Minichan

On no issue has research on the social effects of the Internet been more contentious than as to its effect on close relationships, such as those with family and friends. Two studies that received considerable media attention were the HomeNet project by Kraut et al. (1998) and the large-scale survey reported by Nie & Erbring (2000; also Nie 2001). Both reports concluded that Internet use led to negative outcomes for the individual user, such as increases in depression and loneliness, and neglect of existing close relationships. However, nearly all other relevant studies and surveys—including a follow up of the HomeNet sample by Kraut and his colleagues—reached the opposite conclusion.

Kraut et al. (1998) followed a convenience sample of Pittsburgh residents and their families who as of the mid 1990s did not yet have a computer in the home. The researchers gave these families a computer and Internet access, and then found after a two-year period a reliable but small increase in reported depression and loneliness as a function of the amount of Internet use. However, a later follow-up study of the same sample (Kraut et al. 2002) revealed that these negative effects had disappeared, and instead across nearly all measures of individual adjustment and involvement with family, friends, and community, greater Internet use was associated with positive psychological and social outcomes. For example, the more hours the average respondent spent on the Internet, the more (not less) time he or she also spent face-to-face with family and friends.

In their press release, Nie & Erbring (2000) reported data from a U.S. nationwide survey of approximately 4000 people, and concluded from those data that heavy Internet use resulted in less time spent with one's family and friends. On the surface, this would seem to contradict the Kraut et al. (2002) conclusions (and those of the studies reviewed below), but a closer look at the actual findings removes the apparent contradiction. These reveal that over 95% of Nie & Erbring's (2000) total sample did not report spending any less time with family and friends because of their Internet use; moreover, even among the heaviest users, 88% reported no change in time spent with close others.

Several other national surveys have found either that Internet users are no less likely than nonusers to visit or call friends on the phone, or that Internet users actually have the larger social networks (DiMaggio et al. 2001, p. 316). Howard et al. (2001) concluded from their large random-sample survey “the Internet allows people to stay in touch with family and friends and, in many cases, extend their social networks. A sizeable majority of those who send e-mail messages to relatives say it increases the level of communication between family members … these survey results suggest that on-line tools are more likely to extend social contact than detract from it” (p. 399). Wellman et al. (2001) similarly concluded from their review that heavy users of the Internet do not use e-mail as a substitute for face-to-face and telephone contact, but instead use it to help maintain longer distance relationships (Wellman et al. 2001, p. 450).

Nie (2001) has responded to his critics by arguing that time is a limited commodity, so that the hours spent on the Internet must come at a cost to other activities. “We would expect that all those spending more than the average of 10 hours a week on the Internet would report substantially fewer hours socializing with family members, friends, and neighbors. It is simply a matter of time” (p. 425). However, in the Nie & Erbring (2000) results, the real and substantial decrease associated with heavy Internet use was in watching television and reading newspapers, not in social interaction with friends and family.

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Overall, then, the evidence suggests that rather than being an isolating, personally and socially maladaptive activity, communicating with others over the Internet not only helps to maintain close ties with one's family and friends, but also, if the individual is so inclined, facilitates the formation of close and meaningful new relationships within a relatively safe environment.

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As noted above, Nie & Erbring (2000) argued that the Internet was creating a “lonely crowd” in cyberspace, because Internet use “necessarily” takes time away from family and friends. However, the evidence very consistently points in the opposite direction concerning the effect of Internet use on off-line community involvement. A random national survey by Katz et al. (2001) showed that the more time Internet users spent on-line, the more likely they were to belong to off-line religious, leisure, and community organizations, compared to nonusers (p. 412). Use of the Internet also was not associated with different levels of awareness of and knowledge about one's neighbors (p. 414).

In the Gross et al. (2002) study of California teenagers (described above), even the regular Internet users in their sample continued to spend most of their after-school time on traditional activities, many of which involved peer interaction (participating in clubs or sports, hanging out with friends). A 1998 survey of nearly 40,000 visitors to the National Geographic website similarly found that heavy Internet use was associated with greater levels of participation in voluntary organizations and politics (Wellman et al 2001, p. 436). Finally, Kavanaugh & Patterson (2001) concluded from the Blacksburg (Virginia) Electronic Village study “the longer people are on the Internet, the more likely they are to use the Internet to engage in social-capital-building activities” (p. 507). Thus, contrary to some well-publicized claims, Internet use does not appear to weaken the fabric of neighborhoods and communities.

- For most Americans, the time they spend with friends since they started using the Internet has, at a minimum, remained the same—some report an increase, only a few report a decrease (Center for the Digital Future, 2008; Katz & Aspden, 1997).

- The more people use the Internet, the more social contact they have with their friends (Cole & Robinson, 2002; Hampton et al., 2009; Howard, Rainie, & Jones, 2002; Kraut et al., 2002; Quan-Haase et al., 2002; Shklovski, Kiesler, & Kraut, 2006; Shklovski, Kraut, & Rainie, 2004).

- Rather than replacing in-person and telephone connectivity, the Internet adds to it by developing and maintaining ties between meetings, both local and long distance (Baym, Zhang, & Lin, 2004; Boase et al., 2006; Carrasco, Hogan, Wellman, & Miller, 2008; Cummings, Lee, & Kraut, 2006; Hampton et al., 2009; Hampton & Wellman, 2003; Mok, Wellman, & Carrasco, 2010;
Quan-Haase et al., 2002; Shklovski, Kraut, & Cummings, 2008).

- Compared to nonusers, Internet users may have more—and more diverse— friends than nonusers (Boase, et al., 2006; Hampton, et al., 2009). For example, a 2004 Pew survey about Americans’ socially close ties with friends and relatives showed that Internet users had a median of 37 in their networks, as compared with 30 for the nonusers, and the number of Americans relying on the Internet for major life decisions had increased by one-third since 2002 (Boase et al., 2006).