Apple CEO and founder Steve Jobs, 55, who has had pancreatic cancer and underwent a liver transplant in 2009, is taking a medical leave of absence.

This won't hold up the iPhone 5, iPad 2 and other Apple products that are on their way this year — they're all still coming on time, and for next year, too,  tech experts said Monday.

Speaking of Apple products, here's an interesting timeline of Apple milestones and product introductions.

What's in this next-gen Apple chip?: "Well, quite logically (and according to sources), the heart of the A5 (or whatever it's called) is the next-generation ARM chip."

Facebook put a temporary kibosh on sharing your address and phone number with third party apps after everyone freaked out about it yesterday — but you should still delete that info from your profile if it's there.

Speaking of Facebook and scams, Justin Bieber totally didn't hit a girl, so stop clicking on that Facebook link that says he did because it's a virus. Same goes for that link that allegedly leads to a video of a girl getting stoned to death. Duh.

If you did click, you're not alone. Turns out: "Consumers are well aware of the risks they take being online and engaging in e-commerce, but most of them aren’t taking the necessary precautions to protect themselves."

Hey! Want to see the 10 creepiest things said by Google head Eric Schmidt? (No. 4 is my favorite!)

Still, creepy behavior isn't just for tech companies! Sometimes they're the victims: "There appears to be a roaring black market in 6-foot Android costumes over in Cincinnati, Ohio."

 Get your pre-caffeine tech roundup every morning before coffee when you follow Helen A.S. Popkin on Twitter and/or Facebook.

Last week, the technorati stood agog as the hashtag #LessAmbitiousMovies threatened to take over Twitter like the demon love tag of Justin Bieber and the World Cup playoffs. More than 364,000 tweets starting with "Scott Pilgrim vs. the Room" and including "Apocalypse Whenever" reached more than 27 million Twitter users in a trend that lasted about a day.  

In Twitter parlance, a hashtag is a searchable number sign attached to an acronym, word or string of words with no space that connects conversations by topic on the microblogging site. Originally driven mainly by news events — natural disasters, elections, celebrity breakups — hashtags are increasingly becoming a medium for goofing off at work … or whatever else you're supposed to be doing.

"Twitter is, more and more, becoming a gaming platform — for various games of wit," writes AdAge's Simon Dumenco. "So up-from-nowhere hashtag trends that inspire a global call-and-response are now, increasingly, crowding out real trends tied to breaking news (celebrity or otherwise)."

Here's a timely illustration. According to Twitter-tracking site "What the Trend," these are the top three hashtags, and their crowdsourced definitions, at the moment I'm typing: 

 1. #sidechick People are tweeting about the women that men cheat on their girlfriends/wives with.

2. #arabsgottalent: The Arabian version of the -got talent series. "Arabs' Got Talent" but without Hasselhoff!

3. #confessionhour: People are tweeting things they would never tell anyone. Like fears, sexual fantasies, dislikes likes, etc.

While No. 2 refers to a television show that doesn't air in the U.S. (Twitter is international too, after all), No. 1 and No. 3 are games. Here's a few from #confessionhour:

#confessionhour this summer when we were bore me & my girls would get really drunk and go to the 24hour walmart and ride the handicap carts 

#confessionhour I love the Jonas Brothers, A LOT :D 

if its #ConfessionHour ..why has it been going on for over 12 hours ?

Yeah, it's no #LessAmbtiousMovies, but they can't all be winners.

With witticisms replacing hot news as the driving force behind Twitter makes, Twitter trends are increasingly hard to predict — but not for lack of trying.

Pointing to the Twitter media blog's analysis of the #LessAmbitiousMovies trend, GigaOm's Mathew Ingram notes, "the really interesting thing is just how random — and short-lived — these Twitter storms can be. It’s much more of an art (or barely-controlled chaos) than it is a science."

While unpredictability isn't a problem for civilian users with time to kill, such trends present problems for advertisers and other purpose-driven Twitter users looking to capitalize on the viral nature of the Internet.

But I wouldn't let that break your concentration on your carefully crafted 140-character contribution to #confessionhour. Remember that time you watched that Old Spice "I'm on a horse" video on YouTube, like, 90 million times? Enjoy your games while they're hot, because marketers always figure it out.

Helen A.S. Popkin writes about Twitter and Facebook ... a lot. Follow her on  Twitter and/or Facebook.

