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I had forgotten about Free Rice! I remember in high school, if we were working in the computer labs and had already finished with our work, the teachers would tell us to go on Free Rice. It was a great way to spend the rest of class and brush up on vocabulary. In fact, it would also be a helpful site for students getting ready for the SAT. 

I too, was at first confused about how gaming affects social interactions, because I always thought of gaming as anti-social, especially computer games. This changed after we had the youth panel come to class last week, and they talked about all of the social interactions they have from their online community. They showed us how you can log on to the games at the same time and play each other, or instant message their friends while gaming. I think this is a good argument for how the internet has actually increased social interactions, at least in terms of gaming. Previously, people would play games by themselves, unless they could get a friend to come over an play against them instead of against the machine. Now, with gaming systems or computer games that connect to the internet, they can play each other without having to go anywhere. Gaming provides another outlet for communication.