Cybergrrrls

The NY Times this week had an article discussing that girls are responsible for most of the content on the web now. In addition, these girls are also developing a substantial number web applications, more so than boys. This seems pretty exciting because women have lagged behind men in computer science fields. Could this be the dawn of a new era in gender opportunity and equality in technical careers?

Some people argue no. They say that what these girls are doing isn't "real" computer science or technology development. Is there perspective true or is the internet really going to challenge the way we compute and these adults just don't get it?

Facebook Study

At the beginning of the course, I think Dr. Blanchard mentioned a research project on Facebook privacy that was being conducted in the Computer Science department by PhD student Andrew Besmer.

He has wrapped up his focus groups, but he has created an online survey to go along with his photo application prototype.

It would be really awesome if you guys could take the time to complete the survey. It will only take a few minutes, and Andrew would really appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

Here's the link: HCI Photo Application

- Erin

Henderson/Gilding Article

The thing that stood out for me in this article was the definition of trust: it is a bet about the future contingent actions of others. It also mentioned that when we place trust, we are acting as if we knew the future. I never thought of trust in these terms. This was an eye opener for me or as Oprah calls it, a light bulb moment. When we trust someone, we are really anticipating that person to act a certain way in the future. That's simply what love is, a bet that a person will be honest and true within the life of the relationship. With the current divorce rate, apparently that's a bet that many people are losing. Even with sharing secrets with friends we are only hoping and wishing that the person won't betray our trust and continue to share the information with others. I am going to take a gamble and trust that my classmates will in the near future read and post a comment.

Kaycee Nicole

When I read Ch. 4 a few days ago, I scratched down a note to pull up any articles on the Kaycee Nicole situation. It appears to have happened almost 7 years ago, but somehow I never heard about it.

If your interested in reading the article...

What's horrible is that Kaycee's "mother" - or rather, the creator of Kaycee - mentions in the article how she wanted an online journal, and she wanted it to be positive. I'm not sure how creating a daughter that is dying of leukemia is positive! I'm just so disgusted after reading this article and to think that she kept it up for two years!

Online Networks for Work

With your familiarity with Facebook, social networking may be an excellent way for you to get your career going. Check out this article on the Observer and then, you may consider joining Linkedin (essentially, a form of Facebook for the working world).

romance.

Chapter 3- "Cyberspace can potentially provide a space for individuals to be more private and have their activities far less monitored than they would be in more traditional spaces."

These readings opened my eyes to the variety of romance, dating and views on internet romance. As I said in class, more and more I am thinking positive of the internet, including dating online. As our world continues to change, dating changes with it... and online dating just seems a step into today's times. One of the problems with online dating is online dating is still new. When something new comes about, there are always kinks to be worked out. More and more people are beginning to have a better understanding of how to represent themselves online, or at least figuring out how they want to be portrayed. It will be very exciting to see where online romance goes in the years to come!

Hotel California...or Facebook?

Earlier this week, the NY Times reported that it was very difficult to leave Facebook. To erase one's data from the site, you had to contact customer service and delete your profile information line by line.

On Tuesday, Facebook responded to the uproar and will now make it a lot easier to both check out and leave Facebook when you are done with using the service.

Your thoughts?

Ellison and Gibbs Article

This study was conducted to investigate the "self presentation strategies" of online daters, and how they present themselves in order to find a romantic partner. I think this is a very interesting study, when you are portraying yourself online, are you being honest about the real you that is trying to find a romantic partner. The findings are that the participants where in fact honest about who they were online.

Important to note, there are a lot of limitations on this study, and it sends up a red flag. These are again participants that choose to be apart of the study. They are all from a specific region, and the site that they used to study from is not like most dating sites today. You look through and find someone instead of being matched with "most compatible" daters.

Online Romance

Apparently, as we approach Valentine's day, the print media are starting to publish stories about online romance. Since most of the ones we hear about tend to be very flashy, I thought I'd link you to two stories that I think are much more typical (and interesting!) about folks finding love online.

