NYT: Internet Use Said to Cut Into TV Viewing and Socializing

[DeepModem Mom]

Internet Use Said to Cut Into TV Viewing and Socializing
By JOHN MARKOFF

Published: December 30, 2004


SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 29 - The average Internet user in the United States spends three hours a day online, with much of that time devoted to work and more than half of it to communications, according to a survey conducted by a group of political scientists.

The survey found that use of the Internet has displaced television watching and a range of other activities. Internet users watch television for one hour and 42 minutes a day, compared with the national average of two hours, said Norman H. Nie, director of the Stanford Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society, a research group that has been exploring the social consequences of the Internet....

***

A 2000 study by the researchers that reported increasing physical isolation among Internet users created a controversy and drew angry complaints from some users who insisted that time they spent online did not detract from their social relationships.

However, the researchers said they had now gathered further evidence showing that in addition to its impact on television viewing, Internet use has lowered the amount of time people spend socializing with friends and even sleeping....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/30/technology/30internet.html

[KlatooBNikto]

1. This is one more reason to love the Internets!

[Cooley Hurd]

2. Three hours a day? Pfft... newbie...

My laptop follows me around the house (yes, even into the john;))...

[gulfcoastliberal]

23. LOL

I love my laptop too.

[KansDem]

34. "(yes, even into the john;))..."

For that all-important "news flush" no doubt?

[gatorboy]

35. "News flush?" That's just another term for the Drudgereport. :)

n/t

[union_maid]

3. Yes on TV, but socializing is better

I don't watch TV anymore, it's true. Just the Daily Show, pretty much. I can hear the news from my desk. I don't see many movies, either. But my social life, although different, is much bigger and better since the arrival of those internets. I know people - in real life - who I have things in common with. It's been years now and our families know each other and we see each other a few times a year, since we don't all live in the same town or even the same state. It's different and there are trade-offs, but for myself, I much prefer things with the internets than without them.

[R Hickey]

4. I've cut down on TV news watching, since its all propaganda.

My news comes LBN. Sometimes I'll watch it on tv a day or two later. Mostly the TV skips over real news. I watch the "Daily Show," and "Now" on PBS, but that's about it.

[Khephra]

5. If people consider talking on the phone to be socializing

then communicating over computers is socializing as well.

I think this is just "Old Tech" people being hostile to new tech, to tell you the truth.

[Skittles]

24. yup

they underestimate the value of internet socializing, especially for those of us who in real life don't get too close to people and enjoy the inherent distance the internet affords us. :D

[sendero]

39. You'd get closer to more people...

... if you'd only stop kicking their ass! :)

[neweurope]

6. That'S why the Bushistas want to control the internet - because

people watch less TV and are less easily influenced by their propaganda.

[Bronco69]

9. Bingo!

They have to get the word out that not enough people are watching tv, so not enough of them can be brainwashed.

What's wrong with you people? Go back to your television citizen so that we may "enlighten" you! /sarcasm

[mhr]

16. TV Free For Three Years Now - It's Wonderful

Went to the library last night and checked out some of the X-Files episodes on DVD. Watched them on my computer. Thought to self, self isn't wonderful to watch the X-Files without commercials. Self agreed; it is wonderful. No TV, No Commercials, No Propaganda.

[Warren Stupidity]

19. over the holidays

I learned that two family members are now tv-free as well. This is a good thing. I like my HBO and Mr Stewart too much to give it up just yet. Plus HD sports is fabulous. I realized that about two years or so ago I was no longer watching ANY network news or 'entertainment'.

The socializing part is crap. What on earth is this that I am doing right now? What the hell is a chat room if it isn't 'socializing'? My youngest is IM'ing continuously with his peers. Recently he has taken to IM plus a side-bar phone conversation. That really bugs me, but I have no idea why. It isn't like I actually use the landline phone anymore.

Their view of socializing is going to church.

Newspapers are going soon. Currently they seem to exist in my house simply to come in the door, have the sports section read by several kids, move to the recycle bin, and then go to the dump.

[mhr]

21. Yes, If One Thinks Of Raw Connectivity - I Interact With Far More

People today than I ever did prior to the WWW and email.

As far as TV goes, I accomplish much more without it than I did with it.

Culturally, I no longer feel deprived because I can catch up on the better TV shows and movies, albeit a little late, via DVD and sans commercials.

All-in-all, life is much better for me without the tube.

[soothsayer]

7. Evil internet! It's as anti-social as....reading a book

[ixion]

8. the internet is social, albeit not physically so...

message boards, such as DU, are communities in every aspect except geolocation.

It's ironic that these people are so quick to redefine words like 'fact', 'reality', 'war' and so on, and yet are abysmally slow at redefining the concept of 'social'. :eyes:

[The Zanti Regent]

10. I refuse to watch liars on TV

I will watch movies on cable, Daily Show, Newswatch International and BBC America.

As for anything else, I refuse to watch Nazi Republican Propaganda.

[Kolesar]

11. MY PC+Monitor draws 130 watts. My 27" TV draws 177 watts

The obvious conclusion is that TV use causes global warming since coal is the biggest generator of electricity in America.

[Chico Man]

12. DU and World of Warcraft!!!!

What more could you ask for?