Even as "apocalyptic naysayers" claim Facebook is at its zenith, the world's largest social network nears 600 million members. Granted, many of those members have plenty of Facebook gripes. But where do they lodge their complaints? On Facebook.

We could rattle off crazy Facebook numbers about how huge it's getting — and often do. But since easily-digestible infographics are super hot on the Internet right now, here's one from online community Social Hype and resource guide Online Schools that breaks down your obsession with recent stats on how much time we spend on Facebook (a lot!) and what else we do there when we're not complaining about it. 

Helen A.S. Popkin writes about Facebook ... a lot. Follow her on Twitter and/or Facebook. 

Gabriela Herman

"Crushable"

Looking forward to reading the very first iPad newspaper, "The Daily?" You're going to have to wait a little bit longer -- Apple and News Corp. are pushing back the Jan. 19 launch date.

While you're waiting, have a look at what "The Daily" might sort of look like.

After ages of hems and haws, Europe's awesome music service Spotify is coming to the U.S. Finally!

But alas, Verizon's "New Every Two" program is about to be history.

Whether or not you like the new look of your Facebook profile, there are a couple of smaller changes you may have missed:

• Your unread messages are now displayed in your news update module.
• Deleted status updates now appear in a "Memorable Stories" feature.

Meanwhile, Facebook users may enjoy whining about change, but here's more evidence that Facebook is nearing 600 million users.

As we continue to live more of our lives online, courts are still confused over whether our online identity counts as a person or property.  

Speaking of which, that new Justin Bieber URL shortener Bieber.ly shut down after receiving a cease and desist.

As people continue to act like jerks online, new and exciting ways to beat down the trolls continue to emerge. Here's one now!

And here's what to do if you find something cool on the Internet! (A flow chart to clip n' save!)

Think you know what people look like when they're looking at the Internet? Photographer Gabriela Herman reveals it's way more interesting than you think.

 Get your pre-caffeine tech roundup every morning before coffee when you follow Helen A.S. Popkin on Twitter and/or Facebook.

This just in! The Internet is gianormous! Also, it changes everything and will continue to do so in the future.

Justin Bieber keeps changing the Internet, too! This new URL shortener Bieber.ly shrinks your URLs, and shows you a big picture of the Bieb to boot

CityVille now has more than 100 million users. I want to make a "Green Acres" joke here referencing FarmVille, but I got nothin'!

Microsoft made a serious nerd-level snap on the Google announcement that it's dropping H.264 from Chrome in favore of WebM, likening WebM to Esperanto. Get it?

This one isn't a joke: A Houston rabbi developed a "Space Invaders"-style iPhone app that lets you zap STDs.

Speaking of iPhones, you know how everyone's all psyched about the Verizon iPhone? Turns out the CEO of Verizon hasn't even ever used an iPhone!

Speaking of Apple, if you're an iPad user who hated it when the company changed iPad's side switch from an orientation lock into a mute switch, good news: iOS 4.3 lets you choose what the switch does now.

Check out this video to see what else iOS 4.3 lets you do now. (It's in beta.)

If your'e a Facebook user who longs for the past, good news! "What's on your mind?" is returning to the home page.

Hey! Want to see the most amazing press release ever written?!

How about some beautiful bugs made out of human hair? You can't get grossed out — it's art!

Get your pre-caffeine tech roundup every morning before coffee when you follow Helen A.S. Popkin on Twitter and/or Facebook.

Denial, resentment or garden variety procrastination — whatever reason you've stuck with the old Facebook format and avoided the optional change announced last month is now moot. Or it will be soon.

"For the month of December, we gave people the option to upgrade to the new profile early, and hundreds of millions of you made the switch," Facebook's blog announced yesterday. "Starting today, we'll be rolling out the new profile to everyone."

Well, you can't say you weren't warned.

Let's review: In the new profile, your status update is no longer at the top of your page. Instead, it's that crap nobody (but your stalker) cares about — where you live, where you're from, where you work, who's your GF or BF, etc.

This personality snapshot is accompanied by a stream of potentially random, possibly humiliating photos in which you've been tagged.

While you can't stop the coming change, you do have some control. Not a lot, granted. Here's what you need to know:

Your status That ego-pinned portion that first attracted you to Facebook — the place at the top of your profile that tells your Facebook friends what you're doing, thinking, complaining or making jokes about — is no longer at the top of your page. Nothing you can do about that.

