The thesis explores possibilities of the use of facebook in the field of evangelization. Facebook represents one of many modern-day communication tools that touch ever larger part of human population nowadays. Also Christians must necessarily take an attitude to these tools. After a short historical excursus an outline of the realm of social networks follows. In a short overview the thesis presents key Church documents relevant to the topic. Afterwards it shows examples how the use of communication tools can change lives of many people. An inspiration is found in the area of business as it is used within the contemporary society. The thesis also aims its attention to the essential task of Christians, which is the proclaiming of the Gospel. Besides it takes note of activities of Christians who "live" in this cybernetic space. It doesn't neglect the risks in the field of social networks, risks which may affect those who strive to reach out to people in cyperspace. To the conclusion a short personal testimony is added concerning the role the facebook can play in a life of a Christian. Several possible views are presented here for consideration and at the same time a space is left for personal answers.

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Research shows that friend/family opinions influence romantic relationships, with approval leading to positive outcomes (e.g, increased intimacy) and disapproval leading to negative outcomes (e.g., couple dissolution). The impact the network's opinion has on their relationship with the person is less examined. Balance theory suggests when their network disapproves, people try to change the network’s mind about the partner, their mind about their partner, or their mind about their network. If so, disapproval could lead to lowered network relationship quality, which may lead to increased romantic relationship dependence. Participants read one of four vignettes manipulating friend/parent opinion (approval/disapproval) and completed dependence/relationship quality scales. The study found that romantic and network relationship quality is hurt by network disapproval, but dependence was not affected. Any approval for the romantic relationship acted as a buffer to disapproval. Changing the source of the network listened to was another way found that people balance these relationships

It is essential to build, maintain, and use our transportation systems in a manner that meets our current needs while addressing the social and economic needs of future generations. In today’s world, transportation congestion causes serious negative impacts to our societies. To this end, researchers have been utilizing various statistical methods to better study the flow of traffic into the road networks. However, these valuable studies cannot realize their true potential without solid in-depth understanding of the connectivity between the various traffic intersections. This paper bridges the gap between the engineering and social science domains. To this end, the authors propose a dynamic social network analysis framework to study the centrality of the existing road networks. This approach utilizes the field of network analysis where: (1) visualization and modeling techniques allow capturing the relationships, interactions, and attributes of and between network constituents, and (2) mathematical measurements facilitate analyzing quantitative relationships within the network. Connectivity and the importance of each intersection within the network will be understood using this method. The author conducted social network analysis modeling using three studies in Louisiana and two studies in Mississippi. Four types of centrality analysis were performed to identify the most central and important intersections within each study area. Results indicate intersection social network analysis modeling aligns with current congestion studies and transportation planning decisions.

The present study examined whether an individual’s own implicit theory of relationships predicts how s/he perceives his/her friend’s romantic relationship. Implicit theories of relationships are based on destiny beliefs (DB), the belief that a relationship is meant to be, and growth beliefs (GB), the belief that relationships require work. Each participant was randomly exposed to one of three relationship scenarios where the participant’s hypothetical friend discusses a partner displaying negative, mixed, or positive relationship behaviors. We found the participants high in DB were less approving of the relationship, and those high in GB were more approving. Those high in DB also made more relationship-damaging attributions when asked to select reasons why the partner engaged in said behaviors but surprisingly perceived the couple as more satisfied overall. Anticipated interactions between DB and GB were not found.

One in seven people in the world use online social networking for a variety of purposes -- to keep in touch with friends and family, to share special occasions, to broadcast announcements, and more. The majority of society has been bought into this new era of communication technology, which allows everyone on the internet to share information with friends. Since social networking has rapidly become a main form of communication, holes in privacy have become apparent. It has come to the point that the whole concept of sharing information requires restructuring. No longer are online social networks simply technology available for a niche market; they are in use by all of society. Thus it is important to not forget that a sense of privacy is inherent as an evolutionary by-product of social intelligence. In any context of society, privacy needs to be a part of the system in order to help users protect themselves from others. This dissertation attempts to address the lack of privacy management in online social networks by designing models which understand the social science behind how we form social groups and share information with each other. Social relationship strength was modeled using activity patterns, vocabulary usage, and behavioral patterns. In addition, automatic configuration for default privacy settings was proposed to help prevent new users from leaking personal information. This dissertation aims to mobilize a new era of social networking that understands social aspects of human network, and uses that knowledge to honor users' privacy.

Colleges and universities continue to make huge financial investments in instructional technology for the classroom. Mississippi State University faculty, assigned to teach in technology enhanced classrooms, are expected by administration, as well as students, to incorporate the technology into their instruction. This study examines whether faculty consider themselves adopters or nonopters of the instructional technology provided in the Technology Classrooms and if relationships exist between this adoption status and demographics, personal social network, and training source. The data was gathered from faculty assigned to teach in the Technology Classrooms at Mississippi State University using an online survey. Demographic data was compared with the adoption/nonoption status to determine if relationships existed. The demographic characteristics used were gender, race/ethnicity, age, and years teaching. A Chi Square and Point Biserial Correlation Coefficient were to analyze the data to determine if demographic characteristics related to adoption/nonoption status of the instructional technology in the Technology Classrooms. Using Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations theory, along with Social Network Communication Analysis, this study determined if relationships existed between higher education faculty and their ego social communication network of who talks to whom data provided by the respondents. A matrix of the communication network was analyzed with UCINET software. The data provided by the UCINET software was analyzed with SPSS using a Point Biserial Correlation Coefficient to determine if relationships exist between the adoption/nonoption status and social communication networks of faculty. Methods of instructional technology training and adoption/nonoption status were analyzed to determine if relationships existed by using descriptive statistics and a point biserial correlation coefficient. While no relationships existed between the adoption/nonoption status of faculty and the variables of age, race/ethnicity, gender, years teaching, and social communication networks, low to moderate relationships were shown to exist between instructional technology training and adoption/nonoption status. It was determined that 90 percent of respondents considered themselves adopters of the instructional technology provided in the Technology Classrooms. This data suggests that the addition of more Technology Classrooms on campus and the expansion of instructional technology training available to faculty should be explored.

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