[freedom_to_read]

26. hells yes! and then i go to sleep and dream about levelling up

:) :) :) :) :)

[Mend]

13. We also stopped reading your sorry-ass paper eom

[NV Whino]

14. Less TV view is a problem?

Ha! As for socializing--I'm contact with and interact with more people than I ever have.

[Wright Patman]

15. Less TV viewing IS a problem

for the five conglomerate companies who control TV. What was the use in getting to Sen. Dole and others (in both parties) to ram through the Telecommunications Act of 1996 if this trend continues?

They paid untold millions in campaign contributions for this kind of oligopoly control. Next there will be a Mandatory Television Viewing Act in which you have to report to Homeland Security on the various programs and commercials you have watched.

[NV Whino]

17. The ramifications are enormous...

I will hve to figure out a way to get TV reception in my mountain aerie. Not!

[BiggJawn]

18. It's their own fault. We've gotten wise to them.

They figured that we'd just sit in front of the Glass Tit and swallow everything they push out at us 24/7.

Internet users watch the Toob less than 2 hours a day? Horrors! They're not getting the sponsor's message!

And just how much "socializing" do you do when you're planted in front of your "Must-See Teeeee-Veeee" anyway?

I live in Freeper-Land. I can count on one hand the number of people I care to socialize with in my community. If it wasn't for them Internets, I'd have some serious isolation issues.

[mhr]

22. Yes, And With Pop-Up Blockers ON My Browser - I No Longer Need

To see advertisements on the web either.

Life without the barrage of advertising is wonderful.

[NJCher]

20. Good friendships from the Internet

The Internet is social--just in a different way than they can conceive.

In the late 80s and early 90s when the Internets were just beginning to build up steam, I immediately began friendships based on interests rather than geographical feasibility. In no time at all, I saw it was a much better way of socializing than who happens to be in the neighborhood or who happens to be in the workplace.

I have three good friends from a gardening Web site--Judy, a nationally known garden writer and author of seven gardening books, Cindy, a businesswoman in the town next door and one of the most thoughtful persons I've ever had the pleasure of meeting (and a gardening fanatic as well), and also Nora, another gardener who lives just down the street. Coincidentally, Nora works at the same pharmaceutical company where I used to work. She is a Harvard Ph.D., an international traveler and a person who shares my love of the environment and technology. We have a lot of fun trading seeds and getting together for coffee or tea in our gardens in the mornings. I'll be going to Judy's house for home-cooked soup and garden talk next week. She lives in western Jersey but we still get together three or four times a year.

One of my most treasured friendships started right here at DU when I adopted a kitty a fellow DU-er had rescued.

None of these relationships would have been formed had it not been for the Internets.


Cher

[mattclearing]

25. God Forbid People Watch Less TV.

eom

[Child_Of_Isis]

29. The powers that be

are afraid of losing their propaganda machine...the television. We will probably be called unpatriotic soon for refusing to partake. I do indulge in some of the wittier shows like the Simpson's and such. But cable news is no longer a part of my life.

[mattclearing]

31. Yeah.

I enjoy a few things lately. Amusingly a lot of the stuff I tend to enjoy is on Fox...Simpsons, 24, and I have to say that I find House to be a great show.

But getting your news from the television is not recommended. If people want to know jack shit about what goes on, then the TV is the place to get it.

[Catchawave]

27. Freeper husband and friends in a Red State here !

Yikes, I can't live without my friends on DU or I'd be in a corner rocking a la "Sybil".

I love my husband and friends, I just can't "talk" to them :::sigh:::

[The Flaming Red Head]

37. In a red state too

No socializing with my neighbors or their pit bulls (that they let run loose on my property), or their pick up trucks with the rebel flag plates on the front and the Jesus cross on the back window, or the crank lab that they've got going down the street, or their self proclaimed firing range next to my back yard.

If I didn't have the internet to let off steam, they'd probably be using me for target practice.

[Kitsune]

28. Hey, I socialize!

......

....on the internet. :/

[AngryWhiteLiberal]

30. Avoid the Democratizing Effect of the EVIL Internet...watch more TV.

Heaven forbid the public actually starts looking for information and entertainment on their own. Don't these lemmings know that the Repuke Corporate Overlords have their best interests at heart?

JB

[fishnfla]

32. I'd bet internet users are more informed and more social,

better educated and able to carry on an intelligent conversation.

The breadth and depth of ignorance in American society is startling to me.

The remote control and the drive thru have made us a nation of slovenly idiots

[Babette]

33. What do they mean no socializing?!

I met my beloved husband right here on DU! That to me is the ultimate proof that there is indeed socializing on computers!

[Cronus Protagonist]

36. That's because my screensaver is more interesting than TV

And often more informative.




http://brainbuttons.com/home.asp?stashid=13
Buttons for brainy people - educate your local freepers today!

[HuckleB]

38. Cutting into TV time is likely positive.

It replaces passive with active. And while I certainly acknowledge the democratizing, community development and communications interactions created by the Internet, I do worry about folks who polarize themselves more and more. It's simply more difficult to flame away on those we disagree with in person, and I worry about the anger that develops in some folks as they focus all energy toward communicating with like minds -- and, when they do communicate with those they disagree with, it's often a game of bash 'em on the head. I know this is all too generalized, but I think this concern shouldn't be ignored. Yes, again, the positives are obvious, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't think about how to use this tool more effectively, and it doesn't mean we shouldn't advocate for more face time with neighbors, friends, acquaintances and strangers.

Salud.