South African regulator allows pornographic TV channels

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa's communications regulator, ICASA, on Wednesday gave permission for satellite television network TopTV to broadcast three "sexually explicit" channels, saying there was no legal basis to reject the application.

The decision opens the gates for wider dissemination of pornography in Africa's largest economy, where regulators have previously rejected bids, saying such broadcasts could offend a morally conservative public.

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) said channels Playboy TV, Desire TV and Private Spice would likely be on the air within six months.

"It is the authority's view that indeed there is no basis or law for the rejection of TopTV's application," ICASA spokesman Paseka Maleka said in a statement.

A previous bid by TopTV last year was turned down. This time, its management cited constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression and choice, arguing that programs would not breach the law on hate speech or incitement to violence nor would they demean women or children.

Maleka said the sexually explicit channels would be accessible from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., and TopTV needed to ensure security measures, including a double pin code, were in place to protect children.

TopTV, owned by On Digital Media and whose shareholders include Luxembourg-based telecoms operator SES Astra, was not available immediately for comment.

(Reporting by Wendell Roelf and Samantha Lee; Editing by Jon Herskovitz and Stephen Nisbet)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-african-regulator-allows-pornographic-tv-channels-135233767--sector.html

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How Can I Record Calls on My Smartphone?

Dear Lifehacker,
I'd like to make recordings of my phone calls with coworkers so we can refer to them for notes later. Is there an easy way to do this on my smartphone?

Thanks,
Spoken, Not Typed

Dear Vague James Bond Reference,
As long as you're just looking to record your consensual conversations with coworkers, you should be fine, but for everyone else, it's a good idea to brush up on when it's legal to record calls first. That being said, you have a few options.

Our Pick: Google Voice

Google Voice gets its own section because it requires a bit more than just a download to set up. If you already have a GV number, then you're good to go, but not everyone does. If you only need to record a call every now and then, it might be worth your time to set up a new, dedicated number and instruct your coworkers to call that line when you need to record. Since Google Voice is tied to calling in Gmail, you're not just limited to calls placed via phones. Desktop users can also record incoming calls.

There's one caveat, though: Google Voice can only record incoming calls. This is likely to help prevent abuse and avoid legal gray areas since users can't place an outgoing call and begin recording before the other party has a chance to give permission or hear the alert that the conversation is being monitored.

To start recording while on a call, simply press 4. This works across platforms and doesn't require a dedicated app. Once you're finished, you can either press 4 again to stop recording or just hang up. The audio file will appear in your Google Voice account, which you can access via apps on iOS, Android, or on the web.

Other Free Methods

We like Google Voice because it solves a lot of the problems associate with call recording up front: calls get routed through Google's servers so they're easy to record and it's not necessary to write an app that supports a hundred phones. However, when you're dealing with phone calls that aren't via VoIP, you run dangerously close to wiretapping laws, which can get complicated. Most developers solve this problem in one of two ways.

The first way is crude, but (sometimes) effective: recording all audio through your microphone. In order to do this, you have to turn your volume up or use speakerphone. Unfortunately, this will usually result in extremely poor audio quality, but it gets the job done. Record My Call for Android uses this method, though the iPhone seems to block the ability to record via the microphone while in a call entirely.

InCall Recorder for Android deviates from this method by being able to record any phone call without resorting to the microphone. However, some users on the Play Store have found it incompatible with their device, but your mileage may vary. Also, this obviously doesn't help iOS users.

More Reliable Paid Methods

The other method to skirt wiretapping laws is to reroute phone calls through a VoIP service. Many services offer the option to record a call while it's being run through their own servers. This allows the user to record both incoming and outgoing calls on any device (which is technically how Google Voice works as well). Here are a few services you can try that will cost you money:

• IntCall (pay per minute, iOS & Android)
• Handsfree.ly (pay per call, iOS)
• Record Phone Calls ($10 for app + "yearly maintenance", iOS & Android)

The pricing models are different for each service and can get expensive if you need them for more than just a few minutes every now and then. However, you'll avoid a lot of the technical problems that some of the free apps run into.

You have a lot of options for recording calls, but if you're not a Google Voice user, you may need to do some trial and error to figure out what works and what doesn't on your handset. Also, be sure to check your local laws to ensure that call recording is legal and get the consent of everyone on the call when possible, just to be safe.

