I agree with what people are saying here. This was one of the shocks that i had when i first gave a class on virtual communities. The extremely techno-literate Students not only were ignorant about mailing lists, Moos, IRC and so on, but couldn't see the point, and seemed to think that web sites with no provision for spectator writing were interactive.... However the part of the article that Mike posts does not actually say that people were using mailing lists, MOOs etc. They could laregly be using ICQ, email, and websites, and be interacting with their offline friends -- whether these are absent or neighbouring. The term "Internet chat" is meaningless in itself. The later part of the article does state that people are playing online games - although it does not say whether these are 'pair games' like chess, or 'multiplayer games', and states that 29% say they have participated in an online forum or bulletin board discussion. But nothing about how often or what kind of forums. So the issue is really does the survey investigate what modalities people are using, frequency of that modality use, or whether people are primarily pursuing group or individual contact? jon ----- Original Message ----- From: Michael Gurstein <mgurst@vcn.bc.ca> Date: Tuesday, January 20, 2004 2:33 am Subject: [Air-l] The Internet Is Changing The Way Canadians Socialize

Vancouver, BC - Online Canadians, especially young online Canadians, are embracing the Internet as a way to meet new friends and stay in touch with old friends according to an Ipsos-Reid study. Almost seven-in-ten online Canadians (69%) have used the Internet for social interaction. This includes such activities as taking part in online chat, playing games with other people, using the Internet to contact someone they've lost touch with, participating in forums or bulletin board discussions,using online personals or dating services, or taking part in an online telephone call. Younger online Canadians are especially likely to use the Internet in their social lives. In fact, 82% of those 18-34 years of age have taken part in some form of online social activities. The studyinvolved 1,000 telephone interviews with Canadian adults and 1,000online interviews with Canadian Internet users in September and October.

http://www.ipsos-na.com/news/pressrelease.cfm?id=2008

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