Friendship Sites Enable Women to Make New Friends

Friendship Sites Enable Women to Make New Friends Since online dating services are a proven way for women (and men) to find romance, why not apply the same matchmaking principles to friendship? Opportunities for women to make new friends are now just a mouse click away. Following in the footsteps of internet dating, websites designed to foster real-world female friendships are on the rise. Mommy Sites and Friendship Millions of women already flock to mommy sites that create community between expectant and new mothers, and the many niche motherhood sites for working moms, stay-at-home moms, even entrepreneurial moms attest to their success at establishing meaningful online relationships. But what if you want to meet other women face-to-face and form friendships in your own community? What if moving or marriage has changed your circumstances, and youre looking for new connections and new girlfriends? Wouldnt it be nice if a website facilitated those meetings the same way dating sites do? More Meet Online If youre skeptical of the idea of internet friendship sites, consider this. A 2015 Pew Research Center poll online survey found that 15 percent of American adults have used an online dating site. Twenty-seven percent of young adults (18-24 years old) and 12% of adults aged 55–64 years old report that they have used online dating. Nearly 60% of college students say they know someone who uses online dating, and 46 percent say they know someone who has entered into a long-time relationship. If the internet has become a valuable tool in forming a sexual connection, couldnt it establish a social connection as well? Matchmaking Girlfriends Thats the concept Canadian entrepreneur Amanda Blain banked on when she launched the website Girlfriend Social, a place where women of all ages and backgrounds can go to talk, share and find new female friends. One of the largest social networking sites exclusively for females 18 and older, Girlfriend Social (GFS) enables users to seek out and connect with like-minded women in hundreds of cities and communities across the US, Canada, the UK and Australia. Although existing sites such as Girlfriendology and Meetup also offer opportunities for women to get together based on geographic location, Blain explained in an interview what makes GFS distinctly different: Other social networks are designed to deal with business, dating, or connecting with people you already know. Very few specialize in connecting new friends or helping you locate other people with similar hobbies. Girlfriend Social is designed purely for women to socially meet new friends and is the only free social network that allows women to create complete profiles, match with friends, chat with others, discuss hot topics, and to meet other women at live events, face-to-face. The M Stage Blain came up with the idea following a move to a new city; at her new job, her co-workers were mostly male. She soon realized the obstacles to a friendship that women face today are vastly different from those our mothers encountered. Many things have changed including the expectations women put on themselves. Many are working, have children, and find themselves trying to juggle work and family life. This isn’t as easy as it was a generation ago. Shes noticed that many women seek out new friends once they enter the M stage- moving, marriage, or motherhood- because those life transitions can alter, strain and even sever existing friendships. Many women who go through these experiences find that their circle of friends change. Sometimes the friends you have aren’t calling you anymore, you’re not calling them, or you find your priorities have changed. Adding some new people to your life can help you through these transitions. Making the Jump Older women, in particular, find it hard to meet new people after spending years in the same social circle. The demands of family life and career leave little time to step outside the ordinary routine, meet new people, and then go from there. As Blaine notes, Even if you take new classes, go for gym workouts, or start new hobbies, it’s still difficult to make that jump from acquaintance to friendship with the people you meet. Women who do not have a significant other in their lives encounter additional friendship challenges. Whether they are alone by choice, divorce, or death of a spouse, single women often find themselves out of sync with married friends who socialize as couples. Like re-entering the dating scene, trying to establish new friendships at this stage can be intimidating. All these women would just like to connect with new women, Girlfriend Socials founder Amanda Blain says, but they aren’t sure how to go about it. Meeting the Old Fashioned Way Some have gone the Craigslist route, using the popular non-commercial community bulletin board as a way to find new friends. They post in the Personals section under the heading Strictly Platonic; the w4w (women for women) listings include requests for workout/running buddies, movie buddies, travel companions and females to go clubbing with. Judging from the number of entries posted in one week in Chicago (33), Seattle (27), Boston (3) and New York City (105), women all over the U.S. are finding it difficult to make the kind of steady, reliable friendships theyve enjoyed in the past. As one woman wrote, Posting on Craigs List is not something Id normally do, but it can be difficult meeting people the old-fashioned way. But Craiglist is not foolproof. Some who have used it to seek out goods or services have been scammed or even robbed; many of the listings despite being in the strictly platonic section are not. Without any controls or means of regulating its users, Craigslist and other online community-based bulletin boards are a hit-or-miss option. Easy and Safe In comparison, a membership-based internet friendship site makes it easy and safe for women to reach out to each other and search for friends who would be most compatible. Safety is a major concern for Blain and Girlfriend Social. Although her site gives women opportunities to share personal details (helpful in matching new friends), she leaves it up to each participant to decide how much to reveal about herself. Members fill out a profile where they provide as much information about themselves as they are comfortable with. Its detailed application that matches women based on everything from sports to hobbies to movies, music, and books.  With a few simple clicks, you can match with other women in your local area who have kids the same age as yours or read the same authors as you do.   The match feature is a quick way to find women who have similar interests. A Friend Who Gets Her Whereas mommy sites cater to women with young children, GFS includes women of all ages and stages of life. Blain counts among GFS members 75-year-old grandmothers looking to play cards with others and 22-year-old students looking to get out for a night of dancing, along with new moms. Some women are looking for specific friendships based on mutual interests. Blain tells the story of a woman who loved Broadway shows, an interest her husband didnt share. Through GFS she found another woman to attend Broadway shows with. Her husband is delighted and she’s happy because now she has a friend who ‘gets’ her hobby. Blain feels that GFS and other girlfriend sites are not only long overdue but necessary because of the way women bond- a process thats a bit more complex in females than in males. The friendship instinct can be found in both genders, Blain says, but to a certain extent, I think men find themselves in situations where it’s easier to make new friends. A man can go to a local sports bar, find another guy cheering for the same team, and the next thing you know hes sitting next to the other guy, having a drink and getting invited to a barbecue. Sometimes a man is invited to go golfing with a new group and by the time he’s done playing he’s friends with every guy in the group. With women, I find getting into similar situations, or into other women’s social circles isn’t quite as easy.    Where Women are Nurtured In the end, its not rocket science- its about making new friends. Blain explains, My goal was simple: build a safe, fun and drama-free network where women of all ages and backgrounds are able to connect, participate in some new events, and come together to learn and share their unique life experiences. I built a community where the true nature of what it means to be a woman is nurtured.

