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You have probably attended a Clubhouse meet by now or hosted a session of your own. Even if you haven’t, you have probably heard that Clubhouse is showing a steady rise in numbers in India. Is it going to be the Next Big Place for brands to tell their stories? Will it fade into brand oblivion like Orkut, Snapchat and Foursquare or stay relevant but niche like Twitch, Telegram and Reddit? Where did Signal go, by the way? Wasn’t it going to be the new WhatsApp?It may be too early to say anything about Clubhouse from a brand strategy perspective. While brands are finding ways of registering their presence on Clubhouse, there aren’t enough analytics for India to know whether this will become an essential part of social media strategy or not.A report on Quartz said the number of Indian users of Clubhouse had gone up to 5.2 million in June, which, compared to the 1 million users reported in May (according to an Economic Times article) would indicate that this is substantial growth. From the ground level, I can only say that the number of people on my list now on Clubhouse seems to be growing day by day.…

Illustration by Alessandra Soria. 12 year old feeling exhausted after being on her phone the entire day. Social Media has been around for only 24 years. Those with phones and computers brought to light Six Degree, a social media platform common in the late 1900s.  Platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter have taken over the media industry since the early 2000s. While they have done much good to the world, they have brought just as much terror.  Social media apps on different mobile devices have set an age limit to who can purchase the app; for Snapchat and Instagram, it is 12 years and older. Twitter has it set at 17 years and older. In reality, these are just filler numbers; children, adolescents, and teenagers find social media extremely easy to access even from a young age. According to CNN, “the average age for a person to open their first social media account is at the age of 12, and 23% by the ages of 8-12”. These are children who are vulnerable and have no prudence while being online. The internet, social media, websites, and anything that has to do with media has a presence of developing teenagers and a…

I probably remember 90 percent of my friends' birthdays only because of social media. Then there's 9 percent I only recall because I have them in my Google calendar with multiple reminders at staggered intervals to alert me to their special day.A variety of different social media and messaging platforms thankfully compile birthday data, but Snapchat's method is probably the clearest. Here's how to see your friends b-day info on the platform.Article continues below advertisementHere's how to see your friends' birthdays on Snapchat.If you wanted to surprise one of your pals with a nice little birthday treat (or maybe you want to know how to cue up an excuse to miss one of their parties), then you can easily glean that information thanks to Snapchat. As long as they put their actual birthday on their profile, that is.There are a couple of ways to get this info. The most readily apparent one is the cake icon beside someone's name on the social media platform.You'll be able to see that cake icon on your chat list, which compiles your most recently contacted people up top. If it's someone's birthday, then you're going to see a cake beside their name. But what…

Maine schools took precautions earlier this week after a threat to 'shoot up' a school was circulated on Snapchat. MAINE, USA — It was a message on Snapchat, threatening to shoot up a school, that prompted the Bonny Eagle school district to cancel all classes district-wide. Portland High School also went to remote classes on Thursday even though the threat didn't mention a specific school. "It wasn't specific to Bonny Eagle High School but that doesn't matter. When you get threats you chase them," MSAD 6 superintendent Paul Penna said. This is the first incident of its kind making headlines this school year, but educators said social media has caused problems in schools for years. "It's been a real uptick in it this fall with some of the stuff that's gone one with the TikTok and Snapchat," Windham High School Assistant Principal Phil Rossetti said. He's referring to the "devious licks" trend in which students record themselves stealing items from the bathrooms at their schools. Some even ripped out toilets and other bathroom fixtures.  He added that he never knows what he's walking into in the morning because he doesn't know what may have happened on social media the night…

NBC has an excellent story that takes a look at the trend of young adults attempting to buy prescription or recreational drugs from dealers on Snapchat — and ending up with fentanyl instead. The report tells the story from the perspective of several parents who have lost children and who suspect that they bought the pills using the popular chatting app. It also goes into how Snapchat is trying to deal with the problem and the difficulties that come with that moderation, both for parents and law enforcement. Some parents suspect their children were trying to obtain painkillers to deal with various pains that weren’t being addressed by doctors or dentists, while some say their kids were trying to escape a world of emotional turmoil. In at least one instance, a parent suspects Snapchat facilitated a deal with a drug dealer who might only live a few blocks away.None of that is to say that Snapchat is off the hook. One mother talks about how the suspected dealer is still advertising pills months later. Another parent says that it took Snap five months to provide info to law enforcement on one suspected dealer, who was eventually arrested. Snap told NBC…

