Facebook and Bing? What next?

So this post goes along with the discussion we have had multiple times in regards to how the internet is always changing and various privacy issues are constantly being examined. I came across this article about the plans for Bing (a microsoft search engine) and Facebook to now link the two sites together. http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-20019508-265.html?tag=mncol;mlt_related

I was a little unsure of what exactly this new merge of the search engine Bing with Facebook "likes" by your friends means. What I took from this article was that when a person with a facebook account uses Bing to search something, their facebook friend's "like's" will come up as the first results if it is what their searching for. But please correct me if you understood exactly what this article was saying! While the article is a little confusing, it got me thinking about some important points we have talked about before that relate back to the privacy aspect on the internet and social network sites.

After reading this article what are your thoughts about this? Do you think this is a good move, or are there more negatives than positives? I cannot really tell if I think this will irritate me or just be another way social networking sites are taking over and connecting everything people do on the internet. I personally do not use Bing, but I think this move will make it more competition for Google.

Other thoughts of mine while reading this were about the vague language and often ambigious explanations about general use/privacy of the internet, what information is exactly shared, if people are aware of this and so on. I think that there are some neat aspects to including social networks with searches, but if after reading this article multiple times, I still do not feel like I truly understand what it is attempting to say, it somewhat worries me. It got me thinking about how there really is no accurate consensus about what information is shared online and if people are truly aware of the implications of using all sorts of internet sites.

On a side note, if you scroll down to the comments portion of the article, it completely supports our previous discussions about how people tend to be very straightforward and at times rude when they respond anonymously to internet articles, blogs, etc. Some people think this will be a great thing, while others bring up their concerns about privacy and so forth. I just thought it was interesting!

I hope you guys found this interesting! Sorry if its a little boring, its my first post :)

In Shock-No more LimeWire?

While I knew that it was only a matter of time...I'm rather sad to report that LimeWire is no more. I read a tweet from a friend about it and had to follow up because I was in disbelief. After poking around I found this article from the Toronto Sun written after the official ruling by a United States federal judge to shut down LimeWire. I know Mike mentioned the other week about the government's plans and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement...I'm so up in the air about it. I can see where the music industry is mad. Obviously they're spending their time and money to create this music. But musicians are also making a lot of money performing, making appearances, selling books, and shirts. They should just share that money with their producers. The Recording Industry Association of America says LimeWire has costs music companies and artists "hundreds of millions of dollars." I can see how this MIGHT be possible. However. I believe the internet is about sharing. And this definitely includes music (even if I don't necessarily own it myself). If I'm not getting it for free from LimeWire then I will just have to find it elsewhere. There's no stopping me in my pursuit of free music, much like I believe my peers will not stop hunting for it too. So yes, I admit it-I use LimeWire. I'm not ashamed to say it. I can't remember the last time I bought a CD. In a store. Or even borrowed a CD from a friend. But isn't that what LimeWire really is? I'm borrowing a CD of assorted music from a friend I just haven't met face to face. The article says that LimeWire has, or should I now say had, more than 50 million monthly users...I say I'm going to miss my friends. AND their rockin' music.

WoW addiction?

Okay, so I got home and told my roommate about some of the stuff we talked about in class today. She informed me of this video which pretty much made me laugh constantly.

Here's the story...kid's mom deletes his WoW account and he FREAKS out. You have to watch the WHOLE video because it's crazy!

Staged? possibly....but still amazingly awesome!

I thought it was relevant since we were discussing these games and addictions in class today. This kid definitely seems like the type to be a WoW addict...thoughts?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YersIyzsOpc

No Controllers?

I found this article the other day and thought it was really interesting stuff. Microsoft is coming out with a controller less gaming system called Project Natal that uses a 3-D camera and motion sensors to detect the movements of the player in real life and translates them into in-game actions. It also uses facial and voice recognition to identify and distinguish between different people. They're unsure when it is finally going to come out, but demonstrations so far indicate that the system works pretty well. I think this new system could change gaming as we know it.

In one of the articles we read last week for the virtual worlds discussion, they talked about "totally immersive virtual reality (VR)." This is definitely a big step toward reaching the goal of VR. I definitely think that it will provide gamers with a new sense of involvement and immersion in the game. I mean even now people get lost in their games, and they're not even moving. I can only imagine the kind of connection people will have when they are. And is this necessarily a good thing? Or are we just increasing the risks of people becomig addicted to their games?

