IP: THE LONELY NET 0 from Edupage

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

A two-year, $1.5-million study by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, 
funded by the National Science Foundation and major technology companies, 
has concluded that Internet use appears to cause a decline in psychological 
well-being. A director of the study says, "We are not talking here about 
the extremes. These were normal adults and their families, and on average, 
for those who used the Internet most, things got worse." One hour a week of 
Internet use led on average to an increase of 1% on the depression scale, an 
increase of 0.04% on the loneliness scale, and a loss of 2.7 members of the 
subject's social circle (which averaged 66 people). Although the study 
participants used e-mail, chat rooms, and other social features of the 
Internet to interact with others, they reported a decline in interaction 
with their own family members and a reduction in their circles of friends. 
"Our hypothesis is, there are more cases where you're building shallow 
relationships [on the Internet], leading to an overall decline in feeling of 
connection to other people." Since the 169 study participants, all from the 
Pittsburgh area, were not chosen in a random selection process, it is not 
clear how the findings apply to the general population, but a RAND 
Corporation senior scientist says, "They did an extremely careful 
scientific study, and it's not a result that's easily ignored." (New York 
Times 30 Aug 98)