Sincerely,
Lifehacker

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/j3yyUG2-77Y/how-can-i-record-calls-on-my-smartphone-479216478

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Rise & Shine: House school finance vote delayed | EdNewsColorado

COLORADO

• ?A final House vote on school finance reform was delayed until later in the week. Denver Post
• Teachers and administrators in Adams 12 began negotiating a contract early, but the process has been contentious.?EdNews Colorado
• A panel of educators said the challenge of education is trying to prepare students for jobs that don?t yet exist.?Our Colorado News
• A Lafayette charter school was named the state?s top high school by U.S. News and World Report.?Daily Camera
• The Roaring Fork school district is considering converting an elementary school to the Expeditionary Learning model.?Post Independent

NATION

• Residents of Newtown, Ct., rejected a budget that included extra funding for school security in the wake of last year?s shootings. AP via HuffPo
• An 11-year-old YouTube sensation found fame by tinkering with science and engineering projects. New York Times?

OPINION

• Commentary: Community college programs are a good way to accelerate career potential.?Coloradoan

Rise & Shine

Each weekday morning, we search websites of various media, comb through RSS feeds and peruse Google alerts to bring you a roundup of the day?s top education headlines, in Colorado and across the country, by 8 a.m. If you?d like to suggest a story we?ve missed or a source we should add to the list, please email us at ednews@ednewscolorado.org.

Source: http://www.ednewscolorado.org/news/rise-and-shine/rise-shine-house-school-finance-vote-delayed

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US child porn suspect captured after 5 years

Nicaragua's National Police agents escort U.S. citizen Eric Justin Toth to be presented to the press at a police station in Managua, Nicaragua, Monday April 22, 2013. Toth was detained by police Saturday, April 10, 2013, in Esteli, a city near Nicaragua's border with Honduras. Toth is on the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives as a suspect in a child pornography investigation, authorities confirmed Monday. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

Nicaragua's National Police agents escort U.S. citizen Eric Justin Toth to be presented to the press at a police station in Managua, Nicaragua, Monday April 22, 2013. Toth was detained by police Saturday, April 10, 2013, in Esteli, a city near Nicaragua's border with Honduras. Toth is on the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives as a suspect in a child pornography investigation, authorities confirmed Monday. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

Nicaragua's National Police agents escort U.S. citizen Eric Justin Toth, center, to be presented to the press at a police station in Managua, Nicaragua, Monday April 22, 2013. Toth was detained by police Saturday, April 10, 2013, in Esteli, a city near Nicaragua's border with Honduras. Toth is on the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives as a suspect in a child pornography investigation, authorities confirmed Monday. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

Nicaragua's National Police agents escort U.S. citizen Eric Justin Toth to be presented to the press at a police station in Managua, Nicaragua, Monday April 22, 2013. Toth was detained by police Saturday, April 10, 2013, in Esteli, a city near Nicaragua's border with Honduras. Toth is on the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives as a suspect in a child pornography investigation, authorities confirmed Monday. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

Nicaragua's National Police agents escort U.S. citizen Eric Justin Toth while presented to the press at a police station in Managua, Nicaragua, Monday April 22, 2013. Toth was detained by police Saturday, April 10, 2013, in Esteli, a city near Nicaragua's border with Honduras. Toth is on the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives as a suspect in a child pornography investigation, authorities confirmed Monday. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

This image provided by the FBI shows a 2008 photo of Eric Justin Toth who was detained Saturday April 20, 2013 in Esteli, a city near Nicaragua's border with Honduras. Police in Nicaragua have detained the former U.S. school teacher who was on the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives as a suspect in a child pornography investigation, authorities confirmed Monday April 22, 2013. (AP Photo/FBI)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Investigators say Eric Justin Toth's five-year run as a fugitive began when he was fired from his teaching job at a prestigious private school in Washington after being confronted about images of child pornography taken with a school camera in the man's possession.

It ended over the weekend when Nicaraguan authorities, acting on a tip, found him living in that Central American country ? with phony passports, driver's licenses and credit cards, authorities said. The FBI is investigating why Toth was living there and has previously said he may have been advertising as a nanny or tutor while on the lam.