School Workload and Sleep Deprivation in Adolescent Tardiness Research Paper - 3

School Workload and Sleep Deprivation in Adolescent Tardiness - Research Paper Example this study are the dependency at participants’ honesty, inability to directly manipulate the participants’ daily workload and sleep time, inability to manipulate â€Å"time of school† as sub-variable of school workload, and the inconclusiveness on the effects of increasing school workload to adolescent tardiness. Further larger-scale researches on school workload and sleep deprivation in committing tardiness is being aimed by this study. No experimental research so far was conducted on the effects of school workload and sleep deprivation in tardiness. However, two experimental literatures, plus three supporting non-experimental studies, will be used by this study to serve as guides in formulating the design of this study to be conducted for the first time. The experimental study Sustaining Female Helicopter Pilot Performance with Dexedrine during Sleep Deprivation (Caldwell, Caldwell & Crowley, 1997) investigated the effects of a stimulant drug dextroamphetamine on the flight stimulator performance of sleep-deprived female aviators. The sample participants were exposed to 40-hour sleep deprivation, but the experimental group received the drug while the control received a placebo. The independent variable is the drug administration while the dependent variables are the performance, level of alertness and mood of the participants. They found out that the experimental group is able to sustain performance, alertness and mood than the control group. This study provides a good background information on the effects of sleep deprivation that the drug is hypothesized to eliminate: poor performance, lower level of alertness and lower mood. This study provides a hypothesis that sleep deprivation affects student’s performance, which includ es tendencies of being tardy. Another experimental study, The impact of Cross-Training and Workload on Team Functioning: A Replication and Extension of Initial Findings (Cannon-Bowers et al, 1998). Other than cross-training, they