I think that being able to play games by actually acting out the motions instead of sitting stagnantly and pressing buttons is a great thing. There's all this talk about how videogames are stopping kids from going out and playing with friends and is adding to the obesity problems this country already has. But what if you are moving while you play? Is this a healthier alternative? I think it will help to destigmatize videogames a bit and make it more of an interactive and healthy activity than it is now.

I was kind of wondering if maybe this will affect the way people relate to their avatars in games. Will it make you feel more connected with the characters than you would have before? I think that this gaming system will bring about a whole new area for research to be done. Any thoughts on the subjects? Negatives to the system? Cool questions?


Here's the article if you want to check it out:
http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20090601/sucks-to-be-nintendo/

Again, privacy on facebook...

I have heard of many stories about posting something online that has come back to bite them in the rear! My last post was similiar to this one...



I watched a video online from CNN about a high school cheerleader being suspended from her sport because of a picture on facebook. It was from her sister's wedding but the picture made it look like she was holding a beer. It seems that one of her friends must have seen it and it fell into hands that then forwarded it to her high school...Her family claims it was not hers, but a friends and they were just taking a picture with their hands linked with one another... now she is devestated because she cannot finish cheering this season. In the video her mom pleads with people to be careful what they post on the internet. Do you guys ever think a lot before you post something on facebook or some other site? Especially as we leave college...It may seem that we have high privacy settings but there are many connections on facebook and nothing is guarenteed to not be seen... Will you change things on your facebook before you look for jobs and are hired?



Obviously most people (including me) think the benefits of facebook (connecting, keeping up with people...) outweigh the cons or possible bad outcomes of using the site. It is something to think about though.



Also- it got me thinking about why people post certain pictures. Are we really trying to "sell or market" ourselves? Is our profile picture the best way to do that? Could the girl have possibly posted the picture or wanted it on her facebook because it makes her look "cool" to have been drinking...

real world tendencies transcend into virtual worlds

Hello everyone!

I thought the discussion in class this past Wednesday was really interesting. The one about real world characteristics and tendencies transferring over into a virtual world, such as eye gaze, communication tendencies, and truthfulness. All of these were not in a single article but discussed at different times and in different articles. I just would have never thought real life issues such as eye-gaze could transfer into a virtual world like second life. And the more time I spend in second life, and after reading the article, I have realized that I do look at the other person in the virtual world. I also look away when I don't want to continue the conversation or get uncomfortable. It is crazy, that before I wasn't even aware that I did look at the other person like I do in real life. I wonder if this is because I took it like a real life situation in meeting a new person who was trying to help me out, or if I just do it subconsciously and/or naturally without thinking about it on a regular basis? What do you guys think?

Also, the way we communicate in real life is the same in a virtual world as well. I have the "hey, what's up.?" Nothing, you?" "Same." conversation with people who I think are acquaintances, (those who aren't exactly my close friends or people I have just met once or twice). And when I know the person I tend to be more open or reveal more information, just as I do in real life. I think it is fascinating that I do this! I thought I would differ from real life to virtual life.

Lastly, truthfulness online. Can you really trust the people online to tell the truth? Can you really trust yourself online to tell the whole truth? Is that way its so forgiving when a person lies online? I mean, but is it really a lie or a "stretch of the truth...a fib?" Either or I don't really think lying should be forgiving. Lying to someone is a betrayal of a person's trust. Whether they fib or lie or anything but the truth, they are breaking a bond in my eyes. I just don't see the real reason people lie online? low self esteem? Take gender of an avatar. If you were to decide to play an avatar of the opposite sec that your are (i.e. females choses male avatars and males chooses female avatars.)isn't that a betrayal to yourself? Or is it done for a more game?  I don't really know where I'm going with this really, other than to ask that if you agree with the five most traits lied about online (income, age, etc), why do you think it's ok? and if you don't agree and think it is bad to lie online) why you think it's not ok?

Facebook helps you get over your ex!

I know that I am not posting this week but I thought this was interesting and somewhat relevant...especially to psychology!

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/10/20/facebook.ex.photos.mashable/index.html?hpt=T2

MMORPGs: The Basics

Since I know little to nothing about MMORPGs, I decided to do a little research to see what they are all about. I apologize ahead of time to anyone who has played or currently plays MMORPGs, because I’m sure you will want to say DUH! to the majority of my post. But bear with me...

