Internet Paradox ; A Social Technology That Reduces Social Involvement and Psychological Well-Being?
apa.org
written in September 1998 by Kraut, Patterson, Lundmark, Kiesler, Mukopadhyay, and Scherlis. American Psychologist, Vol. 53, No. 9, 1998, pp1017-1031.
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abstract:
The Internet could change the lives of average citizens as much as did the telephone in the early part of the 20th century and television in the 1950s and 1960s. Researchers and social critics are debating whether the Internet is improving or harming participation in community life and social relationships. This research examined the social and psychological impact of the Internet on 169 people in 73 households during their first 1 to 2 years on-line. We used longitudinal data to examine the effects of the Internet on social involvement and psychological well-being. In this sample, the Internet was used extensively for communication. Nonetheless, greater use of the Internet was associated with declines in participants' communication with family members in the household, declines in the size of their social circle, and increases in their depression and loneliness. These findings have implications for research, for public policy, and for the design of technology.
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Some scholars argue that the Internet is causing people to become socially isolated and cut off from genuine social relationships, as they hunker alone over their terminals or communicate with anonymous strangers through a socially impoverished medium. Others argue that the Internet leads to more and better social relationships by freeing people from the constraints of geography or isolation brought on by stigma, illness, or schedule. According to them, the Internet allows people to join groups on the basis of common interests rather than convenience.
We show that within a diverse sample during their first year or two on-line, participants' Internet use led to their having, on balance, less social engagement and poorer psychological well-being.
Like watching television, using a home computer and the Internet generally imply physical inactivity and limited face-to-face social interaction. Some studies, including our own, have indicated that using a home computer and the Internet can lead to increased skills and confidence with computers. However, when people use these technologies intensively for learning new software, playing computer games, or retrieving electronic information, they consume time and may spend more time alone.
Whether a typical relationship developed on-line becomes as strong as a typical traditional relationship and whether having on-line relationships changes the number or quality of a person's total social involvements are open questions. Empirical evidence about the impact of the Internet on relationships and social involvement is sparse.
Even if a cross-sectional survey were to convincingly demonstrate that Internet use is associated with greater social involvement, it would not establish the causal direction of this relationship.
experimental results: the most important finding is that greater use of the Internet was associated with subsequent declines in family communication.
Greater social extroversion and having a larger local social circle predicted less use of the Internet during the next 12 or 24 months. Whites reported increasing their distant social circles more than minorities did, and teens reported increasing their distant circles more than adults did; these groups did not differ in changes to their local circles.
initial loneliness did not predict subsequent Internet use. Loneliness was stable over time. People from richer households increased loneliness more than did those from poorer households, men increased loneliness more than did women, and minorities increased loneliness more than did Whites.
Initial depression did not predict subsequent Internet use. Minorities reported more increases in depression than did Whites, and those with higher initial stress also reported greater increases in depression. For the purposes of this analysis, the important finding is that greater use of the Internet was associated with increased depression at a subsequent period
conclusion: Greater use of the Internet was associated with small, but statistically significant declines in social involvement as measured by communication within the family and the size of people's local social networks, and with increases in loneliness, a psychological state associated with social involvement. Greater use of the Internet was also associated with increases in depression. Other effects on the size of the distant social circle, social support, and stress did not reach standard significance levels but were consistently negative.
The major threat to the causal claim would arise if some unmeasured factor varying over time within individuals were to simultaneously cause increases in their use of the Internet and declines in their normal levels of social involvement and psychological well-being. One such factor might be developmental changes in adolescence, which could cause teenagers to withdraw from social contact (at least from members of their families) and to use the Internet as an escape.
Although the evidence is strong that using the Internet caused declines in social participation and psychological well-being within this sample, we do not know how generalizable the findings are across people, time, or outcomes. . . . If the sample had consisted of those who were already isolated (e.g., homeless or elderly people), social interaction on the Internet might have increased social participation and psychological well-being rather than decreased them.
Several parents of teenagers who had spent many hours on-line judged that their children's positive educational outcomes from using the Internet outweighed possible declines in their children's social interaction.
Displacing social activity: The time that people devote to using the Internet might substitute for time that they had previously spent engaged in social activities.
Displacing strong ties: The paradox we observe, then, is that the Internet is a social technology used for communication with individuals and groups, but it is associated with declines in social involvement and the psychological well-being that goes with social involvement. Perhaps, by using the Internet, people are substituting poorer quality social relationships for better relationships, that is, substituting weak ties for strong ones
The interpersonal communication applications currently prevalent on the Internet are either neutral toward strong ties or tend to undercut rather than promote them. Because most websites, Usenet news groups, and listservs are topically organized, strangers are encouraged to read each others' messages and exchange communication on the basis of their common interests in soap operas, civil rights, stamp collecting, or other narrow topics. This communication is dominated by the designated topic, and people are frequently discouraged by social pressure from straying from the topic. Although some of these groups are formed explicitly to provide support, and a few even encourage real-world friendships and tangible help, these are relatively few in comparison to the thousands of groups focused on professional advice, hobbies, and entertainment.
More intense development and deployment of services that support preexisting communities and strong relationships should be encouraged. |
