Enter Skype! I have experienced first hand the magical connecting powers of Skype; a program that connects lovers, friends, family members and those in pursuit of the perfect business deal. I personally have been using it as a love connector with my man who lives, Gasp, in England while I pine for him in Florida. The magic starts as soon as you down load this program, completely free of charge. The free of charge bit makes these two student lovers very happy indeed, as our money needs to be saved for plane tickets, not wasted on phone calls.

However, there is more. Not only can you chat away for unlimited hours, you actually get to see each other, in live time! Web cams are your friend. It is just as though you are hanging out together and provides that same air of comfort as when you are together. If a silence arises it is comfortable, unlike those terrible awkward moments on the phone where you are pressured by the silence to make quick good-byes. The only down fall is feeling that you have to look presentable to sit at your computer. As far as I know, web cams do not offer the air-brushing option just yet.

I am going to see him in two and a half months and I hold high hopes that with our daily visits on Skype we will be able to act as much like any other pair in love, even if we are separated by an ocean.  

Just as there are different types of social networking groups, the age of the networker varies from the youngest to the oldest. Businesses can work on projects on line and charities can raise money and organize there plan by the internet. Social networking has been the evolution of an unmet need and the tool to meet that need. The largest and successful social networking sites grow through viral network marketing. In simple, the word of mouth, but sent virally to thousands with a few clicks on the keyboard. Products are made number one over night by some internet buzz, or a program can get blackballed by a few well placed critiques.

Most social networking sites have a focus. It could be photos, school, business, education, chat, blogging, military groups and hobbyist of all kinds. Some of the biggest social networking sites are Myspace, Facebook, Flicker and they have become household names. Sonico, a Spanish social networking group is one the biggest, however not widely known, with over 8 million registered users. The cultural implication of social networking is becoming apparent. Another cultural netmarketing group is BlackPlanet.com and dedicated to African Americans.

Niche communities are housed in the social network and are used by those that have the most in common. Subgroups and categories related to specific topics develop. Advertisement can be target at the specific topic or product and be exposed to people that are actually interested. There is a generation gap between the college age person with their parents and grandparents. Many older people do not understand or appreciate the power or necessity of the social interaction on the web. This does not detour the millions of networkers. This is a generational issue and the outcome could plot the path for social networking in the future. It is unlikely that the diehard networkers will be swayed buy lack of generation support. Social networking is too big to be suppressed. The internet has changed from a repository of information and data to a vessel for building commerce and relationships. Humans like to feel apart of something, it does not matter if it is across the world or in there own home.

I am not single right now, but if I was, how in the heck would I be able to use the internet to find a date. If you do a search for online dating you come up with an astounding number of results that equals about three times the population of California. Once you join one of the sites, then you have on average, 400-500 people to go through to find someone you are interested in. Then you talk with them over email and get to know each other and find out that the picture they had up is from high school and they are 10 years older now, if it is them at all.

What happened to the old fashioned dating? You know the one that isn't virtual. The one where you two walk into a room and your eyes lock and there is an instant attraction. How can you lock eyes and feel that romance online? There are video's now, but how do you really know unless your are actually looking into each others eyes and your stumble over your words instead of back spacing or deleting.

It is just amazing that online dating is so popular, but then again it's not. It is much easier to sit in your own home where you are safe. It is easier to handle rejection because you can line a few up at the same time and they will never run into you while you are out on another date. If you don't like them, you can block them out and send their messages to the trash. You can be who you want to be instead of who you are. I guess the popularity of online dating isn't so amazing when you think about it. We live in a new world where peoples lives exist in a virtual world and it is much easier to control that world than it is our own.

To help us all in our daily activities concerning the Internet, I would like to share this great find I encountered: 14 Internet Downloadable Tools (most of them freeware).

Ad-Aware (Free)

Security is a main concern when we go online, that is why Ad-aware is here to offer you protection from PC threats that includes viruses and spywares. It allows you to scan your PC and alerts you when it has detected threat(s). It also allows you to put these threats into quarantine and/or delete them. It is a good idea to have more than one protector, becuase not all scanners find all threats -- just make sure they are all compatible.

Advanced Lan Scanner (Free)

If you have a network at home or at work and is sharing a single Internet connection, this downloadable freeware is for you. It has a powerful scanning capabilities. You can use it for troubleshooting Internet connections, network configurations and even security purposes when connected to the Internet.

