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March 28, 2024

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Spring Housing Guide

Getting Networked

Kristine Blair’s research has found at least one steady trend — people are always finding new ways to communicate on the Internet.

It has been over 10 years since America Online launched society into a chatroom frenzy, but an innovative line of Web sites has created a new form of communication.

Sites such as thefacebook.com, friendster.com, myspace.com and catch27.com have created a platform where location means little and the connections seem endless.

Describing themselves as free “online directories” or “networks,” they have attracted millions of users and only require an e-mail address to join.

Such sites offer different features like journals (more often called blogs), prizes and some throw parties for their members. But, Blair thinks these sites would attract members without the special features.

“At the core, one thing we are looking at here is the concept of virtual community, and that’s not a new concept,” said Blair, an English professor at Bowling Green State University, who focuses her research on computer mediated communication.

The growing phenomenon has become a pastime for catch27.com creator E. Jean Carroll, who is also a relationship columnist for Elle Magazine. She said the sites are fun and functional for the new multitasking generation.

“You guys are all working, but you are also doing a lot of other stuff — your e-mails, your AIMs, checking out other sites,” she said via phone from her New York City home. “You do, on catch27.com, exactly what you do in real life. It’s much easier than when I was in college, this way you can get to know people on a serious level before you meet face to face.”

Thefacebook.com has been making the headlines recently in newspapers across the country for its increased use on college campuses.

Debuting a year ago, the site began at Harvard and now includes over 300 colleges and universities. BGSU now makes up approximately 6,000 of the site’s 1.5 million members.

Because becoming a member requires a university e-mail address, this site is limited to college students, creating another appeal to these sites, Blair said.

“For people who can get on, it makes it a little more trendy,” Blair said. “It creates a demand for it — and that’s what gives it the buzz.”

Beside the desire to merely be connected, some people or groups — like bands — use the sites to connect with fans. Other artists consider their “space” to be art in itself.

Julie Schilling, a senior at Ohio State University, said she logs onto myspace.com twice a day to connect with friends and read blogs put up by other members.

“I used to get on like everyday and then for like two months I quit getting on it, but I am obsessed with it again,” Schilling said. “I like meeting people from OSU, but my friends actually visit people from other states.”

According to the Web site, myspace.com sponsored a party in Miami last month. The creators of the site have thrown parties in a large metropolitan city, like Los Angeles. Invitations are sent to all members in hopes to connect people, Schilling said.

Many members use the sites simply for entertainment or to pass the time, Schilling said.

“It makes me laugh a lot because of the fact you can send pictures and comments,” Schilling said. “But I know these two girls who are Internet best friends now — and they live in different states.”

Internet friendships and dating are very real, catch27.com creator Carroll said. She manages her site up to 14 hours a day and said she has seen a lot of relationships form while working in the back of the system.

“It’s just as safe as a church social,” Carroll said. “You could still meet a serial killer at a church social. I think it is more safe [online] because you get to meet the person firsthand through conversation.”

Dorise Gruber, a member of catch27.com, would disagree. A student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Gruber said another member told her she was the girl of his dreams, but she decided not to pursue it.

“As one of my friends said, ‘the Internet strikes me a little too bizarre for meeting people,'” she said.

But just like the person trying to connect with Gruber, human beings have always used different means to meet one another, Blair said. The sites themselves may be a new form of communication, but the idea of creating a community is not a new concept, Blair said. “What’s new are the tools and the modes of communication,” Blair said. “What makes these sites so interesting is they are so global.”

According to Current Magazine’s November 2004 interview with Mark Zuckerberg, creator of thefacebook.com, a community feeling was one of the focuses of the site.

In the interview, Zuckerberg explained that sites like thefacebook.com are much more of a reality than some may associate with the Internet.

“We don’t view the site as an online community — we bill it as a directory that is reinforcing a physical community,” Zuckerberg said. “What exists on the site is a mirror image of what exists in real life.”

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