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Real life in cyberspace!
It's not the Internet we thought we knew!
The first major study of its kind on Net use at home has provided some sober second thoughts about how the technology affects our relationships and our moods.
Not only does it say the Internet fails to build ties between people as many had assumed, researchers at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University found that time online actually makes us feel lonely and more depressed.
Even as little as an hour a week surfing the Net could increase depression by 1 per cent and loneliness by 0.4 per cent, the study reports. And each hour spent on the Internet led to the loss of 2.7 members of the person's social circle, which averaged 66 people.
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It's a conclusion that smacks hard against the popular notion of the Internet as an interactive, engaging technology that links like minds through computer technology and brings them closer.
Internet advocates and industry watchers have long held the online world fosters relationships through tools such as E-mail, discussion groups and online chats.
They gushed over the unscripted ease of online communication, a more engrossing alternative to the motionless brain daze of watching TV.
No longer were we simply voyeurs.
We could enter the cyber dialogue. We could speak and be heard. We could publish. And a July study from Strategis Research reports that Internet use is displacing social and leisure activities such as watching TV, reading and sleeping.
But what does it all mean for our social lives! Twenty-six per cent of respondents said social activities with family and friends have been reduced by their on-line habit.
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There have been other distant early warnings about the social dissociation of Internet communications. A survey released earlier this year from Ottawa-based Ekos Research asked 3,522 Canadians to agree or disagree with the following:"I personally know some people who spend so much time at home using the Internet and other computer activities that it has had a negative impact on the quality of their family life."About half agreed."Our findings are not inconsistent with the HomeNetstudy" said Malcolm Saravanamuttoo, senior researcher for Ekos."Many Canadians expressed concerns about knowing people that have had a negative impact on their lives. We're only beginning to understand the kind of impact it's having." The official verdict is still a way off.
The Internet's more popular image as a relationship builder has emerged as an unspoken truth over the past few years. And, on the surface, there's much to it. Astronomers compare notes on the latest skyward spottings, Madonna fans swoon over every bump and grind. Couples living thousand of kilometres apart meet and court virtually.
Numerous studies have reflected this first-blush love affair with the Internet.
ActivMedia Research, a New Hampshire-based online market research firm, released a study in January that flat out contradicts the Carnegie Mellon study's findings.
Sixty-two per cent Of ActivMedia's respondents said they had found the Net a positive experience in meeting peers and exchanging views on similar interests."They looked at a small trend. We looked at a bigger picture: what people are doing online,"said Chris Anne Wheeler, the firm's director of information services, who contests the HomeNet findings."We're not saying that people are using the Net as a sole means of communication. Our study looks at it as a way of expanding networks as a first step to meeting people in person."
Many Net surfers understand the allure of meeting new people with similar interests in a safe environment, exchanging mail and wondering what they're like. Problem is, Net relationships are very rarely a precursor to real world contact. Social inhibitors such as geography and shyness may not matter on the Net, but they do in real life. "You can strike up a conversation with a stranger online and exchange messages for a little while because of some common interest, but it can't go too far," says Mukhopadhyay."Only in one or two occasions we've found that subjects met people on the Net and wanted to meet physically."For that reason, Net relationships are most often fleeting, rarely meaningful and potentially disappointing because of doused expectations that can contribute to a sense of isolation, he says. This isn't to say "Internet the good" has turned into "Internet the bad and ugly".
Both Mukhopadhyay and Ekos Saravanamuttoo say many of the Net's attributes are undeniable : its role as an educational tool, a new vehicle for business and in helping users stay in touch with family and friends. But socially and psychologically, it just isn't there yet.
Not enough of our friends and family members are on the Net to provide a sense of online community that brings real together with the virtual. Most users still can't see each other through on-screen video or hear each other through audio. The human touch is lost in the wires and hardware."There's still a big gap between the users of the technology and the developers who make it," said Mukhopadhyay. "But we've come to depend on it and, as a result, we're held hostage."
Credits: Robert Cribb
The average home Internet user was on line 2.43 hours...
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