Study: Blogs, social media decrease social isolation
This is the kind of thing one would think would be self-evident, but there’s a persistent backlash against social media that claims that people are less connected to other people if they use social media, having replaced “real” relationships with virtual ones.
Now a new survey from the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project says that, no, it turns out that people using social media are social — and are more social, in some ways, than those who don’t. (Cell phone usage is also included in the poll, suggesting that there are some real Luddites out there that the Pew was trying to test the theses of.)
From the Pew Research Center’s summary:
The new findings from the Pew Internet & American Life Project show that, on average, the size of people’s discussion networks – those with whom people discuss important matters– is 12% larger amongst mobile phone users, 9% larger for those who share photos online, and 9% bigger for those who use instant messaging. The diversity of people’s core networks – their closest and most significant confidants – tends to be 25% larger for mobile phone users, 15% larger for basic internet users, and even larger for frequent internet users, those who use instant messaging, and those who share digital photos online.
Social media activities are associated with several beneficial social activities, including having discussion networks that are more likely to contain people from different backgrounds. For instance, frequent internet users, and those who maintain a blog are much more likely to confide in someone who is of another race. Those who share photos online are more likely to report that they discuss important matters with someone who is a member of another political party
Of course, that includes the sinking realization that someone you knew in high school has apparently gone completely nuts in the intervening years, but I guess it’s preferable to find that out online, rather than in your dining room.
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