2. Does the Internet improve social relationships and psychological well-being? Many studies have shown that TV and other media directly cause social disengagement and bad moods However, internet is used for many social purpose – email, newsgroups, chat rooms, blogs etc.
3. Assumptions If communication dominates Internet use for a majority of its users, there is good reason to expect that the Internet will have positive social impact. Communication, including contact with neighbors, friends, and family, and participation in social groups, improves people’s level of social support, their probability of having fulfilling personal relationships, their sense of meaning in life, their self-esteem, their commitment to social norms and their communities, and their psychological and physical well-being.
4. Positive social effects on individuals Internet permits social contact across time, distance, and personal circumstances It allows people to connect with distant as wells as local family and friends, co-workers, business contacts, and with strangers who share similar interests. Broad social access could increase people’s social involvement, as the telephone did in early time. The internet could also facilitate the formation of new relationships, social identity and commitment among otherwise isolated persons
5. Longitudinal study by Kraut The HomeNet field trial followed 93 households in their first 12-18 months online Internet usage records from surveys given just before the study and several months later Software recorded participant’s use of the Internet – hours online, email volume, and Web sites visited per week.
6. 4 measures of social involvement Time spent in family communication Size of local social network, Size of distant social network Perceived social support In addition 3 well-established measures of psychological well-being UCLA Loneliness Scale Daily Life Hassles Scale, a measure of daily-life stress Center for Epidemiological Studies’ Depression Scale
7. Hypothesis The internet would increase users’ social networks and the amount of social support to which they had access. Heavy internet users would be less lonely, have better mental health, and be less harmed by the stressful life events they experienced
8. Findings Reported high well-being at the start of the study Participants who used the Internet more heavily became less socially involved and more lonely than light users and reported an increase in depressive symptoms These changes occurred even though participants’ dominant use of the Internet was communication.
9. Controversial Findings No Control group without access to the Internet External events Attrition - could have been responsible for participant’s declines in social involvement
10. Follow up study Results showed Internet use was associated with declines in family communication Less people in participant’s local and distant circles Increase in loneliness, depressive symptoms, and daily-life stress.
11. The Quality of Online Social Relationships - Article Online relationships are less valuable than offline ones. Indeed, their net benefit depends on whether they supplement or substitute for offline social relationships.
12. Findings Less time with friends and family since going online, Among new internet users, online time diminished social involvement and psychological well being.
13. Conclusion However, in one-to-one comparisons, an email message is not as useful as a phone call or a face-to-face meeting for developing and sustaining social relationships. Relationships sustained primarily over the Internet are not as close as those sustained by other means.
14. Consequences of using the Internet for social relationships Depend not only on the quality of the relationships sustained using it, but on opportunity costs as well Examining people’s full set of social behavior and examining their full inventory of social ties can we assess the net social impact of online social relationships
15. Sharing the Gospel Online Use the internet to assist you in your current missionary efforts. Do not allow it to take the place of your face-to-face interactions and efforts Other thoughts?
16. And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order... Mosiah 4:27
