[Air-l] How is the Internet bad for us?

[Ledbetter, Andrew Michael]

Another topic (though controversial) that comes to mind is social isolation: does Internet use/overuse cause depression/loneliness/lack of social competence, and if so for whom, under what conditions, etc. Some of the readings in The Internet and Everyday Life address this (i.e., Nie, Hillygus, & Erbing; Quan-Haase, Wellman, Witte, & Hampton).
 
Some cites on this issue as it applies to children that I recently used:
 

Beebe, T. J., Asche, S. E., Harrison, P. Q., & Quinlan, K. B. (2004). Heightened vulnerability and increased risk-taking among adolescent chat room users: Results from a statewide school survey. Journal of Adolescent Health, 35, 116-123.

Donchi, L., & Moore, S. (2004). It’s a boy thing: The role of the Internet in young people’s psychological wellbeing. Behaviour Change, 21, 76-89.

Heitner, E. I. (2002). The relationship between use of the Internet and social development. Dissertation Abstracts International, 63, 09B: p. 4371.

 

And providing evidence against "Internet causes/is concurrent with social isolation" claims:

 

Gross, E. F. (2004). Adolescent Internet use: What we expect, what teens report. Applied Developmental Psychology, 25, 633-649.

Hu, Y, Wood, J. F., Smith, V., Westbrook, N. (2004). Friendships through IM: Examining the relationship between instant messaging and intimacy. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 10. Accessed April 27, 2005 from http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol10/issue1/hu.html.

Leung, L. (2001). College student motives for chatting on ICQ. New Media & Society, 3, 483-500.

Merchant, G. (2001). Teenagers in cyberspace: An investigation of language use and language change in internet chatrooms. Journal of Research in Reading, 24, 293-306.

 

Andrew M. Ledbetter

Ph.D student, University of Kansas