Study: Internet use leads to more diverse networks

[joebartels]

Nov 4, 2:28 PM (ET)
By BARBARA ORTUTAY

NEW YORK (AP) - A new study confirms what your 130 Facebook friends and scores of Twitter followers may have already told you: The Internet and mobile phones are not linked to social isolation.

Online activities such as e-mail, blogging and frequenting Internet hangouts can even lead to larger, more diverse social networks, according to the study released Wednesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The study refutes research earlier in the decade suggesting that people's growing embrace of technology has come at the expense of close human connections.

"Social isolation has not changed that much since 1985," said Keith Hampton, the main author of the study professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication. This means that very few adults - 6 percent of the population - say they have no one to talk to about important matters in their lives.

The 2008 survey of 2,512 adults did find that Americans' core discussion networks - that group of people you count on being able to confide in - has gotten smaller in the past two decades. It's down, on average, to about two people instead of three. They've also become less diverse because they contain fewer friends and more family members.

This trend, however, was not linked to the use technology. It's not the Internet's fault you have fewer good friends.

The Internet also hasn't pulled people away from public places like parks, cafes and restaurants - just the opposite.

The study, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points and accounted for differences because of age, education and other factors, also found that people now tend to use cell phones more than landlines to stay in touch with closest family and friends.

In fact, people now text these close friends and family members as much as they use traditional landline phones, about 125 days out of the year.

Face-to-face contact is still the primary way people keep in touch. The average person sees each member in their close group of confidants 210 days out of the year. If they have a cell phone, they call each person in that group on 195 days.

Another interesting tidbit: Users of social networking Web sites are 40 percent more likely to visit a bar, but 36 percent less likely to visit a religious institution than those who shun Facebook, MySpace and the like.

[Jeffshadows]

HAZ is my Facebook....

[hippiepunkpirate]

Users of social networking Web sites are 40 percent more likely to visit a bar, but 36 percent less likely to visit a religious institution than those who shun Facebook, MySpace and the like.

I don't care for bars OR religious institutions. I prefer trails. Go figure.

[JoelHazelton]

Yeah, I don't care for bars or churches either, although, I've been to more of the former than the latter.

[te_wa]

"Social isolation has not changed that much since 1985

but, in 1985 there was a very ferocious and imperative movement, when Punk music was at its peak/precipice and social isolation was at the center of attention. Dont believe me? Listen to the works of Black Flag or Husker Du, Circle Jerks or any other mid 80's band that was worth its weight in salt (in other words, still talked about)
i see tons of people on the bus, at the store, in the post office and in forums that chatter their lives away meaninglessly on cell phones and totally ignore the 10-30 people surrounding them at any given moment. So im my opinion, social isolation is not only socially accepted, its almost enforced while we remain confused, isolated and fearful.
its no wonder why people go to church. I prefer wilderness, thank you very much.

[Jeffshadows]

The te-wa avatar keeps getting better and better

[dysfunction]

In response to te-wa:
The part that I find humorous is that the arguments, complaints, and comments on the social condition of the time are still equally relevant. In other words, perhaps even we learned nothing. Or, perhaps the end message of SLC Punk was correct, we were all poseurs anyway

[hippiepunkpirate]

Or, perhaps the end message of SLC Punk was correct, we were all poseurs anyway

It's funny you guys took this in a punk direction. While we're on the subject, I'd like share a bit of my experience:

I was around 16, 17 and 18 when I really got into punk rock. I found messages in the music that really hit home. It was about that time I picked up a guitar and started to play music, and I was also doing a lot of poetic and humorous writing. I would venture to say those late teenage years were an incredibly creative time in my life. I also found an incredible amount of joy in making fashion statements. I wanted to look different and unique to show I wasn't just another American consumer mindlessly following whatever popular fashions corporations deemed appropriate. Being that punk rock held the ideals I could most relate to at the time, my fashion statements were definitely in a punk rock style. However, my fashion statements were also another creative outlet. What I wore was a direct expression of who I was, or at least who I thought I was. The first element of my style was a tie made of duct tape. From a time when I was 16 until just past my 19th birthday, I wore the duct tape tie everyday. It was my MO in high school. If you didn't know my name, you knew me as "The Kid with the Duct Tape Tie". For a while I even had a clothes hanger rigged in it so I could bend it upward "Dilbert" style. I also bought flannel jackets and such and would sew patches on them. They weren't your typical silk-screened patches, they were home-made. I would cut up old white t-shirts and write on the pieces with sharpie. Sometimes I would draw band logos. Others had song lyrics. Others had phrases I wrote that usually expressed some sort of social or political opinion. I had four different jackets, all covered with homemade patches. An uncountable amount of hours of drawing, writing, sewing and personal expression went into those jackets. I was very proud of them. During that time, I felt a lot of pride in who I was. I also felt a lot of pride in being "punk". I felt like I was part of something greater. I felt like I was part of a group of people that felt the same way about the world, about life, about the human existence.

