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Internet use can contribute to depression, The more hours people spend on the Internet, the more depressed, stressed, and lonely they feel, according to a groundbreaking study that surprised its authors. Internet use had the same effect even for people who spent most of their time in such special activities as chat rooms or exchanging e-mail, said the study headed by Robert Kraut, a social psychology professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Sociable users ended up feeling just as isolated as users who spent more time crawling the Web for information, said Kraut. One reason for the negative effect may have been that using the Internet left less time for the deeper relationships of friends and family, Kraut suggested. "People are substituting weaker social ties for stronger ones," he said. "They’re substituting conversations on narrower topics with strangers for conversations with people who are connected to their life." It was the first study to examine the emotional impact of people’s Internet use over time, Kraut said. The findings contradicted the researchers’ expectation that Internet use would foster social contact, especially through e-mail and chat rooms. Kraut and his colleagues followed 93 Pittsburgh-area families for two years. The families were given computers, phone lines, and use of the Internet at no charge, in return for agreeing to fill out occasional questionnaires. The true-false questionnaires included such statements as "I can’t find companionship when I want it," "I felt that everything I did was an effort," and "I felt I could not shake off the blues, even with the help from my family and friends." Participants’ level of depression and loneliness were measured at the start of the study. At the end of the two years, researchers found they could predict changes in an individual’s emotional state according to the number of hours spent on the Internet. The reverse was not true. "Depression and loneliness doesn’t predict subsequent use of the Internet," Kraut said. The $1.5 million study was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Markle Foundation and 13 computer, software, and communications companies. |
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