I consider myself somewhere between a millennial and gen z-er when it comes to social media. Sure, I go on Instagram and post on Snapchat. But I have no desire to use TikTok, browse the Instagram Explore page (is it even still called that?), and I have notifications turned off for almost everything.  But one thing that always seems to get me is the Snapchat “Discover” section of Stories. Basically the Us Weekly of social media, Snapchat Discover is the ultimate place for just the most junk-filled, reality tv-esque, garbage type of media.  The section is essentially small rectangles you can click on that consist of an image and a headline, almost always discussing celebrity news. Each rectangle is from a different media company, usually one I already know, such as Daily Mail or Harper’s Bazaar. But some also seem to be from companies whose entire content production are these mini rectangles for Snapchat, which is a whole other topic of discussion. If you click on one of these rectangles, it’ll open up to a full-screen page that’s either a full-length article or video explanation from someone. (“Someone” being an employee of the company the rectangle is from.) Let me…

September 30, 2021 at 6:31 pm SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A Rancho Cordova man was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the sexual exploitation of a child, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced on Thursday. Tyler Shayne Nelson, 28, will also be under supervised release for the remainder of his life after he is released. A search warrant was served at Nelson’s home in June 2018 after investigators received a tip regarding child pornography trading, according to acting U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert. Nelson had admitted to talking with underage girls on apps like Snapchat and Kik. He pleaded guilty on May 27, 2021, and admitted he had requested explicit photos from a 12-year-old girl.

After first announcing its 'Shorts Fund' back in May, which will see the platform pay out $100 million to top Shorts creators over time, in order to provide additional support, and motivation, for their efforts, YouTube has now announced an expansion of the funding program to Shorts creators in even more regions. Our @YouTube #shorts Fund is coming to to 30+ more countries, including Argentina, Australia, Canada, Egypt, Germany, Italy, South Korea and so many more. We're always looking to expand how we support creators around the world! pic.twitter.com/Mx1XjJMDVE— Neal Mohan (@nealmohan) September 29, 2021 As per YouTube Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan, the Shorts Fund is now available in over 30 new regions. Creators in these countries will now be able to get a piece of that big chunk of funding, with YouTube paying out between $100 and $10,000 each month to channels based on the performance of their TikTok-like Shorts clips. But ‘performance’ in this context is not entirely clear: “There’s no specific performance threshold to qualify for a bonus. The level of performance needed to qualify for a bonus payment may change from month to month based on various factors, including the location of your viewers and the…

The DEA plans to put a set of demands before platforms like Snapchat and TikTok to control the fake drug crisis fueled by social media marketplaces. The Administrator of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration has targeted social media platforms, specifically mentioning TikTok and Snapchat over the online sale of fake drugs laced with lethal chemicals that are responsible for a staggering number of deaths. Social media platforms have long served as a hotbed for trading illegal items including drugs and weapons and, of course, misinformation. Even though the platforms have strict policies against such activities, multiple reports continually highlight that business is booming for bad actors. Most of the drug peddlers actually use popular platforms like Instagram and Snapchat to advertise their goods, and then use messaging platforms such as Wickr and Kik to complete the deal with buyers. What has truly shocked authorities, however, is the sheer ease of finding such items on social media platforms, and how little is being done to put an end to this illicit online trade which continues to grow and cause more deaths. The problem has only worsened in the past few months due to the sale of fake drugs laced with lethal chemicals such as fentanyl that…

SHAWNEE, Kan. — An alarming increase in overdoses from counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl prompted the Drug Enforcement Administration to issue its first public safety announcement in six years. It says one pill can kill and never take any drugs that do not come from a reputable pharmacy. A Shawnee family is one of almost 100,000 families suffering this year from what the DEA calls an epidemic. Sixteen-year-old Cooper Davis was an adventurous kid who wanted to go the fastest, jump the highest and had an attraction to dangerous sports. Someone who never knew a stranger, lit up every room he walked into, did silly things just to be funny and was the life of the party. He was also a recreational drug user. “We tried to convince him that he would not always know what he was being given, that there was just too many unknowns out there and what he was doing was dangerous.” said Cooper’s mom Libby Davis. “But Cooper always had the mentality of it will never happen to me. He always thought he was invincible in all the risk-taking things he would do.” August 29, Libby Davis got a phone call she feared. Her son…