HW 6: Semester Loooooong Project

The Social computing technologies that I am most interested in are instant messaging, social networking services and chat rooms and text chat. I chose these three because I use each of them almost everyday. I chose instant messaging because it provides me with a way to contact my friends and family who are 150 miles away. This comes in especially handy when it comes to talking to my Nana. She like to carry on conversations forever so when I am talking to her on AIM it is convenient so that I can talk to others while she is typing and get work done at the same time if necessary. I chose social networking services because I use Facebook as well as Myspace. This gives me a way to share my photos and random funny things that I find with friends and family everywhere. I have no particular reason for choosing chat rooms but I am interested in the way that they portray women. For my selection of marginalized groups I chose overcoming sexism, overcoming racism and overcoming homophobia. I chose these because I feel that they are a big problem today in society. The geographical areas which I would like to study are the US and North America. My primary reason for choosing these areas is only because I have never seen any other parts of the world and am honestly not that interested in them.