The first story is about rural singles using online dating services for companionship and marriage. My take on this is that if you think it's hard to date in the city with a zillion people to choose from, imagine dating in the country.

I also read this article on an older couple finding each other online and thought it must be much, much more typical of how most people use these services to find love. Remember, dear students, that although your age group makes up the majority of people on facebook (and the majority of students in my class!) :-), you are not the majority of people online. Old folks like me are the most populous group!

Finally, would you like to share your generation's experience of love online? The NY Times Modern Love column wants you to tell us what love is like now.

McKenna et al

This article continues to discuss internet relationships in reference to one's inner or true self. It was interesting that these authors went a step further to create the structural equation model. This model shows how people continue to carry out their relationships beyond the internet. I was surprised to see that a small percentage continue to communicate through letters. This model also showed that people sometimes become engaged or simply have an affair after they connect with each other's inner self. This article does include the fact that most internet users suffer from social anxieties and loneliness, but it also shows how the relationships can continue to grow.

Just a rant

Reading some of the articles last week has really frustrated me. It's unfortunate that so much Internet research focuses on shyness, social anxiety, loneliness, and depression - basically, it reminds me of a Cymbalta commercial.

Otherwise, we seem to associate the Internet and technology with geekiness. Whatever happened to innovation, intellect, and individuality? Everyone seems to forget about this - especially females!

Here's something interesting my professor in the CS department has on her site:
"As a female and a mother, I aim to show that Computer Science is for everyone. It is NOT geeky. CS is creative, and it allows me to contribute to the design of products that can be used by diverse populations."

So while social relationships and Internet usage may have initially revolved around more introverted personalities, I think this has drastically changed in the last five years, as technology continues to become more ubiquitous. Sadly, the established stigmas seem to prevail....

Creative technology on campus...

Virtual Environments for Use in the Treatment of Anxiety Disorders

Can Immersive Virtual Humans Teach Social Conversation Protocols?

Some other stuff..

McKenna & Bargh

I really enjoyed the McKenna and Bargh article, as well as our class discussion yesterday. Dr. Blanchard made a really good point on how so many people look at the small percentage of pedophilia and things relating to those issues, and not on the bigger picture of the internet. I tend to perceive a lot of internet chat sites as "sketchy" sites. However, this article really opened my eyes to the positive sides of the internet, now I know there are still many chat rooms and websites that still support these addictions and illegal things, but there are so many positives. "Not only do people form strong relationships with others on the Internet, but they are then motivated to make these relationships a social reality." Also, the talks on "coming out" and how they feel encouraged on bringing that "real self" out into the real world made me have a better understanding of the need for internet support to bring real life support. This article just gave me more information on what good the internet brings to certain groups of people.

McKenna and Bargh

McKenna and Bargh describe how people prefer the internet to other facets of the media due to it's accesibility and "up-to-the minute accurate" information. People are also using the internet as a form of communication, though--which is now it's number one use. The article focuses on what causes people to communicate online, what happens during social interaction, and the consequences of Internet interactions. People communicate online for a variety of reasons. Many want to simply conceal their identity, while some with a certain stigma feel they can share their feelings with others with the same problem (ex. health issues, relationship probems, ect.). People have a need to show their true self, but often feel they cannot do this in person and feel more comfortable online.

Heisler and Crabill Article

This article discussed perceptions that are generated from an email username. This was an interesting article because I usually don't give much attention to an username. I am curious sometimes are to why or how some people choose their names. Some names that contains numbers raise questions about their significance to the user. Creative usernames are viewed as either funny or simply entertaining. The article stated that creative names, when participating in a group project, could alter how others in the group will perceive that individual. I guess I wouldn't want to work or depend on someone with the username of sober4alilbit. Most people, like myself, simply use portions of their names to generate an username. Maybe I need to change my username in order to be perceived as being more creative and edgy.

Second Life

This is an introduction to Second Life and this is the article that talks about people working on Second life. Both of these should give you a bit of an introduction to Second Life before our class on Tuesday.



See you then!!!