Today Facebook announced yet another new feature. Unlike many of the updates from Facebook this one is actually going to be very useful and will likely be a big hit. The new feature is named “Safety Check” and it is designed to help people tell their loved ones that they are ok, primarily following a major disaster.

In many cases when something like an earthquake, hurricane, or other disaster strikes it is difficult or impossible to communicate with family. Fortunately Facebook is working to make that problem a thing of the past with the new Safety Check. Basically it works by sending a notification to anyone that is near a significant disaster and asking if they are ok, the notifications are being tailored so they should only be sent to people that were actually affected.

When a user receives the notification they can quickly select “I’m safe” or “I’m not in the area” and friends and family will automatically be alerted. The entire idea came about following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and Facebook says they’re hoping this will be revolutionary in the post disaster recovery effort. The feature is available now and is available to everyone worldwide, but it is unlikely we’ll see any results from it until some sort of disaster strikes.

Photo Matt Kulesza (L) with friend Joshua Poly-Goldschläger.

In this day and age, we are more apt to strike up a conversation with someone we don’t know personally through social media than we are with the person sitting next to us on the bus or the subway. Australian student Matt Kulesza Wants to rekindle good old fashioned face time with real, live human being. So he is taking the next 3 years to meet and have coffee with each and every one of his 1,000 friends on Facebook.

He calls his goal the “1000+ Coffees” project. He started in September and sees the endeavor as an opportunity to leave the “book” behind while reminding himself to socialize and get to know people ‘IRL’ or in real life.

As of this past Thursday, Kulesza had already met and had coffee with 26 of his “friends.” He is chronicling his meetings on both his Facebook page and on his Tumblr account. He uses photos and summaries of their conversations as well as descriptions of what they were drinking to capture each meeting.

He plans to meet with 5 people each week for the next 3years until he has met all 1,000. He doesn’t see this as a chore but rather as fun. He says he likes having coffee with people.

Each meeting provides insight into his friend. They discuss more than just coffee. Kulesza says no topic is off limits. Politics, pop culture and even tarot cards have been discussed with equal enthusiasm.

Kulesza says it amazes him how at school, everyone sits waiting for the lecturer to arrive and stared mindlessly into their phones. No one speaks to the people around them anymore. His “1000 Coffees” project should serve as a wakeup call to the rest of us that life is about the human touch and the connections we make IRL.

Suicide is a very real issue for thousands of people. Many people suffer in silence and when they finally cry out for help things are often either ignored or misunderstood. Because social media like Facebook has become so popular it only makes sense that some people would cry out for help through something like Facebook and now Facebook is going to offer a new suicide prevention system to help out.

Facebook, along with the U.S. Surgeon General, is going to allow and encourage users to report any and all suicidal posts so that the person can get the help they need. Facebook hasn’t said exactly how the system is going to work but they have made it clear that every report will be dealt with quickly and abuse of the system will not be tolerated.

The fact that a massive network like Facebook is going to reach out and help with such a serious issue is great news. Suicide prevention is often possible if just one person intervenes and now that Facebook is making that possible many experts hope there will be a noticeable impact. Facebook is hoping to get the system operational as soon as possible although they have not yet said when that will be. Facebook will likely make an official announcement once the system is in place and ready to go.

In recent weeks there has been a great deal of attention drawn to the issue of bullying with the release of the documentary “Bully” in theaters. A former Escondido, CA woman chose to deal with the issue in her own way. After being bullied in her California high school 25 years ago, she chose to let former classmates know how she felt by sharing a poem she had penned on a class Facebook page. The results have been surprising …and healing.

Lynda Frederick led a hard scrabble life growing up in a strict religious home in Escondido. Often, she went to school so hungry she was forced to beg for food. Sometimes she had to wear the same clothes for several days without laundering them. While others rode the bus, she walked. Bruises were visible on her body. No one asked why, they just used these as reasons to pick on her. Unable to participate in holiday celebrations at school because of her religion, she was often spat upon or suffered rocks being thrown at her.

After the poem appeared, Frederick got a rash of phone calls and messages, sometimes from people she didn’t even remember. Most wanted to apologize for participating in the bullying or not stepping in to stop it. Others simply lent their support. The experience has been overwhelming.

