The mass media use and social life of heavy, light, and nonusers of the Internet and personal computers are compared based on a fall 1998 survey of 3,993 nationally representative respondents age 18 and older. As in previous surveys, no significant or consistent evidence of time displacement of such media or social activities was found. Indeed, Internet users showed signs of more active social lives than nonusers. These results reinforce the conclusion that personal computer/Internet use may have more in common with time-enhancing home appliances such as the telephone than they do with the timedisplacing technology of television.S ince the commercialization of the telegraph in the mid-19th century, telecommunications technology has gone through a series of transformations. Before the last decade, however, only two fundamentally distinct formats had crystallized. In the first format, we find a mode of switched, point-to-point, two-way communication, with capacity to initiate as well as reply; similar to personal face-to-face communication, it is also relatively equally dispersed. This produces a communication network with the distinctive structure of potential communications between any pair of points, without any central control. Switched, point-to-point communication was characteristic of the telegraph itself but is perhaps most clearly exemplified by the telephone.In contrast, the second broadcast format involves a unidirectional form of communication. Here, capacity to originate communication remains centralized, communication itself is not targeted to particular recipients, and capacity to receive communication is widely dispersed. Insofar as components of this format are arranged into a network capable of two-way communication, it is in the form of a central backbone linking originators of broadcasts; recipients of the broadcast are linked to one another only by their common receipt of a single message. Such highly centralized broadcast communication is characteristic of radio and cinema, but more prominently today of television.

Transfer from one institution to another is increasingly common for students during the course of their higher education careers. The number of students moving from community colleges to four-year universities continues to rise. Transfer students report experiences of alienation, isolation, and other personal and academic challenges. To address this problematic transition, the authors propose a cohort-based learning community model that incorporates high-impact practices of first-year experience programs demonstrated to improve retention. These include enhanced advising, project-based student collaboration, application of knowledge across courses, collaboration of core faculty, peer support, and required participation in campus activities. This model, applicable to any major and particularly useful for those comprised heavily of upper division courses, is applied in a Sociology department. Findings from the pilot study suggest that students experience increased sense of community, improved academic and social integration, and great promise for retention. Ultimately, the comprehensive model and assessment plan detailed in this article can be implemented in a similar manner across disciplines and universities for a variety of student populations of concern.

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This article describes public attitudes toward housing for mentally retarded citizens. It was found that the vast majority of the population sampled were negatively disposed to renting housing facilities to retarded people. The conclusion appears to be that much effort needs to be given to developing more accepting attitudes toward the handicapped.