Oakland, CA - Dan Ryan, Mills College associate professor of sociology, was recently featured in “As the Grapevine Withers, Spam Filters Take Root,” a New York Times article about the sociological implications of sending mass emails to personal contacts (May 22, 2007).

Reporter John Tierney outlines the social violations associated with the act of sending or forwarding email to numerous recipients. In the article, Tierney cites Ryan’s “seminal article in the journal Sociological Theory, “ in which Ryan defined personal spam as a violation of the “notification norms.” Tierney writes, “technology now lets us tell everyone everything all at once, but we still value a network that existed before the Web: the grapevine.”

According to Ryan, “Even though we all claim to hate gossip and being in or out of the loop, there’s an emotional benefit to grapevines. I think of it as informational grooming, like primates picking bugs off each other. We don’t want to get information all at once. Some (information) you want to get as an insider…telling everyone violates our sense that we live in a rich array of social relationships.”

Tierney points out that “every message incorporates another message in the way it is delivered, whether it’s an email or a ransom note pinned to an ear.” For example, emails sent to address book lists imply that the sender is treating each recipient impersonally.

Tierney says he is trying to filter email messages by finding those with “a small display of netiquette, like having my name somewhere besides the address line.”

Mills College is a nationally renowned, independent liberal arts college offering innovative degree programs for undergraduate women, and graduate degree and certificate programs for women and men. Consistently recognized as one of the top 100 liberal arts colleges in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, Mills currently ranks among the top 20 most diverse liberal arts colleges. The New York Times recently selected Mills as one of three leading California colleges for students to consider.

In 2006, the Washington Monthly College Rankings named Mills a leading liberal arts college based on community service, research spending, quality of preparation for graduate education, and social mobility. In addition, The Princeton Review’s annual guide, the Best 361 Colleges (2007) included Mills for the second year in a row among top U.S. institutions offering students an outstanding undergraduate education.

Nestled in the foothills of Oakland, California, on 135 lush acres, Mills provides a dynamic liberal arts education fostering women’s leadership, social responsibility, and creativity.

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