Your "experiences" That's what Facebook calls the stuff at the top of your new profile — seemingly random information culled from your Basic Information. This replaces the summary and/or Internet address you previously posted under your profile picture.

Currently, there is no obvious way to control what appears in the new summary except to change who can see this information in your profile settings — when possible — or delete that info completely.

For example, there seems to be no way to control who sees where you live, where you're from and where you work, unless you delete that information. 

Photo stream of your recently-tagged photos. The random panel of photos at the top of the new profile seems to be what users hate most. It moves those images buried in your photo albums —or the tagged images of you in the Facebook photo albums of friends – front and center. And that can be … well … embarrassing.

The current options for controlling what photos your photo stream are somewhat limited, but available.

A. You can hide an unwanted photo when it pops up in your photo stream by moving your cursor over the image until an "x" pops up – then click.

B. If friends have tagged you in their images that you don't want up there, you can always un-tag your name.

C. You can control who sees photos tagged with your name. Here's how you do that.

• From the Account menu in the upper right corner of your profile, chose Privacy Settings.
• Underneath the list of your current privacy settings, click Customize settings.
• Scroll down to Things others share section.
• Next to Photos and videos I'm tagged in click Edit settings.
• From the Edit settings prompt that appears on your screen, use the drop-down menu to choose Customize.
• In the Custom Privacy prompt that appears, you will see a drop down menu next to These people.
• From These people, you have the option of choosing who can see photos via your tagged name. You can set it to Only me or you can add specific Facebook friends who are permitted see those photos via your tagged name.
• Save this option. As with other Facebook privacy settings, you can change it at any time. You just have to do it.

D. You can also eschew the photo stream entirely by getting creative using the new Facebook apps that help make your profile pretty. Winda Benedetti tells you how to turn your new Facebook profile into sprawling pieces of personalized art here.

Featuring friends. Here's a loaded feature that's bound to hurt more than a few feelings, including long-past high school adults who should totally know better. With the new Facebook profile, you have the option to feature specific besties, or customized lists of besties – or those "friends" you're sure will impress others. If you want to brave that social minefield, here's what you do:

• Click the Facebook icon that appears at the top left side of your Facebook page to get to the menu.
• Click the Edit My Profile link that appears in the upper left corner of your profile page, underneath your name and next to your main profile pic.
• On the left menu of your Basic Information page, click Featured People.
• In the Featured Friends section you'll see two links; Create new list and Add an existing group or list.
• Click Create a new list to, you know, create a new list. Label it and add friends in the fields provided.
• Note: Once you create that list, it does not automatically show up under Featured Friends on your profile. Once you've saved your new list, click Add an existing list or group. Your new list – and any lists you've made in the past — will appear here.
• Click the list of friends you want featured on your front page, save and prepare for the accusations from all those friends you didn't feature.

Why is this happening?! As I've said before, the only thing consistent about change is that it sucks. You'll note that the latest Facebook change you're complaining about has a new emphasis on photos — one of the most popular features on Facebook, yet one that's sort of hidden compared to other content on the social networking site.  

Other somewhat hidden information in the old profile, such as your background or interest, now takes center stage to give your Facebook friends a better overview of who you are, as opposed to the status of what you're doing.

One might argue that while this is an appropriate way of stacking information on a dating site, not so much a social network in which we ostensibly already know about the people we're Facebook friending. But who are we kidding? Change is coming, if it isn't already here. Adapt or go back to Friendster.

Helen A.S. Popkin is always going "blah blah blah" about online privacy, then asks you to follow her on Facebook and/or Twitter … because that's how she rolls.

Sgt. Roberto Sanchez, was killed in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device on Oct. 1, 2009.

An "Internet Lothario" purloined pictures from the memorial site for a handsome U.S. Army Ranger to chat up women on a fake Facebook profile, leading them on and then blowing them off.

Fictional New Yorker "Dylan Sorvino" pretended to be a former law student stationed in Iraq, the New York Post reports. To support the masquerade, he posted as his profile picture photos of Sgt. Roberto Sanchez, a 24-year- old Florida native and U.S. Army Ranger killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2009 after five tours of duty. A woman familiar with the "Dylan Sorvino" profile alerted Sanchez's family after she saw the same photos on a military website.

Sanchez's fellow Rangers and friends confronted "Sorvino" on his fake profile, and it quickly disappeared.

Women, it seems, were the target audience for this fake Facebook profile, via which "Sorvino" would flirt, play poker, and set up dates for his "return to the states," and then never show up.   

