Re: Internet causes loneliness

Joseph M. Reagle Jr. (reagle@MIT.EDU)
Mon, 31 Aug 1998 09:52:27 -0400

At 11:38 AM 8/30/98 -0700, Mike Masnick wrote:
>A two-year, $1.5-million study by researchers at Carnegie Mellon
University,
>funded by the National Science Foundation and major technology companies,
>has concluded that Internet use appears to cause a decline in psychological
>well-being.

>clear how the findings apply to the general population, but a RAND
>Corporation senior scientist says, "They did an extremely careful
>scientific study, and it's not a result that's easily ignored." (New York
>Times 30 Aug 98)

CMU is also the place where the Rimm "Porn is Everywhere" study was done and
was the basis of Time's Net Porn coverage. Also, I haven't seen it myself,
but the little blurbs do nothing to assure the reader they are not fallying
prey to a common causal fallacy. (The Net may not cause loneliness, rather
people that are already lonely may turn to the Net.) Haven't seen the full
report myself though...

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