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Carnegie Mellon Study Reveals Negative Potential of Heavy Internet Use on
Emotional Well Being
PITTSBURGH--The Internet has the potential to make us socially isolated,
lonely and depressed, according to the unexpected results of a study of home
computer users by scientists at Carnegie Mellon University.
The findings are gathered from HomeNet, the first study to look specifically
at the impact that the Internet is having over time on the social
involvement and psychological well being of average Americans.
Published this month in The American Psychologist, a publication of the
American Psychological Association, the findings provide a consistent
picture of the downside of using the Internet extensively as a source of
information or setting for friendship and or social support.
"We were surprised to find that what is a social technology has such
anti-social consequences," says Robert Kraut, a professor of social
psychology and human computer interaction at Carnegie Mellon who is the lead
author of the article for The American Psychologist.
Even though people in the study heavily used electronic mail and other
communication services on the Internet, the research found that spending
time on the Internet was associated with later declines in talking among
family members, reductions in the number of friends and acquaintances they
kept up with, and increases in depression and loneliness.
Because the research studied the same people over time, it could rule out
the possibility that people who are initially socially isolated, lonely and
depressed were drawn to the Internet. Rather, according to Kraut, using the
Internet seems to cause isolation, loneliness and depression.
"Our results have clear implications for further research on personal
Internet use. As we understand the reasons for the declines in social
involvement, there will be implications for social policies and for the
design of Internet technology," he adds.
Various scientific and marketing reports say that more than 50 million
Americans are using the Internet, a number that is rapidly growing. Given
widespread use and with more growth expected, Kraut says the Internet could
change the lives of Americans as much as the telephone did in the early 20th
century or as television did in the 1950s and 1960s.
"We want to help make these changes good ones," he says.
HomeNet studied 169 personal computer users in Pittsburgh, whose
communications on the Internet were monitored during their first years
online. The home computer users are families with a wide range of
demographic backgrounds whose common bond was a high school age student or
membership in a community development group. The families used electronic
mail, the World Wide Web and computer games, among other normal home
computing uses. Time spent online varied a great deal among the subjects.
Members of the research team are part of Carnegie Mellon's Human-Computer
Interaction Institute and include Kraut and Sara Kiesler, a professor of
social and decision sciences; Tridas Mukophadhyay, a professor at Carnegie
Mellon's graduate business school; William Scherlis, a senior research
scientist and director of the Information Technology Center in the School of
Computer Science; Vicki Lundmark, a post-doctoral fellow, and Michael
Patterson, a graduate student in Social and Decision Sciences.
"We hope our findings help make things change on the Internet. We are not
talking about Internet addicts, just regular people," Kraut says. "These are
not just results that occur in the extremes. And these are the same people
who, when asked, describe the Internet as a positive thing."
The technology that has allowed people to keep in touch with distant family
members and friends, to find information quickly and to develop friendships
with people around the world apparently is also replacing vital, everyday
human communication.
"Many users may be substituting weak online friendships for their stronger,
real-life relationships," Kiesler says. "You don't have to deal with
unpleasantness, because if you don't like somebody's behavior, you can just
log off. 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."
Greater use of the Internet was associated with statistically significant
declines in the social involvement that Kiesler refers to. Decreases in
social involvement were indicated by a drop-off in communication within a
participant's families, the size of a person's social networks and reports
by participants of increases in loneliness and depression, psychological
states associated with reduced social involvement.
In all, the study uses data on 169 people in 73 families. A little over half
the subjects are female users, a quarter of them belong to minorities. The
subject pool also represents a fairly wide income range.
Of the different demographic groups, teenagers seem the most vulnerable to
potential negative effects. What's more, teenagers used the Internet for
more hours than did adults.
Mukhopadhyay offers the following advice to parents: "The basic objective is
to maintain open communication and to stay vigilant. As far as the computer
and Internet go, you can put the machine in a public place - in the living
room or kitchen rather than the basement or the kid's room. This will
automatically ensure that your teen does not use the Internet too much."
Carnegie Mellon's scientists believe the findings will spark a debate, not
only for Internet users and researchers, but also for government agencies
looking at growth of the Internet and for companies that write Internet
software.
Scherlis notes, "We are not branding the Internet as either socially good or
bad. The Internet is a complex and multi-faceted social phenomenon and it is
evolving rapidly. It was created more than 20 years ago for sharing
technical information among scientists. It's really only recently that the
Internet has become a public resource, and the average citizen who uses the
'Net has largely inherited this set of services. Our results show that there
may be real benefits from greater research and development to the broad area
of user level communication and information services. Both industry and
government can foster this growth through research into new services,
experimentation, evaluation and standards development."
The research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the Markle
Foundation, and a consortium of computer companies (Apple Computer, Hewlett
Packard, Intel, Panasonic), software companies (Lotus Development
Corporation, Interval Research), and communications companies (AT&T
Research, US Postal Service, Bell Atlantic, Bellcore, US West Advanced
Technologies, NTT, CNET) and others (NPD).