Bandwidth Monitor 2 Lite (Free)

Are you a fan of downloading and/or uploading files? Bandwidth Monitor 2 Lite is for you -- it allows you to check your current bandwidth usage over time by displaying that usage in a constantly changing chart (it can also be displayed in text).

Comodo Firewall Pro (Free)

Comodo Firewall Pro protects your PC from inbound and outbound threats. It also protect selected files and folders so that malwares cannot get into them nor alter them in any way.

Digsby (Free)

Communication is very essential from the very start and with different types of messenger popping up, we can't be thankful enough. Digsby is a universal instant messenger that allows you to interact with friends and family who uses other types of instant messenger (eg. YM, AOL IM). It also surpasses these other types of IM because it allows you to check your social networking sites and even emails from web-based mail site not associated with your IMs.

eMail Tracker Pro (Price: $29.95 (15-day free trial))

Unsure if the emails you're receiving are legitimate or not? eMail Tracker Pro gives you a set of tools for examining any email messages that pops into your inbox -- tracing back to its true point of origin and showing you the IP address and location of the sender, thus allowowing you to trace whether the email has been tampered. It also provides contact information for the domain from which the message was sent to that you can report any abuse.

Prompter (Free)

Are you the type of person who has multiple web-based mail accounts, just like me? Oh, yes! And it really takes my time opening one type of email to another -- I got Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Windows Live Mail (it's kind of required in my field of work). Well, ePrompter neatly solves our problem. It allows us to open all our web-based email accounts, check for new mails, compose and even deletes messages; and also tells us how many new messages we got from each emails.

FileZilla (Free)

Many individuals and businesses continue to use file transfer protocol (FTP) as a way to share files because it does not block large file transfers. FileZilla is an excellent FTP client that combines simplicity with a robust feature set and it's interface is easy to use.

FlashGet (Free)

Are you a fan of downloading? FlashGet is for you -- a great download manager that speeds up the process because it uses multithreading, keeps you safe and helps you organize your downloads, allows you to find downloads via many different protocols.

Foxit Reader (Free)

Most of online documents are in Adobe Acrobat format, thus you need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open such documnents; but Adobe Reader takes much time to download and is also prone to crashes. To help us with this, Foxit Reader is here -- it's small and loads much faster, thus doesn't take up much memory when used; it is also not prone to crashes.

Free Internet Window Maker (Free)

Familiar with cache files, browser history, auto-complete information, cookies? These are traceable trails you get to leave behind after an Internet activity, which might be critical in terms of security purposes. To ensure security and privacy when using the Internet, Free Internet Window Washer allows you to remove these traceable trails; it also removes traces of application activity, such as which files and/or folders were recently opened.

PingInfoView (Free)

Pinging a website is like contacting this site to check if it's alive and responds to the ping request. PingInfoView allows you to ping multiple web sites simultaneously; on any schedule you set and displays the results in a graphical interface.

SMTP Diagnostics (Price: $12 (30-day free trial))

Are you handling SMTP servers? Are you encountering problems about it and have no idea what is wrong? SMTP Diagnostics is for you -- it performs a complete set of diagnostics on your SMTP connection and provides an in-depth report about any errors.

VisualRoute 2008 Lite (Free; also with for-pay versions)

VisualRoute 2008 Lite is a command line tool which allows you to display the route you take to contact a web server or other Internet device in a visually appealing way. It also shows a map of every hop, and graphs it accordingly against a background that shows reponse times. Highlighting a hop allows you to see important details, such as pachet loss and speed.

What are you waiting for? Why don't you try these Internet downloadable tools and see how it can ease the burden of everyday encounter with technology. Just make sure to take the necessary actions to ensure the security of you and your PC. Happy downloading!

This is an awesome new image locating tool that uses Web 3.0 technology to find and locate images and graphics that have been stored and published on the Internet. Unlike Google,Picitup makes locating the exact images that you need or are looking to see a whole lot easier to retrieve from the millions and billions of images published on the worldwide web. The Advanced filtering options allows users to filter images by categories, color, shape, layout, and size or you can retrieve images by visual ranks.

Jumpcut

This website offers an incredible and unique opportunity for anyone interested in making and creating videos, rich multimedia content and share it with the world or narrow it to only those people that you want to see your finished creation. Jumpcut allows its members to make movies, music videos and even produce their own movie remix. Do everything from collaborating with the user community to using editing tools that makes making movies as easy as 1-2-3.

