Social Networking

There's an interesting article in Thursday's NYTimes on the social networking sites and especially how people manage the impressions they communicate. A variety of communication researchers are cited. Among the most interesting of the findings is that the atrractiveness of your friends on Facebook will influence how attractive people think you are. If you have attractive friends, you'll be perceived as more attractive than you would if you had less attractive friends. Of course, we already knew that--you need A-list friends if you're going to be seen as A-list yourself. But, it's interesting to see that this also holds in cyberspace. Joe Walther, communication professor from Michigan State, did the study which will be published in HCR. The article will make for interesting class discussion on impression formation and social networking.