Puzzling over privacy

When I went for a walk on the beach with my cousin a couple of Sundays ago, I did not expect to find myself in a Facebook video shot and shared by someone with more than 2,500 friends. We were at Clifton Beach, the most publicly accessible and over-developed of Karachi’s shores. Plastic wrappers, soda [...]

Creepy or inevitable?

Imagine my surprise some weeks ago when I found this photo on an ad on my Facebook page, plugging a freelance writing site. Here was a woman who looked eerily like a younger version of my South Asian mother, asking me if I was looking for work as a writer. I’m South Asian. I’m a [...]

Twelve ways to get retweeted

Social media wizard Dan Zarrella, author of The Social Media Marketing Book, has won rave reviews from industry players like Guy Kawasaki and Brian Solis. Zarrella was in Washington, D.C., recently for the Gov 2.0 conference and led a presentation on why certain pieces of content go viral. Ideas do not spread because they are “good,” he said. [...]

While you were banned…

The Lahore High Court in Pakistan lifted the country’s ban on Facebook a couple of days ago. That’s not such a surprise, as all initial news stories had reported the ban would last until May 31. Several interesting things happened during the 13 days the ban was in place: Resourceful folks in Pakistan continued to [...]