Every year we hear that people are spending more time on the internet. The big question is:
Where is that time coming from?
According to a new study, a lot of the time we spend online
The Annenberg Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California is reporting this week that 28 percent of Americans it interviewed last year said they have been spending less time with members of their households. That’s nearly triple the 11 percent who said that in 2006.
By sociological standards, this is an incredible statistical increase. And the trend seems to coincide with the rise of social networks over the same time period. And keep in mind, this study is based on a survey that was performed in April of 2008. That’s before Twitter really exploded.
The luddites will tell you that social networking is all bad. That’s clearly not the case (interestingly, the study indicated no dropoff in the amount of time spent with friends and the size of friend networks may be increasing). The addicts will tell you that social networks are the greatest form of communication since smoke signals. And if you were a former high school dork who suddenly found yourself with a half a million followers hanging on your every tweet, you’d probably feel the same way.
The truth is obviously somewhere in the gray area. I’ve used social networks to re-connect with students I taught at a high school in Brooklyn in the early nineties. And I’ve also ignored my kid while I was reading twelve Tweets about someone waiting for a delayed flight. When I control it, it’s clearly a great tool. When it controls me (and a quick perusal of my bio is living proof of its prowess in this regard) social connectivity can be horrendous. What this latest bit of data tells us is that we really need to pay close attention to the dramatic impact that this new mode of communication is having on the fabric of our families and communities.
