People inventing fake Rick Warren Facebook pages

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

LAKE FOREST, CA
(ANS) – Following the tragic death of 27-year-old Matthew Warren, the youngest son of Pastor Rick Warren and his wife, Kay, who committed suicide “momentary wave of despair” in April, the Saddleback pastor has been facing another problem – a large number of fake Rick Warren Facebook pages.

In a message posted today (Friday, May 24, 2013) on his page – www.facebook.com/pastorrickwarren – he wrote, “Dear Facebook Friends, I have a personal favor to ask.

Ray Comfort Recruits Team of Christians to Answer Atheists on Facebook

Evangelist and author Ray Comfort could 

use a hand in handling all the comments 

and questions he receives on Facebook.

The Christian Post reported that evangelist and author Ray Comfort could use a hand in handling all the comments and questions he receives from atheists on Facebook, so he's recruited a team of 

Christians to join the conversation. Comfort says his controversial posts can at times receive more than 1,000 comments, and one of his posts was seen by more than a million people, many of them nonbelievers.

"It suddenly dawned on me how Facebook is an incredible medium for the gospel ... think of what it would cost and how much work it would take to have a Billy Graham-type crusade that reached 1.2 million people. But we can reach that many at no cost and with just a click of a keyboard button."

7 Ways To Be ‘More Like Jesus’ Online

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(© Strelok | Stock Free Images)

I have been amazed at what people who love Jesus can write about other people who love Jesus online. I am referring to comments that believers leave on blogs and Facebook postings. Not long ago, I responded kindly to someone who attacked something I wrote. I think his first word regarding my blog was “NONSENSE!”

When he saw my response, he quickly wrote back an apology saying, “I didn’t realize you would read my comment.” Of course, a blogger with respect for his readers doesn’t just write and disappear but reads responses and responds back. That is the difference between a blog and a magazine article.

We live in new world where people can respond instantly to blogs or Facebook postings—often without realizing that “reckless words pierce like a sword.” We of all people should have our words seasoned with love, even when we disagree.

5 Facebook Fights in Marriage

Written by K. Jason and Kelli Krafsky

Kids. Sex. Money. According to therapists, these are the most common topics married couples argue about. After recently talking with a number of counselors and clergy about common marriage problems they’re dealing with, Facebook should be added to that list. In fact, Facebook is one of the most popular relationship conflicts for today’s married couples.

Why would that be? With over 400-million users, Facebook has become the preferred communication vehicle for connecting with friends and family, and has quickly integrated into the daily routines of adults of all ages. In its wake, many spouses are grappling to keep up with their feelings towards their mates’ rate of reconnected relationships, degrees of convenience connecting to the online social network, and their level of devotion to the website.

In fact, based off the research for our book, Facebook and Your Marriage (which included personal interviews with Facebookers, conversations with therapists, surveying many blogs and websites, and reading the dozens and dozens of comments on Facebook) we’ve discovered that when a spouse says “Facebook is an issue in my marriage,” it is a cry for help without an understanding of what the real problem is.

They mistakenly blame the website when it is most likely one of these five common Facebooking issues.

Teenagers and the Internet

In the 60's, Christian parents were outraged over the "shocking" youth culture.  However, parents today may wish for the "good old 60's," because on all levels, kids today are into far worse stuff, thanks mostly to the Internet. 

Who would have ever thought that the Internet would beat out television and movies as the most time-consuming form of entertainment for teens? It has! 96% of all teens in the U.S. daily access the Internet, averaging more than four hours online every day. It now affects every family in some way, since it can be accessed in many more ways than it once could, and it is being used by teens in ways that may shock some less Internet-savvy parents. So, it is especially important for parents to know how their kids are interacting via digital media today, while also understanding that completely removing it isn't always the best move.

Baller Brides: 5 Things You Don’t Know About Mark Zuckerberg’s Wife Priscilla Chan

By Bossip Staff

For those of you nosey Rosies…
On Saturday Mark Zuckerberg added a life event to his Facebook timeline, when he married his longtime girlfriend Priscilla Chan. So who exactly is the woman who has captured the Facebook billionaire’s heart?
Peep game on the flippy!

