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I found it interesting when we were talking about the need for society and how the virtual worlds satisfy that need. I think people are wired to be around other people and when we spend most of our time alone at home, we feel that something is missing in our life. I think this is why the need is created for people to feel part of a community, but I don't think that a computer community actually fulfills this need completely. I think that it's close and can satisfy certain psychological needs, but as seen with the girl who committed suicide, it is not always real and people can be fooled into false comfort.

Another similar topic is the idea of checking the email or facebook, but not getting a response. I've read a while ago that people have a need for positive stimulus and they get a positive stimulus by receiving an email/message. They also get a negative stimulus when they check and no one has written them. Therefore, this creates a desire to increase the number of friends on facebook or the number of messages they send out so they receive a message every time they log in. This leads to two effects. The first is that people (usually young people that do not understand) tend to invite or engage in communication with anyone who will listen. This is why they get into trouble because they communicate with strangers and people they don't trust. The second is that if you sum the stimuli, there is actually a negative net effect meaning that people tend to log in and not have a response more times than receiving an email. This also has to do with the fact that the negative is stronger than the positive. Therefore, people tend to be less happy by checking their email all the time because they expect to find a message every time. Anyways, I just thought it was a very interesting study and it shows how emotional needs can really influence people's behavior as well as be influenced by their surroundings.