Eyespot

The world of accessing the Internet has become more than just logging in on a PC or laptop and exploring the world of information. Now, it includes mobile phones, portable players and other connected devices and being able to share you favorite videos that you create to this broaden market increases the opportunities to let your star shine more brightly. EyeSpot provides video editing and sharing software that is easy-to-use, intuitive, and accessible to all end-users.

Chihuahua

The Internet is a fantastic place to find and play all kinds of new word games, but Chihuahua is a game that challenges the skills of the finest wordsmiths from around the world. Players must makes as many words as possible 4 letters or more (plurals and verb forms ending in S are not allowed) and at least one word using all 9 letters. Each and every word must incorporate the middle letter on the game board in each of the words. Players can play alone or compete against the world by putting their names on the scoreboard.

Campfire

Campfire is a web-based, password-protected chat room that users can employ to collaborate, chat and communicate with up to 60 people at once. Users can share files, images, chat privately or even browse previous chats by person, room, or date given them more communication capabilities than any other chat room of its kind.

BlogLines

BlogLines is an easy-to-use blog and news feed search, online subscriptions, news reader, blog publishing and social sharing tool that allows users to organize and stay up-to-date with all of their favorite web content from a single location. There are numerous features that users can employ to customize their own unique experience and way too many to detail in this article.

Blummy

Using Blummy users can add small widgets called “blummlets”, which will provide rich functionality to the bookmarks that they choose to save or share with others. JavaScript is used to provide the blummlets, so if you do not like using JavaScript, then you might want to steer clear of this tool.

Notifyr.org

This is an amazing free tool that allows its users to stay notified any time their favorite website, blog or news feed is updated from around the world. It works with any website and the updates are sent via email.

TravBuddy

This is an excellent website to visit any time you are in the mood to travel, because this user-generate, content-rich Internet travel resource contains travel tips, suggestions and information that are shared among other world travelers like you. Discover the best places to visit, the best places to dine or shop and much more, before you even leave for the airport. TravBuddy is like a personal assistant that makes scheduling your trips a breeze.

Omnidrive

Omnidrive allows users to aggregate not only all of their desktop files, but all of the user's files and data from different web applications within a single storage space. Users can access all their files and data from anywhere and share with other users or by email. Users can publish music, video or photos to the web or link to them from within forums, blogs or websites, thus making this the perfect desktop organizers for the information junkie or office professional that demands the best organizing tool on the market.

An application called Instant Messenger (IM) has attracted more and more attentions from the internet users around the world lately. It is said that IM has provided them a brilliant platform to communicate using PC with a relatively lower cost as compared to other medium of communications. Anyone can use IM regardless where he or she came from. The borderless form of communication has enabled a close relationship emerging between friend, relative, family member, and even entrepreneur to deliver their messages instantly and effectively. Some of the IM platforms even allow for using video and sound instead of the text itself.

Below I listed some of the services provided by the IM that are used extensively anywhere and anytime by the internet users.

AOL Instant Messenger

AOL became the most well-known IM ten years ago. Its popularity particularly dealing with its excellent services has successfully attracted many users which later leading the company to release stand-alone official AIM client called AOL Instant Messenger or AIM. AIM uses TOC protocol and OSCAR instant messaging protocol which was released by AOL on May, 1997 and it permits registered users to communicate in real time. The new version was specifically designed for WindowXP to enable the internet users to use video and sound, sharing files and other attractive features which are added from time to time.

AIM is always regarded as the most popular method of sending instant message as it has the largest group of registered users as compared to other IM interfaces listed here. Indeed, it is a user-friendly tool that is easily manipulated by the users to communicate with each other. AOL also offers an AIM client software which can be used for Mac OS X, Mac Os, and Linus.

Yahoo Messenger

The application of Yahoo Messenger enables its users to communicate each other by using the provided current Yahoo ID to sign in. It comes with an attractive emoticon, direct communication via video, fail transfer and so forth. Its front page appears to be more attractive as compared to other IM platforms but its users are lesser than AOL. It is a user-friendly communication tool and thus it is more appropriate to be recommended for a newbie who wishes to communicate friends, relative and family members.

The interesting feature of Yahoo Messenger is that the users are allowed to share photos easily and effectively. Instead, you can choose the theme to indicate your mood or feeling via its excellent feature called IMVironments. Indeed, it is the best IM client and hence it is worth using it. Its new version, Version 8, comes with the added Voice to make the communication sounds more attractive and impressive. This version also enables the users to include “Widgets” into the new messenger. With this added feature, you can exchange message with other users who use MSN Messenger and Window Live.