Austin Community College Enrollment Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Austin Community College Enrollment - Term Paper Example With unemployment still at record high levels (Baker and Hassett), many job hunters go back to study postsecondary education in order to gain advantage over other applicants. Moreover, because greater educational attainment is related with higher salaries and lower unemployment rates, the Department of Labor believes that promoting degree attainment will be beneficial for the country’s economy (DeAngelo et al. 3). However, it is important to note that there is an ongoing debate whether college education is truly a wise investment for those who are seeking to earn more. For example, a 2011 New York Times article says that the sour economy has affected everyone, many students in postsecondary schooling have decided to postpone their education, while there are even more whose careers have gone astray (Rampell). The story is pretty common. These days one would hear of a chemistry major tending a bar, or perhaps someone with a major in History manning the cashier at Wal-Mart. Even college graduates, those who were supposedly most protected from the economic recession (thanks to the massive student aids offered by the government) have a very bleak outlook. Studies have shown that 17% of college graduates work in restaurants and bars while median salary has decreased between 2009 and 2010. As the country’s economic outlook is far from improving, and the cost of education is increasing, this is an issue worth exploring. The aim of this project is to determine what factors affect the college enrollment in the United States. This study utilizes a time-series analysis with observations from 1969 to 2009 included. Data on education was taken from the National Center for Education Statistics while employment data was taken from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Data for income was derived from the calculations of the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The model (less constant and coefficients) for this analysis is: COLLEGE ENROLL = GRAD + AVG_ INCOME+%UNEMP The result or dependent variable, COL_ENROLL includes the total number of first-time freshmen who enrolled from the fall of 1969 to fall of 2009. It is calculated using the number of bachelor degrees conferred by higher education institutions, and expected post-graduation experiences (with unemployment and disposable income as proxy variables). GRAD, the first independent variable, represents the total number of bachelor’s degrees conferred by degree granting institutions. This data is compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics and it is vital because it shows how many students were retained by the school. Lesser number of bachelor’s degree holder can be used as an indicator of an institution’s quality of education (DeAngelo et al.). Moreover, low retention rates can mean that tuition fees are too high for students, and financial assistance is unavailable. The importance of utilizing GRAD is that low completion rates mean that there are more unskilled worker s in the labor force, which in turn can cause loss of efficiency and increased cost for training for hiring firms. AVG_INCOME is the disposable personal income received by all types of employees in the United States. It is seasonally adjusted at annual rates and indexed at 2005 dollars. This data has been utilizes because income has been a significant incentive for workers to become part or to remain part of the workforce. Moreover, the

Chinua Achebe's response to Conrad's Heart of Darkness novel Essay

Chinua Achebe's response to Conrad's Heart of Darkness novel - Essay Example ly doing the same, when he is criticizing the author on being single-tracked, by viewing the theme and presentation of this epic novel through a tunnel-vision. The issue of truth in terms of actual reality is a paradigm that has never really been understood to its fullest since man has learnt to think. This reality can be identified with, and the highest virtue can subsequently be attained by means of taking it in a way that it actually is. Contemplation gives insight, and ultimately self-actualization; this should in turn give way to the actual truth, and nullify any metaphor being used as a faà §ade to a reality. On the same lines, Conrad has presented his version of the life that he saw in Africa. This version had ideas and experiences that were true to his own self, and he did not have a personal vendetta against the locals of the continent. He just found a striking cultural difference between himself and his hosts, and this he represented in the script subsequently. If in the face of conflict, one tends to shy away from the true sense of being, then it can never really come out. Under normal circumstances, it is always simple to portray oneself; however, the true test of character is when there is antagonism, and yet still a person can attain truth by means of beings what he truly is. This adversity was faced by the author in his own experiences. The symbolism and the gravity of events that unfold through the process of the novel, clearly indicate that the author himself is passing through a drastically intense time of his life – disregarding someone on account of race would be the last thing on his mind, where survival itself had become an issue. Furthermore, there is no racism in explaining that a place is underdeveloped and that the people have a more crude way of living. The novel was originally published in 1902, and more than a hundred years on, even in the contemporary scientific and technological times of today, one can safely argue that ‘all’

Corporate and global strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Corporate and global strategy - Essay Example In the first quarter of year 2007, Toyota has been able to sell more number of cars than GM, pushing GM at the second place for the first time (USA Today, 2007). GM is headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and employs about 335,000 people. The brands include Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, Hummer, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Vauxhall. GM recorded revenues worth $192,604 million during the fiscal year ended December 2005. GM also owns equity partnerships in some regional subsidiaries and joint ventures like New United Motor Manufacturing (NUMMI), Suzuki Motor Corporation, Isuzu Motors, Shanghai GM, SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Company and CAMI Automotive (Datamonitor, 2006). The car market has indeed become very competitive, with major players like GM, Ford, Toyota, Audi, BMW, VW etc. vying for the international market, besides a number of local players in the car market. With technology playing a major role in advancements of the features in a car, ICT helping in making the care more intelligent, marketing communication techniques have started playing a major role in convincing the customer. General Motors has also outlined plans for ICT needs of its cares and the company has signed deals worth $15bn (Â £8.5bn) for the next five years with IBM, HP, EDS, Capgemini, Compuware Covisint and Wipro (Brown, 2006). General Motors has also unveiled E-Flex electric architecture, configured with GMs newest, most efficient hydrogen fuel cell system to date, at the recently held Shanghai Auto Show (GM, 2007). Company believes that the fuel cell technology has the potential to be a competitive alternative to the internal combustion engine - in size, performance, du rability and cost. Internationalization provides an opportunity for the company to plan out moves for a wider spectrum of customer base. Strategic decisions are concerned with the issue of setting a direction for the

