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[travstatesmen]

"Psychology is the study of how people think and act. Psychologists observe people in [...] social environments in order to understand why people act the way they do. Psychologists use experiments and questionnaires to investigate people. We study how genes, age, background and environment influence the way people behave and how they assign meaning to what they perceive and experience." ¹

I have been doing a bit of self-paced, self-directed online learning for a while now, in the fascinating field of "cyberpsychology", or psychology as it relates to the online, Internet-connected environment. I am making use of a website called The Psychology of Cyberspace by John Suler, Ph.D. of the Department of Psychology at Rider University in New Jersey. The material provided by Dr Suler is very interesting and looks at a wide variety of aspects of cyberpsychology, including such topics as...

• How to resolve conflict online
  
• The psychology of avatars and graphical space
  
• Avatar Psychotherapy
  
• Addiction to computers and cyberspace
  
• Cyberspace romances

...and a whole lot of other interesting topics. Ever wondered what is behind an avatar? Why did somebody choose a particular avatar to represent themselves online? Or why is it that some people who in real life are the nicest, sweetest people you could ever meet, but when they get online they become forum trolls, spammers, etc? These are all the type of things that I have been delving into in my studies in cyberpsychology.

During 2007 I was a moderator on a very popular teen forum, and I observed a lot while I was there. I watch and take in a lot more than I actually participate in, and I guess I could sometimes be considered to be a lurker, as I often read threads without responding to them. I am interested in how an online discussion starts, progresses and ends, and the interjections along the way, the moderators who try to keep the discussion on-topic, the trolls who try to bait people, etc. Studying the interactions between people online is quite interesting. does anybody else here on Trap17 share my interest in cyberpsychology? Perhaps we could share notes and observations of activities on the Trap17 forums, applying principles of cyberpsychology to what we have observed.

Before I can delve too deeply into attempting to psychoanalyze the denizens of the Trap17 forums I need to get to know people more, identify who the key players are, and understand more of the context and history of the Trap17 forums, so I still have a lot of reading of the forums to do yet! Remember, this is self-paced, self-directed study for me and I am not a psychologist in any form of the term. I just enjoy studying people online, their actions, and their interactions. Care to join me?

There are some interesting threads already on the Trap17 forums that are relevant to this field of study, such as...

• How Moderators Behave
  
• Rate The Sig Above You
  
• Online Date Scams, people living fake lives...
  
• Loving Someone On The Internet?
  
• Long Distance Cyber Relationship, Long distance relationships and online relationship

That's just a start! There's plenty of material here on the forums for us to consider and weigh against what Dr Suler or other acknowledged Cyberpsychologists have to say. I'd like to form a little study group right here on the Trap17 forums, if anyone else is interested. Maybe if this takes off they will give us our own subforum!

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¹ Source: What is Psychology? Fuller, R. [ONLINE] 2007, accessed 3-Sept-2008 from http://www.iadt.ie
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[cemeteryrecords]

I'm not sure if this applies , but, I've learned a lot about what grabs different peoples attention online. I use a money-making link posting website, in which I post links to things, and I make money when people click them. And at first I would type different ways to get peoples attention. Such as:

**********AMAZING PROGRAM!!!*********
#$%#$CHECK THIS SITE OUT$#%^$^

And I realized, they accually don't do that well! However, title's like:

Found A Great Program - Must See!

This Is A New Website I Discovered. Have A Look.

Accually do BETTER! Now, don't get me wrong. A LOT of people clicked the top ones, but just more clicked the bottom ones.
I can only assume that, although the top ones really stand out, they look like spam/fake.

And naturally, The grammaticly correct ones (dispite the capitalization) Look more realistic. I believe this to be also, because the mind likes perfection. The bottom ones are more correct, and thus, more satisfiing. Now, mind you, I havent gone to college or anything, I accually dropped out of high school. But this is what I have learned. I could be wrong though.

Anybody else experance this? Or something simaller? Or think I've just lost my mind?