|Some futurists initially thought that the Internet might cause people to become isolated as they spent more and more time in front of a computer screen and less time socializing.|7215|1170|1440|3810||0|0|0|0|
|Just the opposite has happened, however. Web sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, and Second Life, offer ways to get connected with old classmates, make new friends, network with friends of friends, and socialize in virtual worlds.|7170|5940|1620|3765||0|0|0|0|
|Facebook is a social networking site originally designed for college students to hang out online with their classmates. Now the site has expanded to accept memberships from the general public.|7425|6225|1350|3525||0|0|0|0|
|Members can ask friends to join. When a member logs in, Facebook displays updates pertaining to new photos, blogs, and messages posted by those friends.|8280|5925|1485|3105||0|0|0|0|
|Facebook members can also join groups, based on hobbies and interests. The underlying concept is to create a network of contacts for fun, for information, or for business.|7575|2640|1545|3465||0|0|0|0|
|MySpace also features events where members can interact with politicians, celebrities, artists, writers, teachers, and other public figures.|6705|6240|1200|3630||0|0|0|0|
|Another type of social networking site allows people to interact in 3-D virtual worlds. Second Life was one of the first virtual worlds to become widely popular.|420|6135|1335|3600||0|0|0|0|
|Each member has an avatar that can be styled and dressed to represent any real or imagined personality. The avatar can be moved to various virtual locations using the arrow keys on the computer keyboard. Members can purchase land and merchandise with virtual money.|330|5115|1935|3600||0|0|0|0|
|Although Second Life might not be the ultimate virtual world, it seems a pretty close approximation of cyberspace worlds conceived by William Gibson in his 1984 classic novel Neuromancer.|7170|795|1230|4500||0|0|0|0|