Clay Shirky - Wiki exam (group) vs Traditional exam (individual) Essay

Clay Shirky - Wiki exam (group) vs Traditional exam (individual) - Essay Example For example, each student will try to work his or her problem individually, not as a group. While 15 students can be arranged into a group of 2 individuals per unit and faster solutions will be achieved as each pair will tackle a certain procedure (issue) as one. Clay views that as the group grows it gets considerably worse as the group could sit around discussing the possible choices of all day, with no guarantee you will get to an agreement at all. With every one selling his or her interest, these complexities have nothing to do with classmates or friendship specifically; they are the response to the grim logic of group complexity. As the class grows it becomes difficult for a student to interact directly with everyone from their teachers and other students. If maintaining the connection between two students takes effort, then managing a bigger population becomes unattainable. This phenomenon even in situations, people may clink glasses during a toast, in a small group can touch gl asses to everyone (Berman 279).. The college should embrace the wiki project because it is kind of an organization where different aspects need to be matched from the students activates such doing exams, assignments, and the tutors with support of the entire staff in the institution. For example, they may need to call a meeting of the students or staff to convey a message. This form of communication may come from the academic chair or workers representative this does not mean everyone has to shout to give the information it must pass in a simplified channel such as school representative from the student and the staff leaders in different sections. Therefore, running a college as itself may be difficult, to achieve the aimed goal such as academic excellence. Every daily activity in the college requires recourses from human resource to financial resources to meet the required objective of the institution. As a result, no institution can put all it energies in pursuing a mission. It sh ould utilize considerable efforts on maintaining discipline and structure, simply to keep itself viable. Therefore, self management of the college becomes a priority while staged goal is relegated to number two or lower, no matter what the mission statement says. The problem inherent in managing these transaction cost are one of the basic constrains shaping institutions of all kinds. Therefore, the more students are involved in a task, the more potential misunderstanding and arguments in a class will be experienced. New tools of managing students can be used in classrooms with bigger numbers for effectiveness and efficiency of teaching and learning, for example, allocating identity groups in a classroom with different names of about five members in a group to share assignments and class work. This will make work easier for tutors to communicate and assign class works without having to communicate to everyone in the lecture room. Critiques of the theory Conflicting perspective of MOO Cs to divide education communities Elite institutions in the Academy, primarily leading United States universities are widely engaging enthusiastically in MOOCS by lending brand, content, funds, staff and policy, but it is not applicable for the minority as it prevents a conspicuous literature. Small institutions have not engaged in MOOCS because it complex for them, and those who have tried have sounded an alarm over it

Corporate and global strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Corporate and global strategy - Essay Example In the first quarter of year 2007, Toyota has been able to sell more number of cars than GM, pushing GM at the second place for the first time (USA Today, 2007). GM is headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and employs about 335,000 people. The brands include Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, Hummer, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Vauxhall. GM recorded revenues worth $192,604 million during the fiscal year ended December 2005. GM also owns equity partnerships in some regional subsidiaries and joint ventures like New United Motor Manufacturing (NUMMI), Suzuki Motor Corporation, Isuzu Motors, Shanghai GM, SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Company and CAMI Automotive (Datamonitor, 2006). The car market has indeed become very competitive, with major players like GM, Ford, Toyota, Audi, BMW, VW etc. vying for the international market, besides a number of local players in the car market. With technology playing a major role in advancements of the features in a car, ICT helping in making the care more intelligent, marketing communication techniques have started playing a major role in convincing the customer. General Motors has also outlined plans for ICT needs of its cares and the company has signed deals worth $15bn (Â £8.5bn) for the next five years with IBM, HP, EDS, Capgemini, Compuware Covisint and Wipro (Brown, 2006). General Motors has also unveiled E-Flex electric architecture, configured with GMs newest, most efficient hydrogen fuel cell system to date, at the recently held Shanghai Auto Show (GM, 2007). Company believes that the fuel cell technology has the potential to be a competitive alternative to the internal combustion engine - in size, performance, du rability and cost. Internationalization provides an opportunity for the company to plan out moves for a wider spectrum of customer base. Strategic decisions are concerned with the issue of setting a direction for the