People tend to become more personal and hide less of themselves when using email . Researchers from Open University in Britain have found in a recent study that there are good reasons for this . The team of researchers asked 83 pairs of students , all strangers to each other , to solve a problem . They had to discuss this question : If only five people in the world could be saved from a world disaster , who should they be ? The pairs of students had to talk over the problem either face to face or by computers . Dr. Johnson said , “They told their partners four times as much about themselves when they talked over the Internet as when they talked face to face . When the computers were fitted with cameras so that students could see each other , this limited the personal side of the conversation.” Generally the information was not extremely personal . It was mainly about things such as where they went to school, or where they used to live . But some students discussed their love stories , and personal childhood experiences . Dr. Johnson believes that emailing encourages people to focus on themselves . And when they do this , they become more open , especially if there are no cameras. “If you cannot see the other person, it becomes easier to talk about yourself . This is because you are not thinking what the other person is thinking of you. So emailing has become the modern way of talking,” said Dr. Johnson. However , this style of talking is not entirely new . “In the 19th century people started to use the ‘telegraph’ to communicate . Now the same kind of thing has happened and people ended up speaking more freely .” Dr. Johnson thinks that emailers need to know about these effects of emailing , especially when they start work in a company . “If you don’t know about it , you could find yourself saying more about yourself than you wanted to .” 小题1:The subject discussed in this passage is .
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