Thursday, February 17, 2000
Net increases isolation, study asserts
USA Today
PALO ALTO, Calif. — The more time people spend online, the more socially isolated they become, according to a controversial study released Thursday.
About 40 percent of Internet users reported spending five or more hours a week online.
Of those users, 8 percent reported attending fewer social events, 13 percent spent less time with friends and family, and 26 percent spent less time visiting on the phone. “One in 10 have reduced the amount of time they spend doing things outside the home. You sit down at 7:30 to do one little thing, and at 10 o'clock you look up and say, "My God, where has the evening gone?'” said Norman Nie of the Stanford Institute for Quantitative Study of Society. He conducted the study with Lutz Erbring of the Free University of Berlin. Researchers interviewed 4,113 U.S. adults in 2,689 households.
Not everyone agrees with Mr. Nie's interpretations. Of all Net users, 4.3 percent of those interviewed said the Net had changed the amount of time they spend at events; 3.1 percent said it had increased, and 74.7 percent said it was unchanged. Five percent said time online had increased family interaction, 7.1 percent said it had decreased, and 71 percent reported no change.
Those numbers are not statistically significant, said Donna Hoffman, a researcher at Vanderbilt University.
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