Latest Research Blog Posts

Jack Shafer weighed in on slate.com with an opinion about why newspapers are losing relevance and popularity. Shafer proposes that the news is no longer a form of “social currency,” which can be used to demonstrate shared points of commonality. Certain knowledge would score points with others, and serve as valuable signals to demonstrate shared interests.

The Journal of Virtual Worlds Research recently went online with its inaugural edition. The theme of first issue was: Virtual Worlds Research: Past, Present & Future. JVWR is an open access online journal. http://jvwresearch.org/

The most recent findings by Ybarra and Mitchell (2008) address the assumption the posting of personal information on social network websites (SNSs) is dangerous. Their results show that when other factors are accounted for, a young person’s posting of personal information online does not significantly increase the likelihood that he or she will be harassed or solicited.