A famous study published in 2006 by the American Sociological Review[1] stated that people had an ever smaller circle of people with whom they could discuss important things. In 2006, 80% of respondents said they confide only to their families whereas 20 years ago the figure was just 56%. Of course the mainstream media rushed to blame the internet and social networks for killing relationships between people. Hollywood has begun to develop disaster scenarios where people ony talk through avatars or clones, and only Bruce Willis can save the humanity.Another study[2] from November 2009 published by the Pew Internet Center, an American "fact thank", explains that the people who can discuss important matters with an extensive and varied networks are also fans of internet and mobile phones. The study shows that regular users of online social networks like Facebook or Twitter, are more likely to communicate with people from different social classes, different backgrounds ... and so they have more ties, outside their families, within their network (15% for fans of internet and 19% for the followers of instant messaging).
The finding is the same for the mobile phone: regular users have more relatives (+15%) and friends (25%) to confide in than non-regular users. And their real-life contacts are still more important than virtual contacts: on average, they meet their friends 210 days a year, call them 195 days a year, send them Text Messages 125 days a year, send them emails 72 days per year and contact them by instant messaging 55 days per year. Contacts through social networks are made only 39 days per year.
The emergence of new trends like Real Time Web or Location Based Social Networks does not contradict these results, quite the contrary. The study also showed that Internet addicts and social networks did not remain hidden behind their screens at home with headphones and a can of Coke, but used the Internet in public places (parks, cafes, restaurants). They are just as likely to meet their neighbors and friends as the contemplative philosopher with his book. The only difference is that they use internet as a real time means to keep in touch with their mates or their followers, something they could not do before.
It has nothing to do with an alleged deterioration of relationships between people, it is simply the birth of a new form of communication that did not exist before and which perfectly complements the traditional way of interacting with others.
Romain David
[1] McPherson, Smith-Lovin and Brashears: Social Isolation in America : Changes in Core Discussion Networks over Two Decades, American Sociological Review (2006) http://www.asanet.org/galleries/default-file/June06ASRFeature.pdf
[2] Hampton, Sessions and Ja Her, Social Isolation and New Technology, the Pew internet & American Life Project (2009) http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/18--Social-Isolation-and-New-Technology.aspx
1 comment:
You and Kristin Buettner should have a debate. Read her post just under yours.
You bring up a big subject. Congratulations for doing so. But big subjects need big arguments, something shown by the many antecedents of the ASR study (Fischer, Granovetter, Putnam, just to name a few.) I also have a bit of an issue with you using the Pew study in opposition to the ASR one, as it deals more with the quantity, or type, of communication than the quality, which the sociologists are talking about. I'm not saying you were wrong to choose the two; you just need to develop the arguments more, as there are so many possible interpretations.
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