Changing their minds (as usual), scientists now assure us that frequent Internet usage is not a depressant.

They were not referring specifically to Unk's.

However, they remain convinced that Internet abuse will stimulate hair growth in the palms of your hands.

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07/23/2001 - USA Today

Study: Net use doesn't increase depression, after all

By Marilyn Elias

Using the Internet at home doesn't make people more depressed and lonely after all.

A new, longer follow-up from a study that linked Web use to poor mental health — heavily publicized three years ago — shows that most bad effects have disappeared.

"Either the Internet has changed, or people have learned to use it more constructively, or both," says the study leader, psychologist Robert Kraut of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

The earlier findings were doubted by some scientists, who criticized the lack of a control group and failure to randomly select participants, steps that would have ruled out causes other than the Net for the depression.

But Kraut stands by his earlier report, which tracked adults and teens in 93 households for their first 12 to 18 months online. His key finding: The more time people spent on the Net, the more lonely and depressed they became.

The follow-up looked at participants two to three years after first going online. Using the Internet no longer could be linked to depression or loneliness, but it continued to correlate with greater stress.

Kraut thinks the Net has become a more social place since the study began in 1995. More families and friends use e-mail or instant messaging, and support groups have flourished. "People may be stressed because it's just another thing on their to-do list," he says.

Extroverts may benefit more than introverts from going online, Kraut adds. He has a new study looking at how online activity affected 446 people. One year after the study began:

• For extroverts, Net use was tied to better mood, less loneliness and higher self-esteem.

• For introverts, the more time online, the lonelier and more unhappy they became. Compared with extroverts, they used the Net more for entertainment and less for social contact.

The findings on introverts are "counterintuitive," says Jeffrey Cole, director of the UCLA Center for Communication Policy. "Introverts can be more comfortable online because nobody's judging them. It gives you a cover," he says.

His recent survey of 2,000 U.S. households found that Net use increased social contact. It also found that online users watched 28% less TV than those who weren't online.

The findings on introverts aren't surprising, says Vanderbilt University psychologist Donna Hoffman, an expert on e-commerce. People are "going to use computers in a predictable way, based on the kind of person they are."

The Net "is a neutral tool," says San Diego psychologist Marlene Maheu, "neither bad nor good."

Often, new Internet users are online a lot. "Just like when you first get your driver's license as a teenager, you want to drive around constantly. But the novelty wears off, and then it's not an obsession."

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), July 27, 2001