Those feelings would change one night when I was 18. I went to punk shows frequently during that time. I went a show one night in the December of 2004, with my friend's Tig and Taffer (those are nicknames, if you couldn't guess), who didn't really dress punk at all. The show we went to wasn't really punk either, but there were definitely a lot of punk kids there because they liked the band. It was the Surgeon Generals, by the way. An awesome band from Chandler that no longer exists. They sounded like Social Distortion mixed with old-school Metallica. I miss them. Anyway, the show was at the 111 on South San Francisco Street in Flag. Afterward, my friends and I went a couple doors down to what was then called the Long Days Cafe. We were hanging out, relaxing when this tall, hefty punk rocker walked by and made a sarcastic comment about my attire. I had an Old Navy flip-flop hanging from my jacket; with white-out I had X-ed out the Old Navy logo and wrote "Stop corporate over-taking, support local scenes". His comment was along the lines of, "Nice pumpkin sandal". My friends both didn't catch the comment and asked me what he said. I quietly repeated it for them when he turned around and yelled, "What?" Obviously he wanted trouble with me because he thought I was a "poser". A waitress popped out of nowhere before he could confront us and told him to knock it off. We quickly got up and left.

That whole experience changed my perspective. I still love the messages and the music, but I lost a lot of faith in the whole punk scene. I didn't go to punk shows to be judged by people who though they were more punk than me. I guess I was a more superficial than I am now. I think I felt like an outcast and wanted to feel accepted, and I happened to relate to punk rock at the time. That exchange at the Long Days Cafe made me realize that I didn't need the punk scene. I can drive around in my car and listen to Operation Ivy and Social Distortion and still feel the same connection to the music. No matter how much self-expression I put into it, I was still following a punk fashion. As it turned out, I realized that wasn't any better than wearing Old Navy (my girlfriend worked at Old Navy for 2 years so now I have a lot of their clothes ). Maybe my participation in the punk scene was to try to evade social isolation. It backfired. Now I'm at the point in my life every waking moment is spent wishing I could go for a hike and engage in social isolation!

[te_wa]

well, i could've taken it in a metal direction too.. listen to VoiVod's "killing technology" for a sample

[hippiepunkpirate]

well, i could've taken it in a metal direction too.. listen to VoiVod's "killing technology" for a sample

Never heard of VoiVod. How about Metallica's "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)"?

[JoelHazelton]

Great story HPP. Hindsight is 20-20.

I was never into the punk thing, but I definitely thought I identified with that whole "skater" scene. Ugh. I was free advertisement for so many huge companies, as I would dump boatloads of money into overpriced shirts, hats, decks, stickers, etc. We'd film and make videos (which actually turned out quite good) and have petty little feuds with other "crews" . It was when I started hiking that I finally realized how ridiculous it all was and dropped all my ties with skateboarding. No more flaky friends, pissed off security guards or wasted gas driving to "skate spots."

I find that, although it's fun to have hobbies or passions, getting too involved in any "scene" only results in pretentious a-holes and drama. Hiking is much better. No "scene" required.

[hippiepunkpirate]

Great story HPP. Hindsight is 20-20.

I was never into the punk thing, but I definitely thought I identified with that whole "skater" scene. Ugh. I was free advertisement for so many huge companies, as I would dump boatloads of money into overpriced shirts, hats, decks, stickers, etc. We'd film and make videos (which actually turned out quite good) and have petty little feuds with other "crews" . It was when I started hiking that I finally realized how ridiculous it all was and dropped all my ties with skateboarding. No more flaky friends, pissed off security guards or wasted gas driving to "skate spots."

I find that, although it's fun to have hobbies or passions, getting too involved in any "scene" only results in pretentious a-holes and drama. Hiking is much better. No "scene" required.

I did a lot of skateboarding in high school too, which probably led me into the punk scene . I still ride my skateboard to class from time to time, actually. It's hard to shake the rust off, though. I'll probably never skate as much as I did when I was a teenager because for a while I had friends that wanted to go skate everyday. Now it would be far easier to find hiking buddies, but also I enjoy hiking solo and with friends, while skateboarding is kind of boring by yourself. I don't think I'll ever get bored of a good skate video though! I haven't dropped all ties with skateboarding (or punk rock for that matter), but I can definitely say that hiking maintains my interest a heck of a lot more.