Facebook Is No Longer Number One & Google Release Neighbourly, Another Attempt At A Social App.

Shooting game gets axed

We’re not entirely sure how a game of this calibre would have even been invented, but this week it was revealed that a game pitched as a "school shooting simulation" has been ditched from Steam's online store ahead of release.

The title had been criticised by parents of real-life school shooting victims, and an online petition opposing its launch had attracted more than 180,000 signatures. Quite right too if you ask us!

Steam's owner, Valve, said it had dropped the game because its developer had a history of bad behaviour. But the individual named has denied involvement.

Active Shooter came to prominence after the BBC revealed that an anti-gun violence charity had described it as "appalling" last week.

CNN subsequently reported that the families of two students killed in February's high school attack in Parkland, Florida had described the game as being "despicable" and "horrific".

It also drew the ire of Florida's senior senator Bill Nelson, who called it "inexcusable", adding that the developer should be "ashamed".

Whatever the reasoning behind the game, and whoever’s sick twisted mind even thought of it should be ashamed indeed, we’re just glad it hasn’t had the chance to make it into the public atmosphere.

Mute your friends without unfollow-ing them

Good news for those of you obsessed with the follower count on your Instagram profile, but are fed up of seeing inspirational quotes or that couple who flaunt their love daily. Instagram now lets you mute your friends or people you follow without unfollow-ing them and risking the chance of them unfollow-ing you back!

This does not mean you're totally ignoring that account. You can still see their posts if you visit their profile page, and you will get notified on comments or posts you're tagged in. Note that the accounts you mute will have no way of knowing you've muted them.

The new feature will likely be of use to people who run their Instagram accounts like a business, but still want to enjoy the service as much as possible. So, if you make jewellery and often post photos of your creations on your account, you'll probably want to follow other similar accounts to get follows back. But, if you're sick of watching photos of jewellery all the time, muting all those accounts will let you retain some degree of sanity.

With tons of Instagram content effectively being some sort of ad right now, this is likely a highly sought-for feature among marketers and influencers. And if you're one of those folks who feel they have to reciprocate other people's follows, now you'll be able to fine-tune your Instagram experience to only see the stuff you actually want to see.

Amazing.

Facebook is no longer the king of social for today’s teens!

Pew has posted the results of its first new “Teens, Social Media & Technology” survey in three years, and the results of the survey show that the social media services teens find most important in 2018 are widely different from what they found important in 2015, and Facebook is not the number one!

Here are the platforms teens say they use the most in 2018:

• YouTube: 85% of teens use the platform

• Instagram: 72%

• Snapchat: 69%

• Facebook: 51%

• Twitter: 32%

• Reddit: 7%

• None of the above: 3%

Quite a difference when you compare that with the platforms teens said they used the most in 2015:

• Facebook: 71%

• Instagram: 52%

• Snapchat: 41%

• Twitter: 33%

• Google +: 33%

• Vine: 24%

• Tumblr: 14%

Clearly, since 2015, Facebook has become decidedly less important to teens, while both Instagram (owned by Facebook) and Snapchat have surged. Twitter has remained stable, but platforms like Google+, Vine, and Tumblr no longer even register.

Either social media is behind the times, or social media is slowly losing its appeal for the younger generations. Maybe if social media was focused on doing good and promoting positivity rather than all the negativity it’s currently surrounded by, this wouldn’t be the case.

Google release new app Neighbourly

Google is taking another shot at social apps with the beta release of Neighbourly, a new hyper local-focused social network. Will it succeed?

Neighbourly is Google’s latest endeavour in the social space. The app is a hyper local-focused social network designed to crowdsource answers to your questions from people in your community.

Google sees Neighbourly as the ultimate crowdsourced city guide where residents can ask questions – by typing or using their voice – and get answers and recommendations from their peers.

Neighbourly is first and foremost a social network, so users will be able to follow other people’s questions and get updates as they come when other users add their answers and tips.

The app is being released as a beta (Android only) and exclusively in Mumbai India, for the time being. It is available in English and eight Indian languages. Presumably, Google will soon expand to other cities and countries.

Let’s see whether this could be Google’s first real success in the world of social apps.