Now, investigators are trying to piece together how he avoided capture even after he was added to the FBI's Most Wanted list, a notorious designation reserved for those considered dangerous criminals and that has featured the likes of Osama bin Laden and Whitey Bulger. Prosecutors are encouraging any other abuse victims to come forward as they proceed with a federal child pornography case against the 31-year-old Toth, who was ordered held without bond during a brief court appearance Tuesday.

"The fact that he is a known child predator and that he's been on the run for five years, we assume that there's potentially other victims in other places that he's been over the past five years," said Valerie Parlave, the head of the FBI's Washington field office.

A federal public defender assigned to Toth didn't immediately return a call seeking comment. Phone listings for possible relatives of Toth either declined to comment or did not return phone messages.

The arrest on Saturday, in a city near Nicaragua's border with Honduras, ended a frustrating international manhunt for the computer-savvy third-grade teacher and former camp counselor.

There were tantalizing clues along the way ? a fake suicide note in Minnesota, an apparent sighting at a shelter in Arizona, a tip that led agents on an extensive search of South America. Yet Toth continued to elude authorities, even as pictures of his bespectacled and sometimes bearded face were featured on news programs, billboards around the country and the FBI's list.

The big break came from a tip last week after a female tourist who encountered Toth in a social setting recognized him and contacted authorities, said FBI spokeswoman Jacqueline Maguire.

Toth first arrived in Nicaragua in October and appeared to have spent at least part of his time there creating false identities and ID documents, police said. When his house was raided, police found passports, driver's licenses and credit cards from three banks, under different names, suggesting he was preparing new false identities to use, said national Police Chief Aminta Granera. Toth was living under an assumed name, authorities said, and the FBI used records of a recent purchase to pinpoint his whereabouts.

Federal prosecutors unsealed a criminal complaint Tuesday charging Toth with possessing and producing child pornography, charges that together carry a maximum 50-year prison sentence. Toth wore a blue jail jumpsuit, his hair considerably longer than in the photographs the FBI had made public, and he spoke softly in response to a judge's perfunctory questions.

Prosecutors revealed no new details of their case in court. But according to the complaint, multiple images of child pornography ? including one video in which Toth allegedly appeared alongside an undressed young boy ? were located in June 2008 on a media card found inside his classroom at Beauvoir, a private elementary school on the grounds of the Washington National Cathedral.

Although "not the most socially adept guy," he was an engaged teacher who helped students think outside the box in math and logic and who even incorporated lessons on why people do or don't do the right things, recalled Michele Booth Cole, whose daughter was in one of Toth's classes.

"He wasn't teaching from the textbook. It was really much more creative and thought-provoking for the kids," said Cole, executive director of Safe Shores ? the DC Children's Advocacy Center, which helps abused children.

The media card with the pornographic images was found in in a box addressed to Toth at the school's address, the complaint says. Although some of the images showed children laughing and playing, others were every parent's nightmare, said Ron Machen, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.

Those include photographs and videos showing the hand of an adult male fondling a boy, the complaint says. Another video, taken in what appears to be a classroom at the school, shows a man investigators believe to be Toth with an undressed prepubescent boy.

Toth was fired after the images were discovered by fellow school employees and escorted from the school. He disappeared immediately, long before anyone could arrest him.

But there were soon clues that would set agents in motion.

His car was found later that summer in a long-term parking lot at the Minneapolis airport along with a fake suicide note inside that claimed he was going to kill himself in a nearby lake. But no body was found, and investigators concluded it was a ruse.

"Clearly he was trying to throw investigators off at that point," said FBI Special Agent Kyle Loven, an agency spokesman in Minneapolis.

He was believed to have been sighted in Phoenix in 2009, apparently working as a quasi-counselor at a shelter under an assumed name, the FBI has said. He was gone before agents could get to him.

Authorities also believe Toth, who is from the Midwest, traveled while on the run to Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

In April 2012, the FBI, concerned that the trail was going cold and that Toth's experience in interacting with children and earning their trust might be putting other kids at risk, announced that it was adding him to the bureau's Most Wanted fugitives list, where he filled a slot left vacant by the death of bin Laden.

Ron Hosko, then the special agent in charge of the criminal division of the FBI's Washington field office, said at the time, "This is a dangerous person because of his nature, because he is a child predator, because of his ability to groom both adults and potentially these children to develop some sorts of bond of trust."