As a starting point, and also out of curiosity, I typed “Top 10 MMORPGs” into Google. I clicked on about 3-4 links and soon realized that there was not a clear consensus on which 10 were the Top 10. The only game that consistently showed up in the number one spot was World of Warcraft (surprise, surprise!).  I didn’t get too far down this line of research before realizing that, although learning which 10 MMORPGs qualify as the Top 10 would be interesting, it would not teach me anything about what an MMORPG is.

The following are just a few elements of MMORPGs that I thought were worth discussing:

• ·         First of all, the first M in MMORPG stands for massively while the second M stands for multi-player. The enormous number of players is what distinguishes MMORPGs from other role playing games.
• ·         Time is persistent in MMORPGs. This means that the virtual world in which the game takes place continues to develop even when you are not playing or are offline. I thought this was important because it makes the virtual worlds in which MMORPGs are played more realistic.
• ·         Players can cooperate or collaborate with other players to achieve a goal or simply to explore the world. Sometimes players with common interests will organize in large groups called guilds. In this way, MMORPGs serve a social function.
• ·         Some MMORPGs offer a player vs. player mode in which players are separated into many different factions. Members of each faction work together to defeat the other factions. This requires players to communicate, just as players in guilds would communicate.  
• ·       Gaming Culture:  http://www.mmorpgfocus.com Here's a website I found with a forum, a blog, articles about MMORPGs, and much more. This site does a good job of demonstrating the idea that htere is a definite culture which surrounds the world of online gaming. The topics covered in the articles on this site include descriptions of games currently being developed, information about release dates for various versions of games (they pre-release games and get user input to work out the kinks and bugs), information similar to that found in strategy guides, etc. Just from this site alone it's easy to see that some of the people who play MMORPGs devote a lot of time and energy not only to playing the games but also to immersing themselves in the culture that surrounds the MMORPGs via websites such as this one.
  
  
  The last thing about MMORPGs I want to mention is covered in our readings on virtual worlds for this coming Wednesday. Psychologists and social scientists are interested in studying online worlds because there is a social aspect to them. The interactions that take place within these worlds are very real, and researchers are able to use them as a "platform" for their studies. MMORPGs and other virtual worlds provide an environment in which researchers are able to conduct studies that may not be practical in the real world. Can you guys think of some studies that could be conducted online but may not be possible offline?

ACTA and you

Ok guys... it's my turn to post this week, and i've spent the last half hour or so trying to figure out what i was going to write about... anyway i decided to share some information you will hopefully find useful.
In the very near future, our congress is going to vote on a bill regarding internet privacy. You may ask yourself why this concerns you? well it may not. but for many users of the internet, getting free music/movies/whatever as a big deal. piracy on the internet is a pretty big phenomenon right now and it seems like it is only getting larger, however, the US government is making a stand to stop it. The bill is called ACTA or the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. Without going into too much detail and boring you all, i will simply say that gives the government the right to confer with your internet service provider and look at your personal online history and usage (right now they don't have that right without a proper warrant, etc). basically, if you pirate media enough that your IP address shows up consistently on government databases, you could be subject to search and seizure of pirated material and pay huge fines or go to jail :). if you are one of those people that pirates media, i urge you to read up about this bill and/or sign a petition to stop it. Here's some links if you're interested:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement
http://www.anti-acta.com/

also in this thread: random pics for your entertainment (some edited..)
and if anyone cares, as i was finishing this post i was listening to Mint Royale - Wait For You


ps: as i try to move the content around, it seems i turned my entire post in a giant hyperlink and can't get rid of it. sorry for that, you'll have to copy/paste the website links

Bullying on the Net

I was reading through People magazine the other day and saw that the lead story was about a gay teenage boy, Tyler Clementi, who committed suicide after his roommate recorded and streamed a video of him and a love interest online. This story really made me think about the power of the internet, and how it's lack of privacy can lead to such destructive behaviors.

