When considering the communication and behavior that I observed throughout my four investigations, I can definitely say that my social investigation demonstrated the strongest communication. From the moment I accessed Angels in the Night, it was clear to me that this site had an important mission and target audience. First of all, the introduction and background of the site, as explained by the creator, exhibits a sense of trust, care, and the notion that the operators of Angel in the Night really want to do all they can in order to help young victims of sexual abuse. These sentiments are communicated through the introduction and really set the stage, so to speak, for users to approach the site with trust and honesty. This also sets the stage for what kind of behavior is expected in the chat room - respect, honesty, trust, and for members to be nonjudgmental. In my investigation, I wrote that "From the first paragraph of the introduction all the way throughout the website, there is a feeling of warmth and compassion, aiming to be absolutely non-threatening to visitors." These sentiments exist throughout the website. The creator of the site even communicates to the audience her own experiences with abuse so as to tell them that she's been there too and understands what they are going through, as shown below.

"My name is Rhonda, but you may call me "Grasshopper." The name suits me. I am 41 years old and I am a survivor of sexual, physical and emotional abuse. For many years I kept quiet about all the things that made me so unhappy on the inside. I didn't like myself very much because I thought I had done bad things. I even invented some imaginary friends to help me get through the long scary nights. I like to call them angels because they saved my life on many occasions."

She wants for children to understand that they should not feel threatened or hold any fear when they are on the site, and specifically, in the chat room. She has communicated that they are welcome and that the Angel Team is there to help the children.

In the chat room, it was apparent that there is a sense of welcoming, care, and respect held by the chat room monitors as well as by the children chatting. After going through the website, I decided that I did not want to engage in the chat, but instead I wanted to just look at it to see the interactions going on. I did not want to chat because I felt it would be dishonest if I hid my identity and just went along chatting with the other kids. I all ready lied about my age in order to get into the chat, I didn't want to continue by actually chatting. Also, I didn't want to take away the focus on other chatters, or to be disruptive. The kids were there for a purpose and should be able to take advantage of that time. I didn't want to waste their time, or the time of the monitors, engaging in unnecessary dialogue with me. Below is a lengthy excerpt detailing my experience in the chat room, as described in my VCI #3:

The monitor who had been leading the chat left and a new one was about to come on. When the person left, they said, "Bye, guys, I have to go now. Hey, skulgrl, maybe we could meet next time I have a shift." It was nice and caring of the monitor to address me as he/she was saying good-bye. Since I didn't chat, I didn't expect to be addressed. When the new monitor, "Tabitha" came on, she said, "We have some new faces! Hi, I'm "Tabitha," good to meet you all" Another chatter who was also new responded by telling "Tabitha," "Nice to meet you too." "Tabitha" then asked of me, "And skulgrl, are you new too?" I did not respond for about two minutes, and then JennieRae asked, "Skulgrl?" At this point, I felt rude about not chatting or not even explaining the purpose of my presence in the chat room. I didn't want "Tabitha," the monitor, or anyone else to keep asking me to chat; I definitely didn't want them to worry that something was wrong. Also, as I thought about the assignment and about the purpose of my investigation, I decided to finally participate in the chat so that I could have more of a personal opinion about the content of the chat room and about the users. If nothing else, they could see why I was there and then know that they don't have to necessarily address me - that I'm looking at the sight because a school assignment and should pretend like I'm not even in the chat room.

So, I finally responded by saying, "I am actually doing an essay (I'm in college) on social Internet communities, and have chosen this one to write about. I hope you don't mind me just looking onto the chat. I don't want to be disruptive or interrupt. I simply wish to see how the chat helps out the kids and what they discuss." Then, about thirty seconds later, "Tabitha" asks me if I've ever been abused, and I say, "No, I just chose to use this site for my essay because it seems to be a good example of a strong community." She then says, "Oh, I'm sorry but I'm going to have to ask you to leave b/c it's only for abused kids." Another girl says, "It's a strong community, but some kids get uncomfortable when people come in to listen and watch about things they've never talked about." I felt very bad about going into the chat room, even for a school assignment, and wanted to immediately apologize in case I invaded their privacy. I replied by saying, "I'm sorry, but I commend you guys on the work you do." "Tabitha" then responded saying, "Thanks!" A brief moment later, another person wrote that they were curious about how I got into the chat room because a person has be under 20 to join it.