___

Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York and writers Luis Manuel Galeano in Managua, Nicaragua, and Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

___

Follow Tucker on Twitter at http://twitter.com/etuckerAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-23-Nicaragua-American%20Arrested/id-16babee3aaf048cf8560fff3bddb6c8b

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BoE retools lending scheme to help small firms

By William Schomberg and David Milliken

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain reworked its Funding for Lending Scheme on Wednesday in the hope of pumping more credit into small and medium-sized firms and injecting life into the country's stagnant economy.

The Bank and the Treasury said incentives to boost lending would be heavily skewed towards lending to smaller firms, which have failed to benefit much so far from other efforts to counter a credit squeeze in Britain.

Banks taking part in the scheme will also now be able to lend to alternative providers of credit such as leasing and factoring firms, which help small companies raise funding, as well as mortgage and housing credit corporations.

Under a third change, the period during which banks can get funding from the FLS will run for an additional year, until the end of January 2015, the Bank and the Treasury said in a joint statement.

The announcement comes a day before the release of first-quarter economic output data which could show Britain's economy slipping into its third recession in less than five years.

Chancellor George Osborne is also under pressure to find measures to boost growth, after the International Monetary Fund - previously a supporter of his austerity policies - said he may need to slow the pace of spending cuts.

Scotiabank economist Alan Clarke said the changes were not a game-changer for the struggling economy, which is three years into an austerity programme, and were probably a complement to more stimulus in the future by the Bank.

"It's clearly targeted at getting investment up," Clarke said. "I've not done the maths yet but I don't think it will be enough to offset the weakening in government spending and headwinds to consumers. But it prevents an even weaker outlook."

The original FLS was launched last August and offers banks cheap credit if they increase lending to households and businesses. Results have been mixed, with benefits so far mainly going to banks and homebuyers rather than small businesses.

"I believe such an extension is valuable as it gives banks continued assurance against the risk that market funding rates increase," said the Bank Governor Mervyn King.

Osborne stressed the benefit for small business. "This innovative extension will now do even more for small and medium-sized businesses so that they can play their full part in creating new jobs," he said in a joint statement with King.

One of the changes announced on Wednesday seeks to get credit to small and medium-sized firms flowing as soon as possible: for every pound of additional lending by banks to the sector in the remainder of 2013, the amount of funding that banks will be able to draw upon increases by 10 pounds.

In 2014, that falls to five pounds of FLS funding for banks for every pound they lend to SMEs.

Lending to other sectors will count on a one-for-one basis towards the allowance for banks accessing the scheme.

(Editing by Catherine Evans)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uk-retools-flagship-credit-scheme-growth-going-again-050619852--finance.html

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Charges dropped in ricin letters sent to Obama

Paul Kevin Curtis, right, who had been in custody under the suspicion of sending letters which tested positive for ricin to U.S. President Barack Obama and U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and his brother Jack Curtis walk to a press conference in Oxford, Miss. on Tuesday, April 23, 2013. The charges were dismissed without prejudice, which means they could be re-instated if prosecutors so choose. (AP Photo/Oxford Eagle, Bruce Newman)

Paul Kevin Curtis, right, who had been in custody under the suspicion of sending letters which tested positive for ricin to U.S. President Barack Obama and U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and his brother Jack Curtis walk to a press conference in Oxford, Miss. on Tuesday, April 23, 2013. The charges were dismissed without prejudice, which means they could be re-instated if prosecutors so choose. (AP Photo/Oxford Eagle, Bruce Newman)

Paul Kevin Curtis, who had been in custody under the suspicion of sending letters which tested positive for ricin to U.S. President Barack Obama and U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., walks to a press conference in Oxford, Miss. on Tuesday, April 23, 2013. The charges were dismissed without prejudice, which means they could be re-instated if prosecutors so choose. (AP Photo/Oxford Eagle, Bruce Newman)

Paul Kevin Curtis, who had been in custody under suspicion of sending ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama and others, wipes a tear from his eyes during a news conference following his release Tuesday, April 23, 2013 in in Oxford, Miss. The charges were dismissed without prejudice, which means they could be re-instated if prosecutors so choose. (AP Photo/Oxford Eagle, Bruce Newman) MANDATORY CREDIT, MAGS OUT, NO SALES

An FBI agent stops homeowner James E. Dutschke from approaching his home Tuesday, April 23, 2013, in Tupelo, Miss. The agents begin to serach his home in connection with the ricin letters sent to Sen. Roger Wicker and President Barack Obama.(AP Photo/Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Thomas Wells) MANDATORY CREDIT

TUPELO, Miss. (AP) ? Charges of sending ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama and others were dropped Tuesday against an Elvis impersonator from Mississippi who has said since his arrest last week that he had nothing to do with the case.