Google Talk

Google is the search engine favored by the most internet users as compared to Yahoo, Ask, Netscape and other search engine sites. Google provides its web-based application for instant messaging and voice over internet (VOIP) called Google Talk or simply known as Gtalk. Gtalk enables its users to make calls instantly and effectively without paying a single cent. It also allows the communication of other XMPP (eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) clients with Google Talk users with its open protocol, XMPP. Now, BlackBerry is available to use within Google Talk which can be downloaded at Google Talk's blackberry. There is also an Add Friend button, a “Search all contacts” field to enable searches in both Google Talk and Gmail contacts.

Google has made the communication more convenient by introducing Google Apps Team addition to enable talks among co-workers or classmates taken place in a friendly environment. With this add-in application, anyone can obtain Google Docs to create and share documents, spreadsheets and presentations. As Google Apps Team addition recognizes the connections to co-worker or classmates effectively, their contacts will automatically be added in your contact list. To try this, try visit Google Apps Team Addition Homepage.

Google Talk is a good platform to choose for an instant messaging and open communication as it can be used for many languages. To do this, you just add any of the 23 other translation bots. They are all named by two-letter language abbreviations as "[from language]2[to language]@bot.talk.google.com", and the supported language pairs are: ar2en, de2en, de2fr, el2en, en2ar, en2de, en2el, en2es, en2fr, en2it, en2ja, en2ko, en2nl, en2ru, en2zh, es2en, fr2de, fr2en, it2en, ja2en, ko2en, nl2en, ru2en, zh2en. So, French to German translation, talk to fr2de@bot.talk.google.com.

On June 4, 2008, Google has added many other languages with the aims to reduce the language barriers with automated chat translations many people have been experiencing. The new bots speak Bulgarian (bg), Croatian (hr), Czech (cs), Danish (da), Finnish (fi), Hindi (hi), Norwegian (no), Polish (pl), Portuguese (pt), Romanian (ro), Swedish (sv) and Traditional Chinese (zh-hant). Basically, there are 26 new bots: bg2en, cs2en, da2en, en2bg, en2cs, en2da, en2fi, en2hi, en2hr, en2no, en2pl, en2pt, en2ro, en2sv, en2zh-hant, fi2en, hi2en, hr2en, no2en, pl2en, pt2en, ro2en, sv2en, zh-hant2en, zh-hant2zh, and zh2zh-hant. To check out the full list of supported languages, simply log in to supported language combinations.

ICQ

ICQ is an instant messaging commonly called “I seek you” which is regarded as a stand-alone IM client since it was first released in November, 1996. It was also the first to have features like “Buddy” and an interactive communication platform. This application has become portion of family AOL Time Warner, but unfortunately it is not advertised extensively like AIM. It is an application compatible with the PC operation of OS which includes cell phone and Symbian OS. That is why it is not surprising to find that its usage is growing.

ICQ provides many excellent features which make it stands firmly among other IM platforms. It has marvelous features include spelling checker, file transfer, “Push to talk” (PTT) service, video messaging and e-mail integration. Not only ICQ let you communicate with friends and colleagues in real time, but also you can play many online games to entertain yourself. ICQ is definitely the best choice for anyone who wishes to search for an attractive and entertaining IM platform.

MSN

Like other leading websites, Microsoft provides its excellent IM plug-in known as MSN Messenger. If you wish to use the services provided by MSN Messenger, you should first have a registered Hotmail to access this type of IM platform. It offers many interesting features such as video messaging, voice communication, emotion icons and many more.

MSN Messenger also comes with a facility to enable you to search via IM to obtain your desired findings. That means you can use it as a web search without opening another window. This feature is very unique as it is not available at other IM clients. MSN is an ideal web-search and IM interface for entrepreneurs, organizations, institutions, administrative and the home users as well. The other amazing feature is that you can leave a message or send a note even you are offline. Despite a large number of people are engaging with PC Windows every day, it is undeniably that this platform has improved the searches, instant messaging and real-time communication in a wide coverage.