I left the site, and though my stay was short, I was able to see that the site values confidentiality and honesty. The monitors are aware that the children may be uneasy about discussing their problems, especially new members, so they want to provide a safe and confidential environment. In fact, the monitor even said that they had a "strong community." I respect that they told me to leave the site and fully understood why. I felt bad afterwards for having invaded their privacy and I still hope that I didn't unnerve any of the kids about the people who may be able to sign up to chat. But, as I expressed in my investigation, I am happy that I was able to access the chat and lie about my identity, because now, maybe the monitors and Webmaster will create a better way for enforcing the age limit (19) for people to have to chat with their true identities. I don't know if this is possible, but I sure hope that they try to enforce a better way of keeping out people they don't want in the chat. As I wrote in my investigation, "I quickly learned how caring and supportive the kids and the monitor are to each other. It is a wonderful way for these kids to express themselves and to form friendships with other victims, often times having no support in their own lives." The communication and behaviors that occurred throughout the site, in other pages of the site, as well (poetry, message board, etc) showed me that there is a strong value for respect, warmth, caring, honesty, trust, and support. I admire the communication and support that occurred on this site.

On the Sade site, besides chat, there were two areas where I found strong words of admiration and love for the singer. On the message board, fans posted positive, supportive messages for Sade and her fans. Here, fans have the chance to not only post comments, but also have the chance to reply to others' comments, thus building a strong sense of community among the fans. Below are some of the comments fans communicated on the message board:


Is there anyone else out there who feels Sade's illustration of life? Every time I go through a break up I listen to her music and feel hopeful. I always thought going on-line with someone was creepy and desperate. Can I really find a spiritual and intelligent friend here?

(A REPLY………..) Just to let you know, panyxx, that Sade's music played an immensely curative part in my healing process after my divorce... Of all the CD's that I have, the one that I've listened to the most (over and over and all night long even as I slept), Sade's "The Best of" CD is the one. So, you not alone out there... Take care and all my best.

(A REPLY…) I too listen to Sade when I'm down, there seems to be a kind of healing in Sade's music. When I'm not down I listen to Sade. Good luck in your quest.

These fans illustrate their support for Sade and provide heartfelt expressions of love for her and her music. Also on the site, there is section in the Fanbase section which provides reviews by fans of Sade on each of her albums. This is an interesting and unique element to include. I appreciate that the reviews come from fans rather than from official music critics. Below are excerpts from this section of the site:

1) One of the most beautiful records I have ever heard, this is what love sounds like, absolutely superb. - Jilly Farnham, about the Promise album

2) The album is a very solid piece of work. The range of emotions it evokes range from: happiness; sorrow; hurt; love; isolation; warmth; the list goes on and on. The album has a very consistent theme running through it, however, it is also very diverse in its content… This album reinstates Sade's status as a meaningful and thought provoking artist! - Gurdip, about the Stronger Than Pride Album

3) If there were another word for love it would be Sade. The music is like food for the soul and mind. - Richard Clivilles, about the Lover's Rock album.

4) Have you ever felt that a song you've heard should be featured on the "soundtrack to your life," that song that seems to be softly playing the background as you go through the day or maybe when you're with that special someone? Well, for me, each song on "Love Deluxe" encompasses an aspect of emotion or experience I've had. The music has that rare universal appeal that makes you never grow tired of listening to every song because each one has layers of depth and feeling. - Arielle Fletcher


These are beautiful words spoken by Sade's fans about her albums throughout her career. On fan sites, generally speaking, the comments that are communicated are usually positive and supportive of the artist. This is different from "anti" sites that humiliate and trash an artist. Both this site and Angels in the Dark provide positive comments, void of any negative words, though they are geared towards two completely different communities.

The third investigation, for which I explored College Chat room and Talk City, showed different communication and behaviors from the social and entertainment investigations. One element that I noticed about the chats that occurred on these sites is that once a person knows a little bit about an individual, that they may proceed to engage in dialogue directly with that person. Once a person seems interesting to someone, they may choose to ignore chatting with other individuals. I engaged in 2 chats for this investigation. During the first chat, I had a direct presence on the site, asking direct questions to the chatters about how and why they chatted. I think that I must have sounded like a reporter to the other people in the chat. Below is an excerpt from this investigation detailing my visit on this chat:


The first question I asked was, "Do you guys chat here often?" No one answered, and so I asked the question again. Then, some people responded and said, "This is my first time," "rookie," and "I do." As a member of the chat room college community, the first time that I got a response, I felt intrigued by the idea that by asking questions or saying comments, individuals from all across the country, or across the world for that matter, have the opportunity to respond. What's even cooler is when they actually do respond.

My next question was, "How do you guys like this chat room?" No one answered my question, and I noticed that most of the dialogue regarded questions/comments such as, "Where are you from?" and "What do you do?" People were more interested in finding out details about each other rather than answering dull questions. I continued to ask, "Do you all enjoy chatting in a room for college students? Why or why not?" Again, getting no response, I asked a second time, this time including a chat command that told everyone, in a bold color, that I wanted everybody's attention. After annoying these people with my questions, one chatter responded by including an action command that stated, "Dr_Evil376 (the person's screen name) slaps skulgrl around a bit with a large chainsaw." I became very amused by this response and then continued to ask, "Does anyone chat regularly on these kinds of sites?" There was no answer, so I then inserted an "attention" command and then asked, "How long do you all chat for usually? What are your experiences?" I must have sounded like a complete amateur, curious of the chatting world. A person replied by saying, "Are you new at this skul?" Then, someone else asked, "Why are you asking so many questions?" I replied by saying that I was just curious. One other person asked me if I was new at this, and so I decided to no longer ask such questions and to try to engage in some regular chatting.

