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The article discusses an online social network research project carried out by Harvard University sociologists which allegedly violated students' privacy. The author explains the ethical concerns surrounding this project, which involved research on student profiles on the social networking website Facebook. The importance of using university and college institutional review boards (IRBs) when seeking both funding and permission to carry out such online research projects is examined. The author questions the researchers' use of Harvard student research assistants throughout the project as well.

The article discusses a report published in the journal "Science" on a study that focused on users of the social media network Facebook's exposure to news content on the site that contradicts their political ideology. Topics addressed include findings that, on average, 23 percent of users' friends are of an opposing political affiliation and 29 percent of news stories displayed in users' news feeds conflict with a user's ideology, as well as concerns regarding limitations of the study.

The author comments on the results of a study by graduate psychology students at Stanford University which found that the social network site Facebook makes people unhappy.

The article discusses social media company Facebook's announcement that it would improve internal scrutiny of its research projects on Facebook users, noting users' privacy concerns. Topics addressed include a lack of specific information provided by Facebook regarding its research guidelines, public outcry based on Facebook's handling of a social science study on users' emotions, and the views of Facebook chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer.

The article discusses the implications of social networking company Facebook's announcement that it had altered users' news feeds as part of a psychological experiment on the role of social media in shaping users' emotions. The author highlights the potential benefits of research on the social and psychological impact of Facebook and notes users' concerns about privacy violations.

The article reports that online-social-network operator Facebook In. has issued new guidelines for experiments conducted on users by the company's data scientists, with a greater emphasis to be placed on oversight of such research and ethical considerations involved.

The article reports that according to a Congressional Management Foundation study of congressional social media usage, social media managers find Facebook to be the most effective tool to understand constituents' views and to communicate the views of their members.

The article focuses on a study by researchers from Edinburgh Napier University which revealed that respondents who turned down friend requests in Facebook felt guilty, while more than one in tend regarded being on the site a nervous experience.

A new study released Thursday by the Pew Research Center found that 8 percent of Americans who are active on the Internet are enthusiastic users of the social networking service Twitter. The study is part of a Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project that explores the changes taking place surrounding the spread of technology in the United States over a 10-year period. This portion of the survey, which was conducted in November of this year, is a subset of a question posed to Americans asking if they ''used Twitter or another service to share updates about yourself or to see updates about others?'' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]