Meanwhile, in Tupelo, numerous law enforcement officers, including some in hazmat suits, converged on the home of another Mississippi man, Everett Dutschke. At around 11 p.m. CDT, they concluded a 10-hour search of the man's property and nearby ditches and culverts. Investigators declined to say afterward what if anything they had found.

No charges have been filed against Dutschke and he hasn't been arrested. Both Dutschke and 45-year-old Paul Kevin Curtis, who had faced charges in the case, say they have no idea how to make the poisonous ricin and had nothing to do with sending them to Obama, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and a state judge.

Referring to officials' questions for him about the case, Curtis said after he was released from custody Tuesday afternoon, "I thought they said rice and I said, 'I don't even eat rice.'"

"I respect President Obama. I love my country and would never do anything to pose a threat to him or any other U.S. official," Curtis added.

A one-sentence document filed by federal prosecutors said charges against Curtis were dropped, but left open the possibility they could be re-instated if authorities found more to prove their case. Prosecutors were not immediately available for comment.

The dismissal is the latest twist in a case that rattled the country already on edge over two deadly incidents, the Boston Marathon bombing and the plant explosion in West, Texas.

Curtis was well-known to Wicker because he had written to the Republican senator and other officials about black-market body parts he claimed to have found while working at a hospital ? a claim the hospital says is untrue. Curtis also wrote a book called "Missing Pieces" about his claims and posted similar language on his Facebook page and elsewhere. The documents indicate Curtis had been distrustful of the government for years.

He told The Associated Press Tuesday that he realizes his writings made him an easy target.

"God will get the glory from here on out. It's nothing about me. It's nothing about my book. It's nothing about the hospital. After 13 years of losing everything I have turned it over to God. After all these years God was the missing piece," Curtis said.

The two men the FBI are investigating are not strangers. Dutschke said the two had a disagreement and that the last contact they had was in 2010. Dutschke said he threatened to sue Curtis for saying he was a member of Mensa, a group for people with high IQs.

Since his arrest at his Corinth home on April 17, attorneys for Curtis say their client didn't do it and suggested he was framed. An FBI agent testified in court this week that no evidence of ricin was found in searches of his home.

Dutschke (DUHST'-kee) said in a phone interview with the AP that the FBI was at his home for the search connected to the mailings. Dutschke said his house was also searched last week.

"I don't know how much more of this I can take," Dutschke said just before 7 p.m. CDT, as investigators continued to comb his house.

Curtis attorney Hal Neilson said the defense gave authorities a list of people who may have had a reason to hurt Curtis.

"Dutschke came up," he said. "They (prosecutors) took it and ran with it. I could not tell you if he's the man or he's not the man, but there was something there they wanted to look into."

An FBI intelligence bulletin obtained by the AP said the two letters to Obama and Wicker said: "To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance." Both were signed, "I am KC and I approve this message."

Multiple online posts on various websites that could be seen by anyone under the name Kevin Curtis refer to the conspiracy he claimed to uncover when working at a local hospital from 1998 to 2000. In one post, Curtis said he sent letters to Wicker and other politicians. He signed off: "This is Kevin Curtis & I approve this message."

Curtis attorney Christi McCoy said she doesn't know what new information prosecutors have and that the plot to frame her client was "very, very diabolical."

Curtis, dressed in a black suit, red shirt, necktie and sunglasses, said he met Dutschke in 2005 but for some reason Dutschke "hated" and "stalked" him. "To this day I have no clue of why he hates me."

Dutschke has maintained his innocence and says he doesn't know anything about the ingredients for ricin. Ricin is derived from the castor plant that makes castor oil. There is no antidote and it is at its deadliest when inhaled. It can be aerosolized, released into the air and inhaled. The Homeland Security handbook says the amount of ricin that fits on the head of a pin is enough to kill an adult if properly prepared.

