Last month, Pew Research Center released a report titled Social Networking Sites and Our Lives. How do social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter affect our relationships? Do they isolate us? Or are there benefits associated with being connected to others online through social networks? These are the questions the study sought to answer.
The answers are interesting and worth a look. Here are some of the conclusions drawn from the telephone survey of some 2,000 Americans conducted in late fall of 2010:
- Facebook users are more trusting than others. A Facebook user who uses the site multiple times a day is 43% more likely than other Internet users and three times as likely as a non-Internet user (yes, they are still out there) to feel that most people can be trusted. (Fascinating!)
- Facebook users have more close relationships. The average American has 2.16 people they can turn to to discuss important stuff. Frequent Facebook users? They average 9% more close, core ties in their overall social network compared to regular, non-Facebook Internet users.
- Social networking sites are increasingly used to keep up with close social ties. Forty percent of those surveyed say they have friended all of their closest confidants, a substantial increase from the 29% of users who reported the same thing in 2008.
- MySpace users are more likely to be open to opposing points of view. The ability to consider multiple points of view, or perspective taking, was measured. Only users of MySpace had higher scores than those of average adults. (Fascinating!)
The findings from the Pew Research survey suggests that, rather than isolating and truncating meaningful human relationships, online social networks might do the opposite – and not just in a “I now have 523 friends” kind of way.
This increased connection and trust from social networks, offers an interesting contrast to a study conducted by Sherry Turkle, MIT social psychologist. Her new book, Alone Together is based on reviews of other studies and interviews with 300 children and 150 adults. It argues almost the exact opposite of the Pew study. People who devote significant time to their online connections are more isolated than ever in their non-virtual lives, leading to emotional disconnection, mental fatigue and anxiety.
“The most dramatic change is our ability to be ‘elsewhere’ at any point in time,” Turkle says. “To sidestep what is difficult, what is hard in a personal interaction and go to another place where it does not have to be dealt with.”
What then, to make of these conflicting reports?
The two studies, one from Pew, the other Turkle’s, seem to describe two sides of a single coin, which for me isn’t surprising when I consider my own use of social networks. I can sense feelings of social connectedness both online and off and of isolation as well. Sometimes, at the same time. I suppose the ability to be ‘elsewhere’, an affordance of online social networks, can be a blessing and a curse. Depending, of course, on where one happens to be at the moment and the possible alternatives.
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