Isolation Increases with Internet Use
By Scott Sleek
The Internet connects us with people we might otherwise never meet and
maybe leaving us lonelier than ever.
1. A rabbi discovered the professional benefits of the Internet when he joined
an online discussion group with colleagues. There, he got advice on subjects
for sermons and effective ways to deal with congregants. But the rabbi also
noticed that he was spending less time talking with his wife, whose verbal moral
support had once been just as beneficial as, perhaps even more than, the
advice he received from his online peers. As it seems, the internet connects us
with people we might otherwise never meet and maybe leaving us lonelier than
ever.
2. Psychologist Robert Kraut, PhD, of Carnegie Mellon University's Human
Computer Interaction Institute, who conducted a research on computer use,
points to the case of the rabbi as an example of the paradoxical role of the
Internet.
3. The technology that has allowed people to keep in closer touch with distant
family members and friends, to find information quickly and to develop
friendships with people from around the world, is also replacing vital day-to-day
human interactions. However, a computer monitor cannot give you a hug or
laugh at your jokes. Moreover, some psychologists worry that the Internet's
widening popularity and growing number of virtual communities, will lead to
further isolation among a population that seems to have lost a genuine sense
of belonging and connection.
4. In fact, Kraut and his colleagues, in a study to be released this month in
American Psychologist, report that greater use of the Internet leads to shrinking
social support and less happiness, while increasing depression and loneliness.
The study is the first to look specifically at the impact that Internet use has on
overall emotional well-being. The findings were unexpected, Kraut says, since
most people use the Internet to chat online and e-mail, not to isolate themselves
in mounds of electronic information. 'We were surprised to find that social
technology, unlike the television, has kind of antisocial consequences,' Kraut
adds.
Learning from mistakes
5. The Internet has changed the lives of Americans as much as the telephone
in the early 20th century or the television in the 1950s and 60s did, Kraut
contends. Numerous research and marketing firms have calculated the number
of American households using the Internet at anywhere from 60 million to 70
million. Millions more use it throughout the world for a variety of purposes.
People use it for everything from buying plane tickets to downloading games to
e-mailing family. And some spend many hours on multi-user domains, or
MUDS, where they assume fictional identities in role-playing games. But
studies are showing the social prices of online living. Psychologists have
already widely publicized their findings about people who are addicted to the
Internet.
6. Kraut and his co-researchers are perhaps the first to show how the Internet
affects people who log on regularly, but don't appear to be addicted to it. The
study included 169 individuals from 93 diverse households in Pittsburgh during
their first two years online. The team recorded each participant's Internet use
by employing custom-designed logging programs. They assessed each
participant's level of social involvement and psychological well-being before
they went online, and again a year or two later, using self-report measures.
7. Kraut and his team found a correlation between participants' level of Internet
use and their reports of social activity and happiness. As their use of the
Internet increased, the participants reported a decrease in the amount of social
support they felt and in the number of social activities they were involved in.
They also reported being more depressed and lonelier.
A poor substitute
8. In their research, Kraut, Kiesler and their peers found several examples of
people who developed seemingly valuable friendships online:
- A woman exchanged mittens with a stranger she met on a knitting group.
- A woman met a couple in Canada, whom she later visited during her summer
vacation.
- A teenager met a person to date online.
9. But national survey data show that only 22 percent of people who had been
using the Internet for two or more years had ever made a new friend on the
Internet. Not surprisingly, those friendships tend to be of low quality. 'You don't
have to deal with unpleasantness, because if you don't like somebody's
behavior, you can just log off,' says Kiesler. 'In real life, relationships aren't
always easy. Yet, dealing with some of those hard parts is good for us. It helps
us keep connected with people. Also, the kinds of people you meet online don't
really know you,' she adds. 'If you need surgery, or you have something wrong
in your family, they're not around, they're not there for you.'
Recognizing the consequences
10. Like many technologies, the Internet has captivated people with its novelty
and convenience, but it has also created a sense of dependency and has some
troubling social consequences, states Allen Kanner, PhD, a Californian
psychologist who teaches at the Wright Institute and other graduate schools.
Kanner says he's glad somebody is looking at the Internet's impact, noting that
behaviorists produced minimal data on the social effects of the television, the
phone or the car until those technologies were heavily embedded into our lives.
11. But others warn against overemphasizing the negative aspects of
technology. Like any technology, the World Wide Web can lead to good or bad
behaviors, says John Grohol, PsyD, creator of Mental Health Net
(www.cmhc.com/). He believes it provides some vital societal benefits, such as
the large number of online self-help groups. 'Those are especially important in
small communities that are not big enough to sustain a support group', he adds.
'Such groups allow those people to get connected, and to share advice.'
Another example of the Internet's social utility is a Public Electronic Network
(P.E.N.) set up in Santa Monica, Calif., which was founded in order to help
residents in the community, including the poor and the homeless to access the
network, and to form action groups. For instance, one of the group's biggest
accomplishments was developing a service center for job-seeking homeless
people.
The right balance
12. Many psychologists say behavioral research should demonstrate ways to
find a healthy balance between time spent online and time spent talking with
family and friends in person. Thus, people could integrate their online and inperson lives by calling or getting together with friends they have met online,
suggests John Suler, PhD, who studies online behavior as a psychology
professor at Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J.
13. Kraut says he is trying to incorporate that balance in his own community.
He's proposing that his local school and synagogue create electronic
communication forums for students to discuss homework assignments, make
plans for social gatherings or even receive online tutoring. However, Kraut has
limited his teen-age son's time online.
14. But he is also seeing the ways the Internet can enhance family connections.
‘Although every member of our family spends time online rather than doing
things with each other, we also keep up with our son who lives away from home
at college. When he needs to know how to cook something, he gets the
directions electronically.'