Internet Exercises

Exercise 1 Subject: Using the AOL Instant Messenger

Your first assignment for chapter eight is at the heart of technologically-enhanced interpersonal relations. You are to go to www.aol.com and download their most recent version of the Instant Messenger software. Also, email all of your interpersonal contacts (both local and remote) and ask them if they use AOL IM. If not, ask them to download a copy and install it on their machine so that you can talk with them more frequently.

Once you have read the basic directions for AOL IM provided by AOL, set up your "Buddy List." Converse with your friends for about a week on this device, if you do not already do so. Does this form of electronic interpersonal communication enhance or hinder the betterment of your relationships? Is Locke's autistic society an adequate description of e-relations, or is the high-tech-high-touch society a better theory?

Exercise 2 Subject: Considering interpersonal skills and productivity in the businesses and professions

Obviously, interpersonal skills are necessary for personal relations. But businesses and professions have also realized that interpersonal skills help their profit margins. Visit www.interpersonal-skills.com to see what the Interpersonal Skills Laboratory has cooking for some of the top corporations in the world.

After visiting the site, do you think it is important for businesses and professions to focus on interpersonal skills. Why?

Exercise 3 Subject: Laughing out loud (LOL)

One of the important interpersonal communication skills one should possess is both the ability to laugh and make others laugh. Go to www.jokes.com and subscribe to their "get daily jokes" listserv. This will deliver a joke to your email inbox daily, which you can then share with your friends and colleagues.

Your assignment is to tell a joke a day to your friends and colleagues. Jokes.com is an excellent place from which to draw humor. You will find it to be a valuable interpersonal communication resource.