The Change Mariner

Students Embrace Virtual Communities

Telegraph (UK):

Sarah Brown and Linzi Andrews are at the same university and live in the same halls of residence. But rather than leaving their rooms to talk to each other, they simply head for their computers.

"The computer is on all the time, and because it's there I go on the internet so much more," says Linzi. Sarah agrees: "The halls here in Durham are networked and I pay £75 a year to have a permanent internet connection. If I want to talk to Linzi I send her a message rather than leave my room."

Joanne Attridge, a medical student at Cambridge University, also admits to living her life online. "When I started I intended to socialise after lectures," she says. "But I got talking in a music chatroom and I was hooked - I have so much more in common with these people than with my classmates."

The three women are typical of a growing number of cash-poor, time-rich students, often with cheap or free internet access, who are shunning student unions to spend time in virtual communities.

Posted by Timothy Fredel at March 13, 2004 06:17 PM | TrackBack
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