Jabber

Jabber is an excellent XML-based protocol to enable real-time instant messaging for e-business. The protocol is added to include Voice over IP and file transfer signaling. It is unique that it integrates the existing e-business into a more personal and dynamic environment. Despite of this excellent feature, Jabber has enabled the communication with other IM platforms to be taken place at the same time with AIM and MSN. Nevertheless, it is not suitable for a newbie who is not familiar with the interface of IM. Once you have familiar with Jabber, it could be a marvelous tool used specifically for an extensible messaging and presence information (buddy lists). Unlike other IM clients, Jabber is an open system that requires its users to use their domain name and a suitable Internet connection to access the server and to talk to users from other IM platforms like Google Talk, Pidgin, Miranda IM, Gizmo Project, Psi and iChat as well.

iChat

iChat is an AIM client by Apple Inc. that allows users to integrate MSN, Yahoo and Google Talk contacts into the Jabber pane. This client provides an excellent facility to enable its users to communicate with either users from Mac, AIM or Jabber. With its new features of video backdrops, Photo Booth effects, Keynote presentation and photo slideshows making iChat a fun and live on-line messaging tool to connect people around the world.

The most unique feature of iChat is that it enables a full-screen personal video conference over thousand miles away via any type of broadband connections. Besides that, an application of iChat provides an interesting client to be integrated with OS X. Therefore, Mac users who are using AIM should give iChat a try.

But what about other means of communication such as phone calls, chat rooms and instant messengers, emails and talking in person? Is the high use of Facebook really because it happens to be convenient or are people becoming too lazy and rushed to take the time to write a letter or email? People add supposed “friends” to their Facebook accounts but do they treat them like friends and talk like friends do? Would the person bother to take the effort to communicate with the supposed “friend” outside of Facebook? What we're asking here is basically: is Facebook taking over the world of communication?

Facebook is becoming increasingly popular among people young and old, but especially the young. Facebook is the latest fad, and it's becoming a huge part of pop culture. This is affecting our society because the meaning of true communication is deteriorating. “Facing Facts on Facebook: Are you really over him as you think?” written by Sarah Lolley discusses how people go on Facebook for three main reasons. Reason number one is being a popularity contest which can help raise or emphasize a person's status, number two is contacting old friends and number reason three is looking up your past significant others. This article suggests that Facebook is becoming a social utility for communication among adolescents.

The article “The Virtual Cutting Edge: The Internet and Adolescent Self -Injury”, written by Janis L Whitlock, discusses the prevalence of increased internet use among adolescents. The author believes that the rate is so high in adolescence because it serves the “purpose of connecting with others” (Whitlock, 2006). This article supports the fact that adolescents are using internet as a main source of communication thus taking away from the rate of in-person communication. “More then 80% of the American youth 12 to 17 years of age use the Internet and log on daily. Research shows that however adolescents use the internet mainly for social reasons,” (Whitlock, 2006).

In another article, written by Naomi S. Baron, it is argued that computer-mediated communication does provide opportunities for adolescents to increase their social interaction. However, in the end, it's solely in the hand of parents, how they were brought up and their traditional views about communication. The author argues that if the person is grounded in their family traditions, they will not resort to using online communication systems as their main form of communication.

The chosen independent variables are females versus males and full-time students versus full-time employees. We chose females versus males because females tend to very actively socialize in crowds, especially ones which enforce conformity, whereas males, although social, tend to be more laid back regarding social networks. The hypothesis is that females will be registered with and use Facebook more then males because it used as more of a popularity contest. It also allows for more diverse communication between friends and family.
Students versus employees was chosen because students have more time and reason to access the internet. Students normally have a more active social life and have access to the internet via libraries and computer labs whereas full-time employees have the tendency of not having time or putting time towards a social life. Accessibility to leisurely internet activities may be limited to these employees as well therefore they most likely use other forms of communication including phone calls and chatting in person. Therefore, the hypothesis for full-time students versus full-time employees is that students will be more likely to be registered with and spend more time on Facebook. Students will utilize Facebook more then employees because most students are young and are familiar with technology and online communication.

In this research study, a full-time student is defined as any respondent who is a registered student at Loyalist College and is taking over half of the required courses within the semester. We defined a full-time employee as any respondent who is working at least 30 to 40 hrs a week.

Fortunately for this research project, use of a questionnaire was chosen over other methods (interviews, etc) for being cheaper and because conducting them takes less time. General disadvantages of conducting questionnaires include possible irrelevance of the topic being researched to those being questioned, the inability to generalize the results, misinterpretation of questions by the participants and the possibility that respondents could record fake answers. Also, the use of questionnaires can have the inability to appeal to certain groups in society including seniors, children and the handicapped.