How the iPhone got its name, and what droid and kindle really mean

Did you wait for hours to be one of the first to own the iPhone 4? If you think people who stand in line for new devices are silly, fill in the blank: “I can’t live without my ——————” 

You may not be a super early adopter, but your gadget/gizmo/doohickey/thingamajig/mobile device of choice is probably more essential to your day-to-day existence than you care to admit.

That little machine that feeds you emails, videos, Facebook updates and even some useful information now and then has a name. The author Philip K. Dick once said, “If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.” Names, and words in general, have a meaningful history that influences their use, whether you know it or not. Let’s briefly look at the story of some of these ubiquitous names.

Why Parents Lie to Let Kids Join Facebook

By PEGGY ORENSTEIN

It’s been clear for a while that parents lie about their children’s ages so they can join Facebook. A survey by Consumer Reports published in June found that there were 7.5 million users under age 13 (the site’s threshold for membership); more than 5 million were under 10. Over the year leading up to the report, a million children said they were harassed or threatened on the site.

But cyberbullying is not why kids are supposed to stay away. The legal reason for the age limit is to protect children’s privacy. Facebook collects personal data from its users — lots of it. The site’s whole purpose is to erode the concept of privacy, to make public everything about you, not only for the benefit of your 622 BFFs, but to customize your advertising or use your endorsement of a product (through the “like” button) to sell it to a friend.

Should Children Be Allowed on Facebook?

By KARIN DELL'ANTONIA

Facebook really is after your kids.

Right now, the site doesn’t officially allow children under 13 to sign up. But in this Sunday’s Times Magazine, Emily Bazelon reports that Facebook isn’t happy about it. It has tripled its spending on lobbying and formed a political action committee in anticipation of “a fight we take on at some point” — in the words of Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder — over the 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Act.

Summed up, Facebook’s argument is that millions of children (7.5 million 12 and under, according to the May issue of Consumer Reports) are already on Facebook. Letting them sign up legally (under their real ages, which now they have to hide) would allow Facebook to develop stricter privacy controls for that age group. But, Ms. Bazelon writes, stricter privacy controls aren’t in Facebook’s economic interest.

Ex-girlfriend's Facebook page triggers man's asthma attackFaceboo

Social networking might have triggered asthma attacks for one young Italian man, who experienced breathing troubles whenever he accessed an ex-girlfriend's Facebook page.

Doctors are reporting the strange case in the The Lancet.

The 18-year-old man was depressed because his girlfriend had dumped him and also deleted him from her list of Facebook friends, while "friending" many new young men, the doctors explained in a letter to the journal.

The man, who was taking medications to control his asthma, used a new Facebook nickname to become the girl's friend again and see her picture on her Facebook profile. But every time he saw her picture, he suffered shortness of breath.

Facebook logins triggering asthma attacks

For Teenage Girls, Facebook Means Always Being Camera-Ready

By RANDYE HODER

It used to be that the only people concerned about getting caught in grungy sweat pants, sans makeup, were starlets stalked by the paparazzi. But in today’s hyper-public Internet age, young teenagers are relentlessly living their lives camera-ready — and it’s not a pretty picture.

I first noticed this while looking over my 14-year-old son’s shoulder at photos of his “friends” on Facebook. Girls, in particular, seemed to be always posing — in some cases vamping — for the camera: hair swept back, hand on hip, dressed just so. In at least a few instances, they looked as if they were auditioning for a Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, clad in bikinis that left little to the imagination.

Creating a persona via Facebook is nothing new. Kids have been doing this since the site was first launched eight years ago (and even before that with MySpace and LiveJournal). By carefully selecting their own profile pictures, making public comments, and curating the photos they post, younger teenagers have become quite adept at managing their image.

