Plagiarism, wherein an author or other creator, simply copies the original output of another and passes the work of as their own with giving due credit is on the rise, it seems, particularly in the realm of research. An author can simply copy and paste great tracts of text from another author and hope that the editor who receives their manuscript is disinterested in checking that the submitted text is entirely original or otherwise lacks the skills or inclination to check.

Most plagiarism detection software which seeks to flag such offences compares chunks of text in a larger document with documents in a database or searchable on the web. There has been little attempt to look at context and semantics. This is an ongoing problem as a plagiarist may copy and paste whole paragraphs and pages, they may also be wily enough to change some of the text order or substitute synonyms in their version of the plagiarised text for the purposes of obfuscation.

Researchers in India suggest that their semantic analysis of text reveals similarities and so could lay bare that kind of fraud.

Many people enjoying using online social networks and for many varied purposes from simple entertainment and education to marketing and campaigning. However, the call and response, the likes and follows, the thumbs-up and the thumbs-down are thought to invoke feelings of need in susceptible individuals that may or may not become what in more familiar contexts be described as addictions.

A study of hundreds of students at a private American University in the State of Kuwait suggests that approximately two-thirds of the students may be addicted to using online social networks. Whether or not true harm is being done to such individuals remains a question to be answered especially given how increasingly enmeshed in contemporary society are the rapidly developing tools of online social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Whatsapp, Instagram and many others.

Society needs to understand and educate those who may develop problems associated with low self-esteem, withdrawal effects, habit, and depression associated with the constant use of online social networks.

Lots of people now share personal accounts of their health and wellbeing and tips on how to improve the same. Indeed, a whole sub-genre of motivational videos on systems such as Youtube has emerged in which individuals discuss their success and failures with various healthcare products. Within that sub-genre, there are also "bro-science" videos.

This sub-genre is commonly frequented by male bodybuilders looking at how to improve themselves their sport, but there are other bro-science video producers who consider products for baldness and other generally male "afflictions" and putative remedies for such conditions. UK psychologists have studied dozens of bro-science videos on this topic on Youtube with a view to understanding what motivates these amateur motivators to create their videos.

Understanding the gendered concept of bro-science videos also represents an intriguing and pertinent avenue of investigation in the social sciences, especially given that women also create and watch similar videos.

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5