Facebook - A Tool to weigh addiction

Are you a social media enthusiast or simply a Facebook addict? Researchers from Norway have developed a new tool to measure this phenomenon -- the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS). In January 2011, 227 women and 196 men participated in BFAS tests. The scale can facilitate clinical assessment and can be used for the estimation of Facebook addiction prevalence in the general population worldwide.

"We are dealing with a subdivision of internet addiction connected to social media," says Cecilie Schou Andreassen from the University of Bergen, who led the first of its kind study anywhere, reports the journal Psychological Reports.

Andreassen's study shows that the symptoms of Facebook addiction resemble those of drug addiction, alcohol addiction and chemical substance addiction, according to Bergen statement. She said,"Facebook dependency occurs more regularly among younger than older users. People who are anxious and socially insecure were also found to use Facebook more frequently, probably because they find it easier to communicate via social media than face-to-face"

"Our research also indicates that women are more at risk of developing Facebook addiction, probably due to the social nature of Facebook", says Andreassen. Andreassen's study shows that scoring "often" or "always" on at least four of the seven items on Bergen scale may suggest that you are addicted to Facebook.

So, how would you rate yourself? Facebook Junkie? A social network devotee? Let us know...

‘Password’ tops list of most common passwords

Want to guess someone's password? Try ‘password’, researchers have claimed.

    According to an annual study of the most commonly used passwords researchers have found that ‘password’, ‘123456’, ‘qwerty’ and ‘12345678’ are still the most widely used - despite years of security experts urging people to change them to secure options, reported the Daily Mail. The latest list comes following 12 months of high profile hacks that have revealed user passwords. The bad old choice is the culprit that Yahoo, LinkedIn, eHarmony, and Last.fm have suffered major breaches.

     Just in time for Halloween comes something that might scare anyone who spends a lot of time online - SplashData's annual list of the most common passwords used on the Internet and posted by hackers. Researchers said, “Users of any of these passwords are the most likely to be victims in future breaches.”

    However, some people have updated their passwords, and the research found new entries to this year's list include different, but not really creative alternatives like ‘welcome’, ‘jesus’, ‘mustang’ and ‘password1’. SplashData’s top 25 list was compiled from files containing millions of stolen passwords posted online by hackers.

    If you found the above montioned password(s)' a key to unlock your online world, then it's high time you migrate to a new gate pass. This post from Teqknow might help you save the Day.