RE: UKNM: 'higher levels of depression and loneliness'

[Mat Morrison]

1) saw this reported in MegaStar yesterday (sad, but must be true)


2) CMU developed Lycos -- the world's most depressing s.e.


3) PITTSburgh? doesn't that say it all, really?


4) The researchers handed out Macs. I used a Mac for years. I, too, would be

depressed.


5) Research based entirely on "families" and interaction amongst families.

No research done on young adults, empty nesters, grey pop.,  young kids etc,


5 a) Teenagers in many families came on-line during research. Remember that

angst and inability to communicate are prerequisite functions of

post-pubescence.


I'm being flip, but I don't like this kind of ivory-tower self-selecting,

localised, predetermined result-in-mind-based research at all. Plus -- would

there have been a hoohah if they'd come up with anything positive?



Will show report to our research manager.


> -----Original Message-----

>

From: Steve Bowbrick [stevewebmedia [dot] com (mailto:stevewebmedia [dot] com)]

> Sent: Thursday, September 03, 1998 1:16 PM

> To: UKNM

> Subject: UKNM: 'higher levels of depression and loneliness'

> 

> 

> 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


---


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--

--

Steve Bowbrick                                      Webmedia Group

0171 494 3177                                         0468 257 570





http://www.webmedia.com/steve

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