In our questionnaire, we used dichotomous questions including “your gender: male or female”, “are you a: full-time student or full-time employee” and “do you check your Facebook account daily: yes or no”. Dichotomous questions are multiple choice questions where there are only two options to choose from. This allowed for us to differentiate between the people representing our independent variables. It also allowed a simple analysis regarding whether or not a majority of responding Facebook users check their accounts daily.

One multiple choice question was used, see the questionnaire (question 4), regarding how much time per week our responding Facebook users spend on Facebook itself. This gives us a more in-depth look at how relevant Facebook is in our respondents' weekly timeframes. A rank-order question was also used, see the questionnaire (question six), to determine the ranking of Facebook as a main mean of communication versus other methods including talking in person, phone calls, emails, etc.

The people studied were those who represented our independent variables. These people included and were limited to male and female full-time students and full-time employees. To reach our full-time student respondents, twenty questionnaires were conducted in the Parrot Centre of Loyalist College during regular class hours. To reach our full-time employed respondents, the remaining questionnaires were conducted during a weekday in the early afternoon at the Quinte Mall, a time when a majority of the mall workers happen to be full-time. Because we had four independent variables (male versus female and employee versus student), our goal was to have a total of twenty females and twenty males. Twenty of these would hopefully be full-time employees while the other twenty would be full-time students.

To get our sample, stratified random sampling was used. From our populations of full-time students and full-time employees, we randomly chose twenty of each using their gender as the stratifying variable. A general advantage of stratified random sampling is that one can improve how well the sample represents a population.

Collected Data

Amount of respondents registered with Facebook

Time/week spent on Facebook, whether users check it daily

Facebook's percentage of priority in communication ranking

Previously, we hypothesized that regarding males versus females, the majority of Facebook registration and use would be done by our female respondents. This hypothesis turned out to be correct. All twenty of our female respondents were registered and active on Facebook. Our questionnaire found that 85% of the females, with males standing at 82%, spend more than thirty minutes using Facebook per week.

It was also hypothesized that full-time students would be more likely to be registered and active with Facebook than full-time employees. This hypothesis also turned out to be somewhat correct. Out of our twenty responding full-time students, 95% (19/20) were registered with Facebook. With our twenty responding full-time employees, 90% (18/20) were registered with Facebook. 84% of the Facebook-using students spend more than thirty minutes per week on the website. However, more than thirty minutes are spent on Facebook by 89% of the full-time employees who are registered.

Conclusion

To elaborate on the discussion of the results' correlation with the hypothesis, out of the twenty female users, 70% of them check and spend time on Facebook on a daily basis whereas only 53% of our male respondents do so. 63% of the registered full-time students take part in Facebook activities daily compared to 61% of registered full-time employees.
Despite previous research stating a majority of youth now use the internet as one of their main means of social interaction, our own research found that a majority of our female respondents (42%) and male respondents (32%) use Facebook as their 4th most commonly used communication device. Regarding our students and employees, our full-time students prefer to use Facebook as their 3rd and 4th (tied at 32%) means of communication but our full-time employees use it as their 4th (47%) and 5th (21%) ranked means of communication. Just by looking over the completed questionnaires, we were able to see that most of our participants preferred to use more personal means of communication including talking on the phone or face-to face.

With a majority of our respondents having some sort of income or financial assistance, most of them can afford to have phone lines which could be a factor in why such personal means are preferred. Another thing is that some of them can't afford their own computers so even though there is usually easy access to computers in labs and libraries, the amount of time one can spend on Facebook, and the internet as a whole, is effected

Regarding our sampling method, one could say we cheated the stratified random selection of our sample because we made sure we had twenty students and twenty employees. Then we made sure we chose an equal amount males and females. However, we can say that there was indeed randomization because once we found our students and employees and found groups of males and females from each category; we randomly selected males and females from those gender groups.

We believe the content validity, which is concerned with the coverage quality of the covered content (i.e. how much time is spent on Facebook), is decent because we cover a wide variety of dependent variables (number of hours spent on Facebook, which methods of communication are used). During the research study as a whole, we had a great amount of inter-observer reliability. Even though Deneem and myself worked independently most of the time and had different samples (she worked with the students, I worked with the employees), we gained similar, correlating results.

With there being hundreds of students at Loyalist, a few hundred Quinte Mall employees and only a total of forty respondents in our study, it can be argued that our study lacks generalizability. If we had a larger sample of chosen students and employees, our findings would be more applicable to larger populations of students and employees.