"I certainly wasn't prepared for you, you're [sic] gorgeous smile, your wit and you're [sic] ability to make me miss someone I've never met. How ironic, I had to travel 8,000 miles, go to war to meet this girl," the so-called "Sorvino" wrote  to Minnesota divorcee Carolyn Hinz, 37. 

Such was the guano "Sorvino" fed the Facebook women he friended, carrying on with tales of wartime glory and nonspecific info blamed on the need for "national security," until his faux departure date from Iraq neared. Plans were made to meet stateside, and then he'd never show.  

"This guy went on the Ranger battalion Web site looking for a fallen soldier to use," Sanchez's mother, Wendy Holland told the New York Post. "My son died for this country. How can anyone do that? It's so heartless."

Heartless, and perhaps illegal.

As the New York Post points out, "misusing a photograph that shows Sanchez's combat infantryman badge and basic parachutist wings may violate the Stolen Valor Act of 2005, which makes it illegal to falsely claim military awards or wear military decorations."

An FBI spokesperson told the Post it's unlikely to launch a fraud investigation that doesn't involve financial losses. As of last week however, Web impersonation is illegal in California, with the somewhat foggy law bringing up to a $1,000 fine and as much as a year in jail for anyone posing as someone else online. And no matter where "Sorvino" lives, he may not be immune.

"Online impersonators living outside the state may be affected, said Eric Goldman, an associate professor at Santa Clara University School of Law, told the Bloomberg Businessweek while the bill awaited Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's signature last year."It's impossible for people to respect geographic borders when sending content over the Internet."

So while the fake profile with its pilfered photos may be gone from Facebook, this may not be the last we hear from "Sorvino."

Follow Helen A.S. Popkin on Twitter and/or Facebook.

Simone Back's Facebook profile photo.

With Facebook expanding the center of our social life, we increasingly encounter the same fraught issues that stymie us face-to-face.

Such seems to be the case of Simone Back, 42, found dead in her apartment in Brighton, England following her final message on the social network, posted at 10:53 p.m. on Christmas Day: "Took all my pills be dead soon bye bye everyone."

"While some Facebook friends from out of town begged online for her address and telephone number so they could get help, none of those who lived closer did anything to help," the U.K. Telegraph reports. "Several friends taunted the charity shop worker as she lay dying on the floor of her flat. Just minutes after the post a friend replied, 'She ODs all the time and she lies.'"

The discussion continued for 148 messages, but no one reached out to Back until her mother, Jennifer Langridge, phoned the police after receiving a text message about her daughter's message 17 hours after it was posted.

This tragedy occurs just as Facebook and the National Council of Suicide Prevention (NCSP) are working together to continue to refine their suicide prevention protocols and share best practices. A meeting with other major Internet tech companies is planned for the end of January to build a partnership in this effort.

"It's a really sad and regrettable thing and it is something we care deeply about," a Facebook spokesperson said in a phone interview. "That's why we're developing this partnership with other tech companies. We want to be on the cutting edge and work together to have the fastest and most effective possible response."

According to Dr. Dan Reidenberg, managing director of NCSP and executive director of Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, "Facebook is truly remarkable in its leadership in trying to help save lives in the online era. "

Facebook campaigned extensively in conjunction with NCSP last year for World Suicide Prevention Day on Sept. 10. The social network also provides suicide prevention resources and an active emergency alert system to report suicidal threats or statements.

Reports are received through a prioritized queue. Facebook alerts the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline which reaches out to the at-risk individual. Facebook historically works closely with law enforcement and has similar protocols in place for addressing other possible threats or crime found via the site, and assisting in the search for missing children.

Resources for suicide prevention and Facebook aren't two ideas we usually put together. Certainly, it's much easier — and headline grabbing — to make the inaccurate and irresponsible argument that Facebook is destroying social connections. Indeed, it's shocking that Simone Back had 1,082 Facebook friends, yet none aware of the status update made an active effort to help — shocking, but not unusual in any area of human interaction.

While Dr. Reidenberg contends that social media provides opportunity to identify and reach out to those at risk, he added that the tragic response to Simone Back's announcement is unfortunate, but common. Historically, such reactions used to be worse.

"We do find people today are more responsive and reactive, but it's still a far cry from where we need to be," he said in a phone interview. "Most of the time, people believe those at risk are trying to get attention or that they are being manipulative." Stepping up, asking the right questions, or knowing where to go for help is still not the norm.

