“Information has been set free,” reads a Mashable article on the effects social media—specifically, Twitter—has on the world at large. The story is ostensibly on Kanye West and that Taylor Swift brouhaha that Kanye has tweeted apologetically about, but it points to a larger paradigm shift.

Twitter, the writer concludes, has removed the mediating element of publicists, PR staff and journalists—it facilitates information straight from the horse’s mouth.

But of course, there’s always a thing as having too much information. Take Facebook Places for instance. A CNN piece covers the growing concerns users have with the newly launched feature, all hovering over privacy issues. Information has been set free, yes. But it’s a little like Pandora’s box this time round.

Kanye West and How Twitter Has Changed the Way We Communicate [Mashable]

iTunes Ping: The Missing Thing [CNN]

Online Giving Meets Social Networking [NYTimes]

Users Amused, Annoyed by Facebook Places [CNN]

Defriended, Not De-Emoted [NYTimes]