Life in the Internet age is lonely—or is it? That's what experts in human interaction(交往) are debating(争论) after a new Stanford University survey has been published.
According to the study, the more time people spend online, the less they can spare for reallife relationships with family and friends. The researchers asked 113 people about the Web's influence on daily activities. 36% of those people are online for more than five hours a week. "As Internet use becomes more widespread, it will have an increasingly isolating(孤立的) effect on society," says Robert Kraut, one of the researchers.
Scholars (学者)and Web lovers criticized (批评) the study for stretching its data to make the "isolating" point. While 13% of regular Web users admitted the loss of time with loved ones, 60% reported watching less TV. The survey also shows that email is the most popular online activity. If some of webheads(网虫) spend what was once passive TV time keeping company with friends via emails, "that's a move towards greater connectedness," says Paul Resnick, a professor at the University of Michigan.
This isn't the first claim that the Web should be criticized. A 1998 report monitored 73 Pittsburgh-area families' Net use for a year. People who used the Internet more "talked less to family members and reported being lonelier and more depressed," says Robert Kraut.
"It's true that there have been big declines in social connectedness over the past decades, but those declines began before the Internet was invented," says Thomas Putnam.
As Amitay Etzioni says, the Internet gives us a different kind of social life—not better or worse than before, but just different.
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