The boy's roomate created an internet chat group with the intention of sharing the video with all of his friends. He tweeted that he was going to videotape Tyler again and encouraged people to video chat with him during those hours. Tyler found out about the webcam and jumped off the GW bridge a day later. What really struck my attention was how selective people are in what they decide to read and respond to on Twitter, or any other online forum. They were interested enough to read about the webcam, but chose to ignore Tyler's "Jumping off the gw bridge. Sorry" post the day he committed suicide. People have begun to take advantage of the openness of the internet, and it has become so suggestive that it causes normal teenagers to believe that they have no reason to live. Although I appreciate the convenience of the internet, as well as it's easy access, I think that it has become far too available for those people who use it with the wrong intentions. Online bullying has become a very serious problem, and I think a major reason behind it is the lack of privacy of most of the social networking sites, including Twitter, Facebook and Youtube that millions of people use daily.

This story made me wonder if such a simple solution as a content filter for such sites, or more specific requirements to become members of those sites could make a difference in the prevalence of online bullying. If these sites were less available would it discourage people from using them in the wrong way? Thoughts?

I tried to find the article online but wasn't successful. I'm sure you could find it somewhere if you looked around enough

Adventures in Second Life

Hey guys!

I've been spending some time in SL lately and I thought I'd post some pictures!

I'm actually listening to faculty plan a conference right now...how cool? And I just got my tiny giraffe avatar!!!  WITH Harry Potter clothes....yes be jealous!

SO here are some snapshots of my adventures so far...

This is me chillin on the quad....just your typical daily activity

Me at the safari park with the elephants...I got that t-shirt for free at the safari park

This is me busting out my dance moves in the Bleu Katt Lounge...in my skimpy pink dress!

This is me and some of the JMU faculty around the start of the conference planning

This is a front view of my awesome giraffe avatar and Harry Potter clothes! :)

(If you're interested in these things I got them at Adelebsen Village which has tons of shops for tiny stuff)

Well that's my adventures so far! Enjoy!

"I like it against my bedroom wall"

So, I know when we were discussing social networking in class we briefly talked about status changes on facebook. And most of us have those people who update their status everyday and really want a response about it from their friends. We established that status changes can really be annoying. But can they be a good thing too?

As I'm sure everyone knows, it is breast cancer awareness month. And women all over facebook have begun posting their status as "I like it on the floor," "I like it on my dresser," etc. The "I like it" campaign is designed to raise awareness for breast cancer; it does so by having women post where they like to keep their purses in a provocative sounding way so that people will comment and ask questions about their status. They also had another campaign not too long ago where women were asked to post their bra color as their status. These campaigns helps get women to find out more about the disease and to get the proper examinations to screen for breast cancer. I personally think that these campaigns are a good way to remind people about the dangers of breast cancer but are probably not THE MOST helpful thing for the cause. But hey they don't really hurt either.

But are they really all that useful? I'm wondering what you guys think about this campaign. Lots of people think it's kind of pointless and doesn't help with the breast cancer issue. Do you think status updates are a good way to get out information about things like breast cancer? Any thoughts?

Privacy

Ok, so this might not be directly related to anything we have talked about in class, but I think it is an important topic regarding the internet: privacy. I saw this on CNN yesterday... a story about a Duke graduate who unfortunately sent an email about Duke athletes she had slept with and then made into a "mock thesis" regarding them and how they "rated." She then emailed all this information to a few friends and then they sent it to a few friends and then it was all over the internet. Her email had names and graphic descriptions of private moments, that now the whole world has access to. The lady on CNN said that now this is shared with families, classmates, future employers... it has big effects.

The whole video talked with a man who has written a book about privacy on the internet and it got me thinking. I am not sure I think about it that much, but things we post on the internet really can get shared with others. Pictures on facebook, emails, things we share.... WE might not share them, but if someone else gets a hold of it, who knows where it can get sent to. The man on the video discussed how we aren't educating people enough about privacy issues and the internet. And we certainly aren't telling kids the dangers and "how-to's" about being safe. I know I didn't really understand that kind of stuff, althought I knew to be smart and safe when it comes to using the internet.

Sorry, I can't get the link to the video to copy, but if you can go to cnn.com and go to NewsPulse and about half way down there is a link to the video titled "Woman's report on sex partners goes viral."

Thoughts? Did anyone share with you about the dangers of the internet? Are things out of hand or should people just be careful what they share on the internet? Do you think people have privacy and this issue in mind when they share things online?