Some limiting factors during our study included time. Different aspects of research take more time than others so with a limited amount of time; we had to be very time-orientated. We also made our own, and tried to meet, personal deadlines to ensure everything would get done within an appropriate timeframe. Another limiting factor was the availability of the people within our samples. Most of our students did not hesitate to take the time to fill out our questionnaire. With the employees, some new respondents had to be selected because some of the originally selected employees were unable to participate because of being too busy or because of rules set by their place of employment.

Ethical considerations included anonymity. With the questionnaires being anonymous, respondents would be more likely to write down truthful answers than if they had to write their name with their answers. We also gave respondents rights of privacy by not asking in-depth questions such as what exactly they do or talk about when communicating with others.

 

This article will introduce you to “10 Surefire Ways That The Internet Can Save You Big Money” and show you where to find how-to instructions to connect your pc to your television for improved viewing.

1. Magic Jack

   Home telephone service calling plans have dropped greatly in price, the typical basis AT&T landline plan starts at about $30.00 once all of the fees and taxes have been figured in. Even $30 dollars is $360 dollars per year with a no bells and whistle calling plan and that is still too much when compared to the savings that consumers experience using the MagicJack Internet phone service.
   
   At a starting cost of $48 dollars (including the MagicJack USB gadget and S/H charges) and $19.95 per year annually thereafter, now that is a great deal. I own a MagicJack and it delivers crystal clear reception and I can call anywhere within the US and Canada for only $1.60 per month without ever receiving another month telephone bill.
   
   The next several websites deliver quality entertainment such as movies, television programming, Internet radio and video games directly to your pc for free. To make this experience more worth wild, the first website will show you how to connect your pc to your television, so that you can watch and enjoy the great programming that the Internet has to offer you.

2. Bittorrent

   On this website you will find complete easy to follow instructions making connecting your pc to your television as easy as 1-2-3. Plus, BitTorrent offers movies, TV, music and games that can be watched, listened to or played for free.

3. World TV PC

   When most people turn on their television set, they may have as many as 200 channels to choose from and many people have even fewer channels to choose from depending on service. At WorldTvPc.com consumers can watch hundreds of television programs that are being broadcasted from locations around the world. This is a great way to learn what is really going on in the world, today.

4. WwiTv

   As if the first free TV website wasn't enough, here's another one where you can tune-in to international television programming from around the globe. There are plenty of channels to choose from and everything from sports programs to lifestyle shows to movies.

5. Channel Chooser

   Now this website is a bit different than the last two free Internet television websites, because this one allows people to watch popular cable television programming like the Sci-fi channel, ESPN, CNN, and many others. With hundreds of channels to select from, there should not be any real problem finding something to watch for free.

6. Live 365

   At Live365, you will find thousands of free Internet radio stations airing free radio programming and music. Users can locate their favorite radio station by selecting stations by genre or built-in station search. Listen to music; talk radio shows and news from around the world and across the Internet from your home computer.

7. Streaming Media Online
   

   Can't get enough of all of these free or almost free Internet entertainment tools, well then here is another fine example of organized linking to many other free radio and television websites on the web. Surely, you will be able to find something interesting to watch or listen to with this website resources.

8. Every Video Game

   The Internet has developed into a fine place to play video games of every sort and most times they are completely free to play and enjoy straight from the Internet. Every Video Game offers hundreds of old school and new video games that can be played for free from your PC or TV (if your pc and television are connected). Connect your favorite joystick or game pad and start playing your favorite free video games.

9. News and Newspapers Online

   Never buy another newspaper again. Get your news and newspapers from this website completely free. Select the state or country where you live or want to get the news from and have your news delivered directly on your PC for a free and easy daily read.

10. The ISP Guide

    Now, since we have established that the Internet is an extremely valuable Internet tool to maintain during stressful economic times, it is very important to stay connected to the Internet to cash-in on all these savings. The ISP Guide allows you to compare Internet Service Providers (ISP) side-by-side, so to locate the best and some times the lowest connection plans available.

Because of handheld devices that allow you to send email, take pictures, capture videos and carry on a conversation, as well as an array of other new possibilities, business and personal matters can be taken care of anywhere you go. Save time and send your loved one a quick text message while you are waiting in line to purchase your groceries. Check your email messages while you are on your way to your next meeting. Productivity is doubly increased, peace of mind is considered and supported, and the chance for efficient advancement is magnified.

