As someone who works in the online dating industry, I have always found it a bit ironic that one of Social Psychology’s “greatest hits” when it comes to research on use of the internet has been that people who use the internet are more socially isolated. The ad agency JWT today released findings from a report that add fuel to this fire by suggesting that people would rather spend time on line than either face-to-face with their friends, or in bed with their lover!

Findings by researchers have fairly consistently shown that Internet use at home has a strong negative impact on time spent with friends and family as well as time spent on social activities (although, thankfully, internet use at work does not seem to be similarly implicated). These findings are seen as supporting a “displacement” theory of Internet use which posits that time spent online is an asocial activity that competes with, rather than complements, social activities in the “real world.”

Of course, it is not hard to cite anecdotal examples of how social activity on the internet has replaced face-to-face social activities in a qualitative rather than quantitative way. The MySpace generation may prefer interacting online, but is it a scientific observation or a moral judgment to say that this is an “asocial” activity? In addition, there is at least one other counterpoint to “antisocial internet” dogma. An article recently published in the journal CyberPsychology and Behavior has shown that shy people who want to find a partner may derive a greater benefit from using online dating sites than their non-shy counterparts.

Previous research has suggested that communicating via the internet can be more appealing than traditional forms of communication to people with social inhibitions. In addition to this, the authors of this new study found that individuals who indicated higher levels of shyness find that their online relationships grow more quickly and are more satisfying relative to others.

Based on my experience as a co-architect and administrator of a matchmaking site that has seen millions of users register, and tens of thousand of them find a marriage partner, my view is that whether the internet is socially constraining or socially liberating mostly depends on who you are, and what you want.

Further Reading:

Norman H. Nie and D. Sunshine Hillygus (2002) The Impact of the Internet Use of Sociability: Time-Diary Findings.

Miranda S. Sheeks, Zachary P. Birchmeier (2007) Shyness, Sociability, and the Use of Computer-Mediated Communication in Relationship Development. CyberPsychology & Behavior. 2007, 10(1): 64-70