ donor, the power of sharing and connection can play an important role."

In an interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts, Zuckerberg said his girlfriend, medical student Priscilla Chan, as well as his friendship with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs (whose life may have been extended thanks to a liver transplant) inspired him to add the organ donor status feature to Facebook.

While the plan might initially seem strange, it's quite clever once you think about it. Whether we love or hate Facebook, the social network plays a role in many of our lives. So when an issue is promoted on the site, we won't be able to escape it. Soon you'll notice the option to add your organ donation status when you edit your Timeline, you'll see your friends adding such statuses and you'll see links encouraging you to officially register as a donor. 

Odds are, you'll idly click on something and learn a bit about organ donation. You might even decide to become a donor yourself — and then update your Facebook status, of course — which will add to the overall promotion of the issue.

Facebook

If you are looking to add your organ donor status as soon as possible, here's what you have to do, according to Facebook's Help Center:

1. Click Life Event at the top of your timeline
2. Select Health & Wellness
3. Select Organ Donor
4. Select your audience and click Save

Just as you can hide your relationship status from some, most, or all people, you can also hide your organ donor status by editing your privacy settings.

And just as you can set a fake relationship status, you could set a fake organ donor status as well — though I don't know why you would — without any apparent legal consequences. Declaring that you're married on Facebook doesn't make a marriage license materialize, and declaring that you're an organ donor won't make your kidneys vanish one day. (Though family members could choose to take such a status to signify your final wishes, of course.)

Facebook

Whether the awareness raised by Facebook (as well as the peer pressure it produces) will reduce the number of individuals who die while waiting for a transplant remains to be seen, but Dr. Andrew M. Cameron, a transplant surgeon at Johns Hopkins — who happened to discuss the issue with Sandberg during their 20th college reunion — sounds optimistic in a press release issued by the organization:

[Cameron] and a team at Johns Hopkins intend to carefully study the effect the Facebook effort has on organ donation rates. If it is successful, Cameron says he believes it could be used as a prototype for tackling other challenging public health problems.

"Getting people to donate their organs has been an intractable public health problem. It stands in contrast to other public health campaigns such as seat belts or drunk driving, which have had major impacts," he says. "If we succeed on Facebook with organ donation, it could be a model for how to use of-the-moment social media to solve important medical issues."

The folks from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) also reached out to explain that they're endorsing Facebook's organ donor status feature. "Social media outlets have a way of breaking down many of the traditional barriers we have in everyday conversation," said UNOS Executive Director Walter Graham. "Organ and tissue donation may not come up in the course of many discussions we have.  But this is a unique opportunity for people to make their decision known and spur others to share their commitment to Donate Life."

Want more tech news, silly puns, or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.