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Social Benefits Top Internet Drawbacks, Survey Finds

Date: Jul 06 2010
Author: Mark Long
Article ID: 1921

The positive social benefits of Internet use far outweigh any negative effects, according to a new survey of 900 technologists. According to researchers from Elon University and the Pew Research Center, 85 percent of the survey's respondents also said the Internet has improved their social relations and they expect this to continue through 2020.

Many respondents observed that the Internet allows people to create, cultivate and continue bigger social networks than they could maintain in pre-Internet days, noted researchers Janna Quitney Anderson and Lee Rainie.

"They say this is because e-mail, social networks, and other online tools offer 'low friction' opportunities to create, enhance and rediscover social ties that make a difference in people's lives," Anderson and Rainie said. "The Internet lowers traditional communication constraints of cost, geography and time, and it supports the type of open information sharing that brings people together."

Bridging Social Obstacles

Because of the Internet, geography is no longer a formidable social-networking obstacle, many respondents noted. "The use of the Internet has done a lot to shrink the actual distance between family and friends and allows an expansion to new cultural experiences," said Mindarrays Consulting CEO Tery Spataro. "The way we interact is always evolving and has impact on the drive for knowledge, understanding and communication."

Moreover, the Internet modifies traditional space so that existing places are extended in ways that allow us to "stay aware, share and intersect" with people not in the same traditional space, noted Zeynep Tufekci, an assistant professor at University of Maryland-Baltimore County.

"The Internet opens a door from the house into a potentially shared place," Tufekci said. "That does not mean that physical presence is not important in relationships," but a "lack of physical presence is not the fault of the Internet."

Never before has a person had more opportunity...Read the entire article...

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