Fanfiction -- Blogging of the Arts

Fan fiction – writing out our dream lives…

Ok so in my teen years, I use to write funny short stories about my life, if I were to become Ms. Trey Songz, or Mrs. J-Boog.   They were pretty boring, and corny, me being like 15 I had barely experienced anything about life, but upon doing some searching some people go really hard core. It made me think about how people really get into the stories, and kind of live through the stories.  I have to admit they are pretty good stories, but it can get kind of crazy.  I’ve seen sites where some people start to join cliques or “Writing teams” – like small production companies, all on the internet with girls who are 14-17 years old.   Other people comment on the stories as the stories unfold chapter by chapter.

I wonder if fan fiction is just an adolescent past time, as mine was. Kind of like blogging but instead of discussing real life events, I told stories of my dream life. Or could it get dangerously stalkerish for celebrities.

They even make avatars for the stories, and banners of themselves with the star in question, like it could be the cover of a novel.

Like these:

I think this is interesting, because I feel like they are tuning their instrument of writing. These could be potential bestselling authors….or celebrity stalkers – I guess the future will tell.

I’ve listed some sites that I visit every now and then (Most of them are Chris Brown – he’s my favorite LOL)

http://cbfanfiction.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=post&action=display&thread=450

http://www.fanfiction.net/

http://www.chrisbrownworld.com/forum/22

http://www.chrisitis.com/viewuser.php?uid=4148

Looking NOT like yourself in Second Life

Since you guys have been exploring Second Life and playing around with avatar appearance, I thought I would post a couple of pictures of some of my avatars. I enjoy being an animal in SL for a couple of reasons. One of them is purely practical - as an animal, you don't have to worry about whether you are dressed "right" for a particular occasion or event. You just log in, and you're ready to go! Since I don't like to spend too much time on clothes or appearance in RL either, this suits my personality in SL also.

I usually use a human avatar when I am going to doing a workshop for other faculty. I've found if people who aren't familiar with SL are learning about it, and their initial experience is that I'm an animal in SL, that tends to be all they can focus on at the beginning. So, appearing as a human (even if it's one that looks very different from me) seems to be less disconcerting for people.

In terms of how it affects my own behavior, I think that I'm a bit more friendly as an animal. I feel less constrained about approaching someone and saying hi. I mean, who would feel threatened if approached by a tiny moose? So I put on my best "tiny moose personality" and walk up to people an say hey. I also think I am a bit more of a jokester when I'm an animal as opposed to a human...but you'd have to ask my SL friends about that.

Anyone else had interesting appearance-base experiences in SL?

facebook vs the internet

Hey ladies (and guys, if any are reading this), my post for this week is going to be about what the internet is to me. I'm making this post because from what I've gathered so far in our class discussions, there doesn't appear to be much talk about anything other than facebook/myspace/twitter. I'm not trying to complain or antagonize anyone but I want to explain how there is much more out there than what we have discussed.

I know we're only a couple weeks into the class and still have a lot to talk about, much of which may be new to you, and that's fine (although I was surprised when several of our classmates didn't know what a blog was), so I'll share some of my thoughts.

A lot of people take the internet way too seriously, in my opinion. They treat social networking sites and forums as real life, and this is not really a good thing. I've seen a lot of horrifying things on the internet and lot of absurdly funny things too (and i dont mean on youtube). After that it's impossible to take anything on the internet truly seriously for me.

There are sites where people go to talk about the most random, entertaining, perverted, or informational topics. They have been described as "where the internet goes to die," and its members are basically hackers on steroids. These sites typically prefer to remain a secret although they are widely known. Its members are from all around the world, and they have, as a collective, an incredible amount of knowledge - Anything from weird facts you didn't know about Steve Jobs (Apple CEO), how to get a drink from a vending machine without paying, to hacking facebook accounts (it's easier than you think).

I know we haven't talked about it much yet but cyberbullying happens a lot on these sites, either to each other or to random people or websites (the church of Scientology for example). I hope we touch more on this during class, I don't want to talk too much about it here. But as these people typically just use the internet to goof around, they make fun of people who take it too seriously. I found some cynical images drawn by members of the site of facebook profile pics that you see all too often. It's sort of how "they" see you. Apologies for the language, hopefully as adults you aren't offended by 4-letter words. See if you have any like this and enjoy!

Let me know what you think – don’t be a stranger, just hit me with your best shot

Edit: I censored some of the language...

