A substantial portion of this article examines the idea of chasing trends. SEO and SMO, in particular, are targeted as scapegoats. To an extent, that's a fair assessment - if news media cover a particular topic only because it's trending on search or social, it doesn't necessarily lead to quality content. The better route is to cover the topics of your own expertise and view search and social as tools for getting your content to an audience interested in it. The "O" in SEO and SMO stands for optimization, not game-the-system.

• Why so many media companies are on the brink of disaster

I often wish I could abandon Facebook altogether. I find Twitter extremely useful for work, but I rarely use it outside the office. Instagram is littered with junk posts (personally, I consider anything that isn't a photo you shot yourself to be spam), and I can't keep up with their stories vs. Snapchat's.

Social media has become a mostly joyless pastime that we turn to out of habit with the hope that maybe, just maybe, we'll stumble across something interesting.

As I've argued for years, Facebook's failure is that your friends aren't interesting. However, on the platforms where we follow people based on interest rather than acquaintance, social media works.

• The End of the Social Era Can't Come Soon Enough

This issue of kids being targeted by rogue YouTube accounts frightens me, but having worked in media, I know the solution is far from simple.

• Is YouTube's Algorithm Endangering Kids?

Mara Wilson delivers a scathing commentary of the sexualization of child actors that we should be ashamed even needed to be written.

• Matilda Actress Mara Wilson: A 13-Year-Old Girl Is Not "All Grown Up"

Looking back at how ignorant news media were regarding social media in its early days, we should continue to question what aspects of social media newsrooms are neglecting now.

• After a decade, it’s time to reinvent social media in newsrooms

Whether or not you supported Bush, it's stuff like this that makes you miss his presidency.

• Why George W. Bush stood there and took the wrath of a soldier's mom. Listen up, Donald Trump.

Ignore the cruel-sounding, clickbaity headline here. It's not indicative of the content within. The article itself – about poverty vs. privilege – is great.

• Ketchup sandwiches and other things stupid poor people eat

Why? Why do kids keep turning to these sorts of anonymous messaging apps? If someone says something mean (which they probably will), you'll feel horrible. If someone says something nice, it'll just drive you crazy not knowing who it was.

• Who needs friends when you have anonymous feedback apps?

An important analysis of a generation born into a world of smartphones.

• Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?

“Depending on the different filler tapes you find, you end up with a different impression of all those characters.”

The concept sounds like a gamified version of the "S-town" podcast.

• How two Disney Imagineers built a better escape room with The Nest

Kendall has been fascinated by capybaras since she read The Capybara Conspiracy.

• Capybara Falls in Love With All the Animals on Her Farm

"Now, with more characters like this, [girls] are expected to be there. So when kids are playing Star Wars on the playground, there's characters for everyone to play."

• Why the Women of 'Star Wars' Are the Fandom's New Hope, According to Ashley Eckstein

My freshman year of college, I had a couple Spanish classes with a young woman who was homeless. I didn't know it at the time (I expect few did), but I read about her journey a few years later in The Huntsville Times – how friends of hers, also homeless, scraped together money to help her somehow find a way to attend UAH.

Now working at UAB, it breaks my heart to know that this problem persists. There are homeless students at UAB, too (and yes, we have programs in place to help them). To paraphrase the teacher interviewed in the article: It's invisible even when you're looking.

• The Number of Hungry and Homeless Students Rises Along With College Costs