UKNM: 'higher levels of depression and loneliness'

[Steve Bowbrick]

I found this article (snipped below) rather disquieting. Can't understand

why it hasn't been picked up elsewhere. Researchers in the respected Human

Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon have done some quite

credible research with a group of Pittsburgh residents indicating that the

relationships we form online may be qualitatively different from real world

ones - more ephemeral, less supportive - leading to 'higher levels of

depression and loneliness' and 'a decline in psychological well-being'.


The sample was not random but large enough (169 individuals) to warrant

attention. The researchers acknowledged the need for further research.

Predictably, research sponsors like Intel are less than happy with the

unexpectedly gloomy results.


Full story in the NYT archive (and at Carnegie Mellon's site


http://homenet.andrew.cmu.edu/Progress/index.html ).


Steve


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NY Times August 30, 1998, Sunday 


Sad, Lonely World Discovered in Cyberspace 


By AMY HARMON 

In the first concentrated study of the social and psychological effects of

Internet use at home, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have found

that people who spend even a few hours a week on line experience higher

levels of depression and loneliness than if they used the computer network

less frequently. 


Participants who were lonelier and more depressed, as determined by

standard questionnaires at the start of the two-year study, were no more

drawn to the Internet than those who were originally happier and more

socially engaged. Instead, Internet use itself appeared to cause a decline

in psychological well-being, the researchers said. 


--snip--

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Steve Bowbrick                                      Webmedia Group

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