Dutschke said agents asked him about Curtis, whether Dutschke would take a lie detector test and if he had ever bought castor beans, which can be used to make the potent poison.

"I'm a patriotic American. I don't have any grudges against anybody. I did not send the letters," said Dutschke, who was a Republican candidate for the Mississippi House of Representatives in 2007 but lost.

After charges were dropped against Curtis, he said: "I'm a little shocked."

Dutschke said his attorney wasn't with him and he didn't know whether he was going to be arrested.

Tuesday's events began when the third day of a preliminary and detention hearing was cancelled without officials explaining the change. Within two hours, Curtis had been released, though it wasn't clear why at first.

FBI Agent Brandon Grant said in court on Monday that searches last week of Curtis' vehicle and house in Corinth, found no ricin, ingredients for the poison, or devices used to make it. A search of Curtis' computers found no evidence he researched making ricin. Authorities produced no other physical evidence at the hearings tying Curtis to the letters.

All the envelopes and stamps were self-adhesive, Grant said Monday, meaning they won't yield DNA evidence. One fingerprint was found on the letter sent to a Lee County judge, but the FBI doesn't know who it belongs to, Grant said.

The experience, Curtis said, has been a nightmare for his family. He has four children ? ages, 8, 16, 18 and 20. It also has made him reflect deeply on his life.

"I've become closer to God through all this, closer with my children and I've even had some strained relationships with some family and cousins and this has brought us closer as a family," he said.

___

Wagster Pettus reported from Jackson. AP writers Holbrook Mohr in Oxford, Jack Elliott in Jackson and Pete Yost in Washington contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-24-Suspicious%20Letters/id-b80d659178f64be391b6c22d6f3e945a

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Facebook and romantic relationships

Apr. 23, 2013 ? A Western Illinois University faculty member who published a study about Facebook and narcissism last year has authored another study about Facebook and romantic relationships.

WIU Department of Communication Assistant Professor Christopher Carpenter, with his co-author Erin Spottswood (Cornell University), have authored, "Exploring romantic relationships on social networking sites using the self-expansion model," which will appear in the July 2013 journal issue of Computers in Human Behavior. According to Carpenter, in the study, the co-authors found the more past romantic relationships the participants had, the more interests they listed in their Facebook profiles.

"I predicted this relationship because other research suggested that part of romantic relationship development involves adopting new interests and behaviors from one's partner," he said. "I also found that people who report appearing in more photos with their partners on Facebook and who regularly tag their partner in their status updates tend to have closer romantic relationships."

In humans, the self-expansion model -- per a seminal study authored by State University of New York, Stony Brook, Psychology Professor Arthur Aron and Elaine Aron, author of the book, "The Highly Sensitive Person" -- asserts the desire to grow is a key motivation. One of the key sources of this need to expand one's self is derived from romantic relationships.

Carpenter said he studies humans' interactions on Facebook and social networks because the online networks offer a unique window into people's lives.

"We can't follow people around with a tape recorder getting a record of what they say all day. Facebook, on the other hand, offers us the chance to see one part of that record. We can see how often people interact with their romantic partners on Facebook, what they say to each other and how they present themselves on their profiles," he explained. "As for this specific study, I had read about self-expansion theory and I began wondering if we ever truly cut ties with someone when we break up. We might not see that person anymore, but when we develop a relationship with someone, we take on some of their interests and traits and, in many cases, hang on to them long after we break up. Facebook offered a unique way of examining the extent to which those traces of past relationships remain in our profiles."

Carpenter said the study's sample included 276 respondents who answered questions about their relationship histories and social networking sites uses, while a subset of the sample (149 participants) answered additional questions about their current romantic partners.

In addition to receiving wide media attention about his 2012 study, "Narcissism on Facebook: Self-promotional and Anti-social Behavior" (published in the journal, Personality and Individual Differences, March 2012), Carpenter served as an invited Oxford Union Society speaker on the motion, "This House Believes Social Media has Successfully Reinvented Social Activism," in England in May last year.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Western Illinois University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Christopher J. Carpenter, Erin L. Spottswood. Exploring romantic relationships on social networking sites using the self-expansion model. Computers in Human Behavior, 2013; 29 (4): 1531 DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2013.01.021

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/Z5NyT0nG8Ac/130423110713.htm

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