The Value of Asynchronous Communication

One of the topics we'll discuss in the second half of the semester is the value of online relationships, via email, SMS, Twitter, Facebook, and the like. There are many opinions about this subject, and you'll find that a lot of researchers and pundits will state "this is so" without cited evidence.
Case in point, this editorial in the New York Times by a psychology professor at MIT. While we can assume that she is well-versed in these subjects, the editorial itself does not offer any evidence, just hypotheses and claims made as though they are acknowledged facts. What she contends may be 100% true, 50% true, or 0% true. But given the lack of support for these opinions, we cannot give them any special value.  Maybe she just wants us to buy her book...

From The Social Network

Fact and fiction in The Social Network: http://www.getthebigpicture.net/blog/2010/10/4/the-truth-about-social-network-fact-vs-fiction.html

A brief interview with Divya Narendra http://www.northbynorthwestern.com/story/divya-narendra-on-being-a-wildcat-the-social-netwo/

Official movie site: http://www.thesocialnetwork-movie.com/

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Social_Network

Milgram Obedience Experiment/Deindividuation

It's a 3-part mini-documentary. Do you think this demonstrates 'deindividuation'? What other processes or phenomenons might be taking place in these experiments?

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Another experiment that demonstrates 'deindividuation' is the Stanford Prison Experiment. If you haven't heard of this before, it's definitely worth learning about.

Social Networking Reprisals

12 Ways to Get Fired for Facebook

The Paramedic/Doctor Video

Dawnmarie Souza's Case

Social Networking Privacy

Pruitt-Igoe

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth on 99% Invisible

Dunbar's Number Redux

Ran across this article today, new research from Robin Dunbar.

Oxford University researchers found maintaining friendships requires more brain power.

Their study concluded that people with real friends have to use more cognitive skills to understand what someone else thought.

This, however, did not occur with "online" friends, such as those made on social networking sites including Facebook or Twitter.

Scientists discovered a link between the number of friends people had and the size of their orbital prefrontal cortex, which is a region of the brain found just above the eyes.

The conclusions, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, shows for the first time that competency in social skills is determined by the size of peoples' brains.

Cyber-bullying

Cyber-bullying, naturally, is a relatively new phenomenon. While one could find examples of rude, malicious, and harassing behavior going back to the first days of email, AOL, and instant messaging, what is referred to as cyber-bullying today has grown alongside Web 2.0 and social networking.
Cyber-bullying is often used to refer to attacks made against minors, while harassment of adults is generally called cyber-stalking. Both are demonstrably harmful to the victim, and often there is little that victims and law enforcement can do.

Check out the Wikipedia entry for the topic here.