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Much of the popular media commentary overstates the extent to which computer games and cybercafesisolate people from each other or promote violence. Internet games and cybercafes provide vehicles forpositive identity construction, as well as beneficial social skill and status development. While there arelimits to these benefits, these constraints may not necessarily originate from games or cybercafes but aremanifestations of more general social problems writ-large. The physical environment of the LAN centersthemselves are important factors in shaping the quantity and quality of the social interactions that takeplace inside and outside the context of game-playing. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines factors that influence immigrants' racial attitudes towards Blacks. Modeled after research on whites' racial attitudes towards Blacks, this study explores the effects of education, age, gender, and political perspective on immigrants' racial attitudes. In addition, this study also explores the effects of immigrants' race, social networks, and neighborhood characteristics, as well as interview language and interview race-matching, on immigrants' attitudes towards Blacks. Using the Los Angeles subset of the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality, the key findings of a linear regression model indicate that social networks and interviewer race-matching have a significant effect on immigrants' racial attitudes. Neighborhood quality and problems also have a significant, though weaker, effect on immigrants' racial attitudes towards Blacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]