"Most often people are too afraid to ask the question or don't know what to ask," Dr. Reidenberg said. Even if they want to ask another if he or she is considering suicide, they're afraid they won't know what to do if the answer is yes, he added.

Resources: 

• How to help someone who has posted suicidal content on Facebook
  
• National Suicide Prevention Hotline 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
  
• The National Council for Suicide Prevention
  
• SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education) 

Continuing its consumption of old-timey media, the Internet became the No. 1 news source for young adults in 2010, according to a recent study from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

Television still reigns across age groups combined, with 65 percent overall citing the living room standby as their main source for current events, but the olds are increasingly turning to the Internet as well. In a national phone survey conducted Dec. 1-5, 41 percent of the 1,500 adult participants said they get their national and international news from the Internet, up 17 points since 2007. It's a trend that's likely to continue, Pew reports.

"Since 2007, the number of 18 to 29 year olds citing the Internet as their main source has nearly doubled, from 34 to 65 percent," the study found.

In the next few years, the Internet is likely to to equal or pass TV as the main sources for people aged 30 to 49 as well, Pew forecasts. "Currently, 48 percent say the Internet is their main source — up 16 points from 2007 — and 63 percent cite television — down eight points."

In the 50 to 64 age range, the Internet is nearly equal to newspapers as a main news source (38 percent), though TV is still number one at 71 percent.

Since 2007, the Internet crept up (from 5 percent to 14 percent) as a main news source for people 65 and older. Overall however, there isn't much change for how this age group gets it's news — currently 47 percent from newspapers and 79 percent from TV.

Despite the Internet's rise, radio maintains its humble position. Considering you can't watch the Internet while driving (safely, anyway), it's unsurprising that radio continues to hold steady in recent years, with 16 percent currently citing it as a main news source.

As "traditional" news sources continue to crowdsource social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to help report stories, as well as spread their headlines, more people continue to cite the Internet over newspapers as their main source of news, "reflecting both the growth of the Internet, and the gradual decline in newspaper readership (from 34 percent  in 2007 to 31 percent now," the study found.

If you've clicked more than one link to a news story from Facebook and Twitter just today, you've got a pretty clear indication on the where you'll be getting more of your news in the future.

j_l_larson/instructibles

If you're browsing previews of this week's 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, you're probably reading a lot about old-fashioned computer guts: processors and screens and inputs and size.

In fact, have $3,300 and a hankering to prepare perfect rib roast? The Thermador Masterpiece steam and convection oven took us by surprise last night, in the middle of a preview of CES gadgetry.

Other cool stuff? Tremont Electric founder and CEO Aaron Lemieux describes how hiking the Appalachian Trail inspired the design for an energy-capturing phone charger.

In Facebook news, now that Goldman Sachs has $450 million invested in the world's largest social network, Facebook's chief financial officer had to explain to the investment firm how Facebook works ... apparently your grandparents weren't available.

That nursing student who posted a picture of herself holding a placenta on Facebook is suing the school that expelled her. Apparently she needs to review the 10 Dumbest Things People  Do On Facebook.

Meanwhile on Twitter, Nancy Pelosi changed her Twitter handle from @SpeakerPelosi to @NancyPelosi within hours of the House's new Republican leadership being sworn in.

That zany hashtag meme #LessAmbitiousMovies hit around 200 tweets per minute.  Here's my favorite: "Ok you win. RT @ischafer: Sex And The City 2 #lessambitiousmovies"

Speaking of movies, Netflix users are more likely to cut the cable cord, turns out.

Those crazy Redditor kids are more than just creative! They helped a homeless man with an amazing radio announcer voice get back on his feet.

If you want to get creative, why not turn an inexpensive girly doll into an action figure? Here's how.

Get your pre-caffeine tech roundup every morning before coffee when you follow Helen A.S. Popkin on Twitter and/or Facebook.

Get her!

Perhaps in some perverse alternate universe, Selena Gomez had it coming.

The 18-year-old Disney starlet did, over the weekend, allow 16-year-old Auto-Tune sensation Justin Bieber to kiss her on the cheek in broad daylight within sight of a telephoto lens. Once the photo showed up in the real world over the weekend, Gomez had to know the death tweets stinkin' up Twitter weren't far behind.  

