The University of Maryland has released a new study finding that chat room users with female names receive twenty five times more malicious comments than users registered with typically male or gender ambiguous names. Female usernames, on average, received 163 malicious private messages a day in the study! It appears that the definition of malicious was relatively straight forward, too. Further proof that technology doesn't solve all our social problems (did we need further proof?) even if no one on the internet does know you're a dog.
Found via Nancy White, author of the Full Circle Online Interaction Blog and an expert in IM/chat. Several months ago I interviewed Nancy about international chat strategies and related topics.
Found via Nancy White, author of the Full Circle Online Interaction Blog and an expert in IM/chat. Several months ago I interviewed Nancy about international chat strategies and related topics.
