Does the Internet Make Us sad sad or Less?

We have recently seen a rash of Essays and articles in the mainstream press takes a rather panic-mongering towards social networking and digital communications of various types: the Atlantic piece raised questions about how Facebook makes us sad, and the New York Times op-ed by Sherry Turkle MIT professor a few days ago found that all use of SMS and social media we are involved in bad for us as a society because it prevents us from having a "real" conversation and connect with other people. This is a real problem or just one example of how new technology is often blamed for behavior that existed long before they were created? The essence of the argument is that while Turkle text messages, Facebook status updates and Twitter messages can make us feel though we are in touch with friends and family in a small way, it "sips" online connectivity is not add up to much. This is similar to the case he makes in his book, alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other, where he talks about how social networks like Facebook is actually that keeps us at a distance from one another, not helping to connect us. As Turkle puts it in his NYT piece: "We live in a technological universe in which we're constantly communicating. But we have to sacrifice for conversation only connection. E-mail, Twitter, Facebook, all of them have their place in politics, commerce, love, and friendship. But no matter how important, they do not change the conversation. "Is that true? There is no question that Facebook or Twitter chat can not replace face-to-face conversation with someone important to you. But does anyone really say it should be? Feels like Turkle suggests a false dichotomy, as if all our online communications somehow involved in the conversation taking place "real world". It's like an updated version of the old image of a young man sitting alone in their basement playing video games instead of going to meet their friends in the "real world". (Susannah Fox has a great integration of some of Turkle's reaction to the piece.) This argument has a number of drawbacks, including the research show that people-especially young Internet users are more social Using online networks and tools are also more social world offline. Sociologist Zeynep Tufekci written about this time a false dichotomy, including exchange with former New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller, who echoed Turkle fears that an online connection is forged "real" human relationships. Tufekci found online world and the real world is called virtually indistinguishable now, and in many cases they tend to mutual support, not opposite.In recent piece in the Atlantic, writer Stephen Marche asked if Facebook is making us more more sad than, in the end, he looked "quieter" of the equation, said: "In a world destroyed by ever more social novel fashion, we have a society that is less and less the actual . We live in a contradiction acceleration: the more connected we become, the loneliness. We promised a global village, but we inhabit gloomy cul-de-sacs and endless highway information Suburbs "As poetic as it sounds, however, it does not appear to be the case .. Even "experts Sad" Marche mentioned in Atlantic not agree that we become quiet, and there is no real evidence to suggest that Facebook helped or hurt in this case. As Turkle analysis, it seems certain that Marche social networking, text messaging, or other forms of online connections to exchange real communication between people. At least in my experience and also other studies Tufekci it is not at all what any happening.If, online connections are likely to trigger or promote the real- world connections. I met dozens, maybe even hundreds of people I never would have known except for Twitter, thanks to the meetings of coffee for Foursquare check-in automatically, and create other relationships between countless online and offline world. Does everyone do it? Of course not. I'm sure there are people to be more lonely or sad because they use the Internet, as there are unhappy people who watch a lot of late night television. That does not mean that television causes loneliness.As any activity, too much can be harmful to your health that applies to many "real" world events as well. Alexandra Samuel, director of the Social + Interactive Media Centre at Emily Carr University, wrote in response to Turkle: "[W] orrying about children who choose to live online is alarming as seniors choose to live offline. Results seeing an emerging digital lifestyle through the prism of the generation, who considered the conversation just means when they look like the conversations we have growth "for me., It feels very similar swirling debate in 2010 about whether the internet making us stupid theories move forward in part by the author Nick Carr the shallows. Like many people, including the theory of Media Clay Shirky at Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker POINTS is, the internet does not really make us, in addition to strengthening the practices or patterns of behavior we can have. Internet use in ways that make us stupid, or at least look at us like that? Sure you can. So can almost any other human invention gathered for wheel.Pinker show that almost every technological development associated with the media of newspapers and television and internet novel-the devil at one point, as people try to People blame the nature of some external force. In any case, it is how we choose to use the new tool is important, and it is something that we all have the power to change, for better and for worse.Also from GigaOM: Connected World: Consumer Technology Revolution (subscription required) Think you BYOD issues? Wait Stealth ITT-Mobile Acquisition Galaxy Note? Evidence says YesPodcasting 101: Apple management PodcastsA Canal Way Solar Rises in India