Grammatically-confused, expletive-inflected, angry tweets like these:

@selenagomez I HATE YOU MORE THAN ANYTHING IN THE WORLD, I'LL KILL YOUR KNOB HEADS DISGUSTING STAY AWAY FROM YOUR NOB HEADS DISGUSTING STAY AWAY FROM MY JB IS BETTER SO, YOU'RE DEAD

@selenagomez, We hate you, I swear to God I'll kill you!

@selenagomez, you do not know to whom you are committing errors in dating Justin Bieber, then do not repent, hint ENEMY!

Charming — especially how so many of these (hopefully) tweenage haters observe the comma after the salutation, only to descend into incoherent madness for the remaining 140 characters.

Of course, this is hardly surprising or unprecedented, given the nature of the adolescent girl or the Justin Bieber Army (which takes up 3 percent of Twitter servers) and its typical MO of enemy nullification.

Remember that one time famous-for-no-apparent-reason Kim Kardashian got death threats after Bieber jokingly tweeted she was his (age-inappropriate and perhaps illegal) girlfriend? How about when Greg Leuch got both death threats and at least one inappropriate comparison to Hitler for creating ShavedBieber, a Firefox extensionthat blocks out all Internet instances of "Bieber," "Justin Bieber" and photos with "Bieber" in the file name?

As I've written before on this topic, tweenage girls are scary — especially how their "Lordette of the Flies" behavior plays out on the Interwebs when it comes to that Bieber kid.

"That pitch of emotion — hysteria in the classic, oft misused and always disparaged sense of the word — is a significant part of the joy and terror of growing up," as Salon's Mary Elizabeth Williams sagely observes in "Justin Beiber fans' murderous new rage." What's different, Williams points out, is that this "hysteria" now has an outlet beyond notebook doodles, "the means to directly tell Selena Gomez or Miley Cyrus or Demi Lovato that she's a slut and a whore and deserves to die."

Worse, it seems, so many of these girls have parents that are ignorant, or simply don't care what their daughters are going through and how they're expressing it. "And without any guidance on how to behave with compassion or restraint and not blurting out death wishes, she and everyone in her circle are in for a world of pain."

To be sure, it's not all bad. Check out Jezebel's positive update in the saga of Sydney Dalton, the 15-year-old girl who served as the last target of serious Hatorade after she and two friends made a video of the three tearing up Justin Bieber posters, and with all the foresight of teenagers, uploaded it on YouTube for all the world to see.

"Dalton, whose temporary disdain of Justin Bieber enraged legions of other teen girls, is apparently dealing with the situation with maturity and aplomb," Jezebel's Irin Carmon wrote, pointing to Dalton's recent interview with 4TNZ. " Maybe there's hope for America's youth after all."

Hang out with Helen A.S. Popkin on Twitter and/or Facebook. All the kids are doin' it!

The wait is over.

According to a police report posted by The Smoking Gun, the first Facebook-related violence of 2011 occurred at approximately 11:03 p.m. Jan 2, in Indianapolis. Maurice Davenport, 22, refused to show live-in girlfriend Shemicka McVey, 21, his profile on the social network. One thing led to another, and the cops arrived to find Davenport with a laceration on his left bicep.

As The Smoking Gun reports:

McVey told Officer Jason Thalheimer that she followed Davenport downstairs, where the couple continued to argue over Davenport’s Facebook page (the couple’s two-year-old child was in an upstairs bedroom). It was during this ongoing dispute, McVey said, that she accidentally slashed Davenport with a knife she had retrieved from the kitchen.

McVey said that Davenport punched her in the head during the 11 PM argument and that each combatant pushed the other. But neither Davenport, who suffered a minor wound to his arm, nor McVey was charged in connection with the domestic dispute.

I'm going out on a limb here and speculate that this particular couple would've had issues even if social networking never existed. The world's all-consuming social network is the target of a lot of criticism, much of it warranted. Not in this case.

Despite misleading reports, Facebook doesn't cause divorce, spouses do. Facebook doesn't get people fired. People who post content they wouldn't show to their boss or co-workers on an open Facebook profile get themselves fired. And unfortunately, domestic violence occurred long before the Internet.

As 2011 begins, I suggest we take a deep breath, stop blaming the InterWebs for bad behavior, and agree that the social contract exists whether or not Facebook is involved.

At least the story has a happyish ending. As of this morning, McVey and Davenport remain Facebook friends.

Helen A.S. Popkin is always going "blah blah blah" about online privacy, then she asks you to follow her on Facebook and/or Twitter … because that's how she rolls.