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

[timh]

By a strange quirk of fate I received this while working remotely

from a hotel balcony in Amalfi.


>From the position of being...

a) Able to work this way and...

b) being on the outside of a fine Risotto Pescatori..

...I can safely say I'm pretty undepressed.


OTOH I could just be in denial.


Tim

--------------Replied message--------------

Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1998 10:57:50 +0100

From: Mat Morrison <

matt [dot] morrisonbmpinteraction [dot] com

>

To: "

'uk-netmarketingchinwag [dot] com

'" <uk-

netmarketingchinwag [dot] com

>

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


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

stevewebmedia [dot] com (mailto:stevewebmedia [dot] com)

http://www.bowbrick.com - he's very advanced for his age...