How Facebook is sexualizing young girls

Teen girls have always obsessed over their looks, says Randye Hoder at The New York Times. But social networking is pushing them to a disturbing extreme

Thanks the to ubiquity of internet-connected cameras, young teens have developed an unprecedented level of self-consciousness and an obsession with sexing it up to solicit more "Likes" on Facebook. Photo: Jan Haas/dpa/CorbisSEE ALL 191 PHOTOS

Best Opinion:  N.Y. Times

In today's "hyper-public internet age, young teenagers are relentlessly living their lives camera-ready — and it's not a pretty picture," says Randye Hoder at The New York Times. Internet-connected cameras are everpresent, and young girls are obsessively posing for Facebook, whose "Like" feature — the ultimate gauge of popularity — drives girls to out-sexy each other to win the coveted clicks. Here, an excerpt:

[T]he glare of the camera is never far away. And that is affecting how adolescent girls conduct themselves in their actual, everyday lives. Girls this age, who have felt pressured historically to look their best most of the time, suddenly seem to feel as if they need to look their best all of the time. In turn, always being "on" seems to lead some girls to pose for pictures that are oversexualized: Pouting lips, lots of cleavage, short-shorts, crop tops that showcase a bare midriff. 

The Right & Wrong Ways to Buy Facebook

 By Jeff Macke | Breakout

After months of hype Facebook (FB) is expected to become a publicly traded stock at the end of this week. The richly valued company may not be for every investor, but those who've decided they need to own shares of the social media giant should know the right and wrong ways to buy the next hot stock. The frenzy surrounding any highly anticipated IPO can lead investors into mistakes that cost them real money. Josh Brown, author of Backstage Wall Street and editor of theReformedBroker.com, has some tips on how to buy Facebook shares.

1. Avoid "Facebook Funds"

Contrary to what you might hear, the funds and companies that already have Facebook stakes aren't likely to suddenly shoot up in value when the stock starts trading. Don't believe anyone who tells you to buy some company that either has an investment in or is "like" Facebook. Stick to the real deal.

"Avoid any kind of indirect way of owning it, just own it," Brown emphasizes. That's what the company going public is all about.

11 ways to prevent Facebook stalking

It's not just kids who have to protect themselves from abuse on Facebook and MySpace. These rules are just as crucial for adults. the last thing you want in your life is a stalker. Liesl Muller, a social media consultant, offers the following advice about safe social media use:

It is very important to keep your passwords safe and not to share them with anyone.

Don’t befriend just anyone. A rule of thumb is to only befriend people you know in real life. Use Facebook as an extension of your existing circle of friends.

What you share electronically stays in cyberspace forever, therefore don’t share or post anything you will not feel comfortable with. Ask yourself: will you be comfortable if your headmaster or a potential employer reads it? And potential employers do look at your Facebook page.

Courageous Conversation

by Marvin Williams

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Our Daily Bread Radio is hosted by Les Lamborn

Read: Galatians 2:11-21

When Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed. —Galatians 2:11

Bible in a Year:
Job 8-10

Is it possible that technological advances in communication have left us unable to confront people properly? After all, employers can now send layoff notices via e-mail. And people can criticize others on Facebook and Twitter instead of talking face to face. Perhaps it might be better to put all that aside and emulate how Paul communicated with Peter when they had a disagreement.

Paul had to confront Peter for compromising grace (Gal. 2:11-16). Peter had been fellowshiping with Gentiles, but when the Judaizers arrived (who believed that sinners are saved through Jesus plus keeping the law of Moses), Peter separated himself from the Gentiles. He ostracized them while professing to be one with them. Seeing this hypocrisy, Paul, in love and with passion, confronted Peter face to face for cowering to a legalistic system that was powerless to change lives. He vigorously reminded Peter that grace leads to freedom from sin’s slavery and to obedience to God.

