Seventy-five percent of the population has access to the Internet, and computer-mediated communication (CMC) has changed the way governments, businesses, commerce, and educational systems perform.

CMC includes the idea of digital literacy—the ability to understand and use information in multiple formats. Thus, CMC fits our basic communication model, although there are differences in the channels and in the social cues to communication.

People choose CMC over face-to-face communication (FtFC) for the fulfillment of personal needs, interpersonal needs, and for experimentation. Personal needs include impression management, social reticence, security, equalizing of experience, control, intentionality, and escape. Interpersonal needs include making contact with and getting information from others, hyperpersonal CMC, and business goals. In experimentation, users can act out their fantasies, challenge social norms, and exercise aspects of their personality.

Online credibility is important if you expect to be a "considered" source online. You develop your online reputation through your use of language.

Virtual communities are valuable for developing friendships and serve as gathering points for people with common interests, beliefs, and ideas. Blogs or online journals can create virtual communities significant because of their extensiveness and influence, but readers of blogs must be cautious about believing what they find there.

To be ethical online, ask appropriate questions and remember the caution, "Let the reader beware."