Cyber Therapy

Amanda and I will be leading the class discussion about Cyber Therapy a little later on, so I thought for my blog post I’d do a little research and see what aspects of online therapy have already been examined and what kinds of questions these studies bring to mind.

In the Eyes of the Beholder: Exploring Psychologists' Attitudes towards and Use of e-Therapy in Norway.
http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=102&sid=b52a8de3-6504-4f83-ba55-62ec14e7e261%40sessionmgr113&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=a9h&AN=25536566#db=a9h&AN=25536566

First, I found a study that explored the use of “e-media” communication mediums such as email and text messaging by Norwegian psychologists. It determined psychologists’ attitudes towards the use of these forms of communication in the therapeutic context, and also sought to determine whether theoretical standpoints influenced their attitudes and if so, to what degree.

A little more than half of the participants in this study felt that e-communication would be helpful but only in addition to face-to-face therapy sessions. The overall attitude of the participants towards e-communication used for therapeutic purposes, when averaged, was neutral. Therapists who work from a dynamic theoretical framework were more likely to hold negative attitudes towards e-therapy and were thus less likely to use email or other online forms of communication with clients.

I would be interested to see for which types of presenting problems e-therapy is most effective, which form of online communication is best suited for e-therapy (whether it be a delayed response form such as e-mail or a quick response form such as instant messaging), the effect of the clients’ comfort level with and/or knowledge of online communication on the effectiveness of e-therapy, and more research on theoretical approach and use of e-therapy.

On a different note, I would like to learn more about other types of CMC used for therapeutic purposes. For example, one article I just skimmed quickly mentioned the use of immersive virtual reality in online cognitive-behavioral therapy. I hadn’t considered this, but one of the articles I skimmed even mentioned using applications on cell phones as an addition to face-to-face therapy. With all of the new phones like the I-Phone and the Androids and all of the apps being made available, it makes sense to explore how therapists can use this new technology for therapeutic purposes outside of face-to-face sessions.

I think that the convenience of online communication makes it a valuable tool that certainly should be at least considered by therapists. I don’t think that e-therapy alone would be as effective as face-to-face therapy for many clients. However, for clients who are unable to see a therapist face-to-face for whatever reason, e-therapy would probably be better than no therapy.  What other variables do you think would play a significant role in E-Therapy? I'm sure there are far more than I was able to come up with.

PostSecret

So I'm not a poster this week but I saw this on PostSecret.com today and I wanted to share it.

There was a message under it that said "i WISH my therapist would look for me on the internet. i post more truth about my life on the internet than i have the guts to say in her office. :/"

I thought this was interesting and went along with some of the things we've been talking about in class.

This shows some support for the idea that therapy in an online setting could be very beneficial because patients would disclose more information.

Also, I'm just wondering about the ethics of this. I don't see why a therapist shouldn't be allowed to look up a Facebook page of their clients? As long as they're not showing the pages to anyone else....it could give the therapist some insight to help the person.

That's just my opinion though! I just thought this was all pretty interesting! What do you guys think?

Facebook Friend Requests, Do They Count as a First Move in A Relationship?

So this kind of occurred to me last time in class, and I'm thinking about looking more into it as a potential research proposal topic. We talked about Facebook and how certain personality attributes could be related to the amount of time spent on Facebook as well as how many friends people have. The articles found that extraverts tended to have more friends than introverts, but also found that shy individuals spend more time on Facebook as well as have more favorable attitudes toward the site than nonshy individuals. In my opinion, this implies that introverts may have different motivations for using Facebook aside from the social aspects. Maybe they like being a part of a social network, while also taking advangtage of the anonymity of it all. Interacting online is a much less personal form of communication, which may be the appeal to shy individuals. I would consider myself to be a fairly shy person, which is why I think that shy people might appreciate being able to stay socially up to date, without ever having to feel the "spotlight", as they more likely would in person. They may be relieved of the pressure of having to use and interpret verbal and nonverbal cues in person by relying on online forms of communication and social networking.

We also mentioned friend requests in class, like who is more likely to send and accept them on a regular basis. This is what got me thinking about a possible research topic. If extraverts are known to have more friends on Facebook, could this mean that they consider "friending" someone a first move in establishing a relationship with someone? I think the longer Facebook is around, the more people are likely to use it when meeting new people. Basically, are friend requests considered to be a first move, as a phone call or any other personal interaction used to be? Or could they be in the near future?