I engaged in some random comments with people and was not really interested in any discussions that were taking place. Becoming quite bored, I asked, "Does anyone have anything interesting to say?" This provoked one nasty person to recite "your mom" jokes at me. This person and me then became caught up in some back and forth banter. I then asked, "Where are all of the college intellectuals?" to which a person replied, "Not here." I asked this because I noticed that really none of the chat that was occurring had anything to really to with college or academic. Instead, they were questions about peoples' personal lives, habits, hobbies, etc. I thought that there would be some dialogue relating to college, rather than this kind of personal chatting. The reason is because there are chat rooms for general purpose discussions, or for romance, hobbies, music, etc. So, if a person wanted to chat about these kinds of topics, I imagined that they would be in chat rooms for those specific subject matters. I think that they may have been in the college chat room only because they wanted to chat with a group of college-aged people.

I then asked, "You guys chat like this for hours? I'm bored." Some people said that they do chat for hours sometimes; another individual said, "No, for days." Once again, I inserted an attention command and asked, "Do you all enjoy the opportunity to chat with other college students?" Someone told me that they did, so I asked them why, but received no response. I really was getting very bored engaging in useless random comments with people, so I said, "For a college chat, this is rather dumb." One person said, "All chats are dumb," and someone else responded by saying, "This is your first time here skulgrl." Again, I began asking my investigative questions, and asked, "What's the point of chatting?" One person commented by saying, "More intelligent talk." Finally, I decided that I had enough of this chat room, and so I proceeded to say, "Bye," to which I got no response. I said bye again and one person replied, "Bye skulgrl."


I noticed, different from the other investigations, that on these kinds of sites, where random conversations can take place, there is more room for people to be obnoxious, rude, and plain old mean. The communication that takes place can be about a variety of topics, though it is a college chat room. I think that the reason people were so rude and did not behave in a welcoming manner was because of the questions I was asking. They did not care to speak to someone who sounded like they were taking a survey. So, for the next chat room I visited, Talk City, I decided to be a bit more incognito and to sound like a regular chatter. I thought that I could get some better feedback and communicate in better discussions with individuals if I sounded, well, normal. Below is my description of the second chat from my investigation:


I began chatting and participating in various conversations with different people. This time, contrary to what I had done before, I did not ask probing questions about why people enjoy chatting. I chose to enter the chat more casually this time, and to mingle right in with the rest of the chatters. I noticed, as I did before, that people were involved in their own little discussions with certain people in the room. This time, someone sent me a private message saying hello. I responded by saying, "What?" I chose not to be too courteous or welcoming because I personally do not like chatting with people I don't know, one on one, in private instant message rooms. I wouldn't mind if the person instant messaged me if we were involved in our own conversation in the chat room, and then one of us chose to invite the other into a private chat. But, I am unwary of people who instantly ask me into a private chat without having discussed anything with me. After I asked, "What?" the person responded by asking me my age, sex, and location. I chose to not offer any information and said good-bye to them, and then closed the private message box. Then, a second person sent me a private message, which I ended and returned to the chat room. I participated in random conversations with different people. We discussed our favorite songs of the moment, how stressed out we were from school, and I even chatted with a couple who had a long distance relationship. They were both in the chat room and told us how the guy was in the marines and the girl was in school. They revealed that it was hard being apart, and that they enjoy chatting with each other (and others) in chat rooms. I continued to talk with a few more people, and then exited the chat room.


This time, sounding like a regular person wanting to chat, two people invited me to private chat rooms, which did not happen during the first chat. A reason may be because I did not reveal anything about myself during the second chat, and these two individuals could have been curious to chat with me. As I explained in the investigation, I did not want to become involved in private room chats because they feel kind of creepy to me. I find it creepy and invasive for someone to invite me to one when I have not communicated anything about myself. As I said in the investigation, I am unwary of people who invite me to chat privately without having discussed anything with me. It would have been different if the person and me were talking about our favorite movies or books, and then they asked me to engage in a private chat. The communication and behaviors I witnessed, and exercised myself, were different from the other two investigations. The first two investigations provided supportive, positive arenas, whereas the college investigation had a more variety of the kinds of emotions and behaviors that were communicated.

Introduction Advantages Disadvantages Participation Conclusion Competencies References

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