Having courageous conversations with fellow Christians can be difficult, but they will promote purity and unity. We can carry out our responsibility to one another to speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15) by walking in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Lord, give us courage to confront
Believers who have strayed;
And then with gentleness restore
By coming to their aid. —Sper

A well-chosen word can speak volumes.

http://odb.org/2012/05/16/courageous-conversation/

Facebook reveals revenue, profit slide ahead of IPO

(Reuters) - Facebook Inc reported its first quarter-to-quarter revenue slide in at least two years, a sign that the social network's sizzling growth may be cooling as it prepares to go public in the biggest ever Internet IPO.

The company blamed the first-quarter decline, which surprised some on Wall Street, on seasonal advertising trends.

"It was a faster slowdown than we would have guessed," said Brian Wieser, an analyst with Pivotal Research Group.

"No matter how you slice it, for a company that is perceived as growing so rapidly, to slow so much on whatever basis - sequentially or annually - it will be somewhat concerning to investors if faced with a lofty valuation," Wieser said.

Does Facebook Make You Spend More?

By Mandi Woodruff

Here's another reason to consider relinquishing your obsession with social media:

A new survey of more than 1,000 consumers found the vast majority (75 percent) clicked on product links posted and "liked" by friends. From there, more than half wound up making spur-of-the-moment purchases.
You can bank on the fact that most of those purchases were made by millennials, who put more faith in ratings on Yelp! and those little Facebook 'thumbs up' icons than their own parents – a behavior experts have dubbed "Social Proofing."

Facebook isn’t making us lonely. It’s making us anxious. Get over it.

How I learned to stop worrying and love the Zuck

As a masterpiece and a cultural catastrophe at once, Facebook is distinctly American. It represents a social regime that’s scintillating and hideous. The values intrinsic to it—velocity, wit, growth, exhibitionism and “connectivity”—can seem superficial, but they’re ours.

This week, the Facebook brass are making housecalls to investors, using razzle, dazzle and astral projections to justify valuing the eight-year-old company at a big, round $100 billion. This comes in preparation for Facebook’s midmonth initial public offering—what’s expected to be the biggest I.P.O. in the history of the Internet.

At the same time, government officials have started to cast a cold eye on Facebook, making sure it—and Apple and Google—don’t get a regulatory pass from Washington just because they’re cute. Facebook not long ago had to agree to a 20-year settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over allegations that the company violated users’ privacy.

Zuckerberg’s Facebook IPO to Make Him Richer Than Microsoft's Steve Ballmer Friday, 04 May 2012 06:52 AM Read more: Zuckerberg’s Facebook IPO to Make Him Richer Than Microsoft's Steve Ballmer

Facebook Inc.’s $11.8 billion initial public offering will cement the status of 27-year-old Mark Zuckerberg as one of the world’s richest men and put his social network among the highest-valued companies in the U.S.

Facebook is offering about 337.4 million shares for $28 to $35 each, according to a regulatory filing. At the upper end of that range, the co-founder’s stake would be $17.6 billion, making him richer than Microsoft Corp.’s Steve Ballmer and Russian steel billionaire Vladimir Lisin, who are both twice his age, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Zuckerberg, who began the service for Harvard classmates as a 19-year-old in his dorm room, built Facebook into the most popular social-networking site in the world, topping 900 million users last quarter. Now he has to prove he has the leadership skills to deliver enough growth to justify the company’s valuation, said Paul Saffo, managing director at Discern Analytics in San Francisco.

Texting Leads to Sex Sooner — and Easier Breakups Later

By NICK CARBONE |

Does your heart skip when your phone buzzes with a message from your new flame? If a new survey is to be believed, all those texts and late-night Facebook chats might lead you into the bedroom faster too.

In the survey of 1,200 men and women by Shape and Men’s Fitness magazines, nearly 80% of women and 58% of men said they believed that using social media tools with new partners leads to sex sooner, according to a recent Reuters article. (More on Time.com: See the 50 best iPhone apps)

Maybe it’s because constant digital communication between dates increases a sense of intimacy, and makes even days-old relationships seem longer or more intense. Or maybe it’s because lovey-dovey text messages (or sexting, more likely) amps up anticipation and paves the way to the bedroom sooner.