Today, I found the article “10 Billion Video Views Online in December” stating that in December 2007 a record breaking 10 billion online videos had been watched. This is definitely a huge shift in consumer attention that will predictably change the direction of the entertainment field, the profitability of movie theaters, and the continued invention and innovation of more attention grabbing websites. It will be doubly interesting to see how this trend continues, especially when many of the online video websites show free movies, videos, and games; such sites, of course, are able to do so because they gleam their profits from advertisements and popularity ratings.

Are you curious about which online websites are the top rated sites on the internet? Check out Alexa. This site dedicates its focus on ranking the most popular sites in the world by country and worldwide. Worldwide, Google rates as number one, Yahoo follows closely behind in second place, while MySpace is consistently third in line.

As the trend of focus continues toward websites encouraging consumers to spend more time on their computers versus watching the television or other venues like going to movie theaters, etc, I have been questioning whether I should eliminate my television and cable bill altogether. What is the benefit of having my television, after all, when I can see many of the same shows (maybe a little later, but free) on my computer? That's a significant savings of about $50 per month.

For now, I realize that I like to be able to search certain sites and not have to be glued to one particular site (i.e. watching a movie). Having a television still offers you a function that one computer alone cannot; the freedom to utilize both at the same time, a convenience that I'm not ready to give up quite yet.

It is quite clear that the value of the limitless wealth of resources you can find online is priceless. You can spend a lifetime researching all the innovative websites, services, etc. that keep emerging and you will never run out of new sites to discover. Not only can such searches help you uncover helpful self-promoting sites if you are a writer, business owner, etc. they can open your eyes to new, unique, creative ways to better the way you live your life or conduct your business affairs all within the simple click of your mouse.

Here are a Few Links to Websites Worth Spending Time On:

1. 57 Websites You Want to Know About

   Within this article you can find many websites that allow you to advertise your writing, business, etc for free.

2. One Incredibly Amazing Website: Give 1.7k to the Charity of Your Choice For Free

   Do you have a charitable heart? Here's your chance to donate large sums of money, for free. Currently, my 1.7k has now increased to approximately 2.7k and I haven't had to spend a dime.

3. The Online Video Guide: It's What's on the Web

   This site promised to be the TV Guide to the internet two years ago when it first emerged. Within the past two months it has progressed from being one of the top 500 sites in the U.S. to being in the top 250 sites; it retains approximately a 70% loyalty rate - truly extraordinary feats.

In closing I wanted to leave you all this remarkable YouTube video I discovered called “Coolest Imaging and Social Technology EVER!” It's quite a profound exemplification of the direction technology is heading. Enjoy!

Emoticons - love "em or hate "em, you can't escape them. Those little faces which have reduced our emotional expressions to a couple keystrokes and some pixels…. Well, sometimes it feels as though they've taken over the world, with a life of their own. But we use them all the same, for fun and convenience while expressing ourselves during that oh so postmodern phenomenon of communicating by internet chat.

Whatever your chat service of choice, there is surely an emoticon service that comes along with it. Gmail is my personal favourite; I live in my email, as do many of my friends and colleagues, so it only makes sense to exchange news, plans and gossip from right within the chat screen. Gmail's convenience is also fun… the emoticons available on gmail chat are among my favourites, because they're animated in a slow and attractive way, while still derived from the old-fashioned vocabulary of semicolons and round brackets. None of these flashy yellow happy faces with pink tongues and annoying voices for me!

So if you love gmail, and feel that nothing expresses your mood like a couple of dots and a dash, then check out this list of animated emoticons for gmail. You might find a few new ones you'd never imagined, like the cowbell, for those hard-to-define feelings that sweep over you from time to time.

[angry] = x-(

[big nose wink] = ;^)

[cool] = B-)

[cowbell] = +/'\

[cry] = :'(

[devil] = }:-)

[equal grin] = =D

[equal smile] = =)

[frown] = :(

[grin] = :D

[mustache] = :{

[pig] = :(:)

[crab] = V.v.V

[heart] = <3

[broken heart] =

[monkey] = :(|)

[nose grin] = :-D

[nose smile] = :-)

[nose wink] = ;-)

[rockout] = \m/

[shocked] = :-o

[slant] = :-/

[smile] = :)

[straightface] = :-|

[tongue] = :P

[wince] = >.<

[kiss star] = :*

[kiss x] = :-x