Kristi Malone is one of the people who remembered Frederick and regrets how she handled the situation. She says now that it never occurred to her that she could stand up for Frederick, 42. Shawn Gordon, 43, also from Escondido remembered how he, too, stood by as Frederick was taunted and repeatedly tripped. With tears in his eyes, he shared the poem and his experiences with his own teenage daughters.

Frederick was able to graduate school early in 1987 and relocated to Rochester, NY. The mother of three, Frederick has made peace with many of her former classmates and even calls some of them her friends.

As for her classmates, they are so moved by Frederick, her experiences, her poem and their part in it all that they are attempting to establish an annual scholarship named for her. They have also raised $800 which will be used to fly Frederick back to Escondido for a class reunion.

Today, Frederick knows what to say to her own 14 year old daughter, also a victim of bullying. She advises her to let kids know that if they don’t like how she looks, they don’t have to look at her. Her new motto in life is while we can’t fix the damage wrought by our past, we can work to fix today.

Illegal For Employers to Ask for Facebook Passwords?

Just last week a number of new outlets broke a story about employers asking potential employees for their Facebook passwords. For a number of reasons this sounds like a terrible idea and a number of people questioned the legality of it but under current laws it is in fact legal. The good news is that today a number of senators and even Facebook itself announced that they will be persuing a new law that would prevent this sort of privacy invasion.

Many employers want access to user’s Facebook pages in order to see anything and everything that is going on, but rights activists say this is a very sever infringement upon our rights. The senators involved today made it clear that they agree and this is great news for everyone because it will most definitely make a huge impact on the online privacy given to users. Facebook is not known for their stance on security but it is very promising to see Facebook supporting this sort of endeavor. Blocking employer’s from being able to ask for Facebook passwords will not completely prevent them from seeing what is happening online, but it will definitely prevent them from encroaching on everyone’s rights and that is absolutely amazing news for everyone and anyone that has a Facebook account. No word on when such a law might be officially presented or formed but it definitely looks like the overwhelming support will make it very possible for a law to be put in place.

Facebook Announces Much Needed Security Revisions

Facebook and user privacy have become separate ideas in the last few years as Facebook grows ever larger and security grows ever less useful. Fortunately today millions of Facebook users got the good news that some new security and privacy controls are finally being given to Facebook users. Thousands of Facebook users rejoiced publicly on Facebook today after the good news broke.

The Facebook security features announced today are not as restrictive as some people would have hoped but nearly everyone is happy to have gained at least a little control. The controls will finally give users control over who sees what which should help make it significantly easier for users to cut down on privacy loss. Analysts around the world agree that it was about time for Facebook to roll out some new privacy features and that is exactly what they are finally beginning to do.

The great news about a new security feature broke, as expected, on Facebook’s official blog. This announcement is welcome news for all Facebook users and not only are Facebook users getting more control over what is distributed; they are also getting easier control. The announced security controls are expected to be significantly easier to use than the current system which means users will in fact be able to actually control what they want to be available. At this time Facebook is rolling out the security features but not everyone will have access to them quite yet so be patient.

Facebook and Twitter Used to Clean up After London Riots

The riots in London that broke out this week were originally organized and planned through communication outlets like Twitter and Facebook. These sites are obviously not actually responsible for what was done of course but the negative impact of the sites definitely didn’t create any good publicity for the sites. Today however we know that Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks can in fact be used for good.

Facebook and Twitter were both being used today to schedule and organize multiple clean up programs around the area. The communication system used to organize the riots is clearly being used in order to clean up the entire mess as well which shows great promise for the future of social networking. The cleanup organization is also showing officials that despite the chaos people do still have the desire to make things right.

Overall experts say it is quite refreshing to see that these social media networks can be used for good and not just malicious acts. As more examples of this begin to surface it is likely that Facebook and Twitter will eventually be seen as a useful communication tool for mass messaging rather than just another network. For now few organizations base their entire communication on Facebook or Twitter but in the future it seems likely that Twitter or Facebook could become official channels of communication for officials or government agencies in times of emergency or other critical events.