Online harassment and threats are not a new phenomenon, but the degree to which these are directed at women and girls has begun to receive increased attention from news media, academia and law enforcement.
Two friends tend to have more in common than two random individuals. But do friends shape our preferences in movies, music and books, or do we select friends who share our tastes? Past research was often not able to adequately track social relationships and tastes over a period of time. In the last few years, however, platforms such as Facebook have provided researchers with tools to investigate friendship dynamics over time.
During much of the second half of the 20th century, Americans got their news and civic information primarily through a few dominant sources, usually a newspaper that had a relative monopoly on local information and one of three major television networks. With the rise of the Web, there was a sense that things were changing, and many hoped that citizens would be better informed by a broader, richer and more representative and democratic array of media streams. The number of “filters” would vastly expand.
Facebook users who post, upload and tag on a regular basis may be a source of amusement — or aggravation — to their friends. A 2012 report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project suggests that such active users can significantly impact the Facebook experience of everyone in a network.
