Internet has no Impact on Family face-to-face Time, finds Study

Growing use of the internet for connection to family and friends has virtually no negative effects on time spent in person with them, according to the sixth annual survey of the impact of the Internet conducted by the USC-Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future.

The findings are published in the 2007 Digital Future Project, a comprehensive annual examination of the impact of online technology in the USA.

The project surveys more than 2,000 individuals across the United States, each year contacting the same households to explore how online technology affects the lives of Internet users and non-users. It also examines how changing technology, such as the shift from internet access by modem to broadband, affects behavior.

In addition, internet users are finding growing numbers of online friends, as well as friends they first met online and then met in person. In 2006, internet users report having met an average of 4.65 friends online whom they have never met in person. Internet users in 2006 report an average of 1.6 friends met in person whom they originally met online -- more than double the number when the Digital Future Project began in 2000.

Responding to a question last asked in 2002, 42.8% of internet users agree that going online has increased the number of people they regularly stay in contact with -- marginally less than the 46.6% who voiced the same response four years ago.

While large percentages of Internet users say that going online increases contact with family and friends, almost all users report that the Internet has no effect on the time spent with close friends or family face-to-face.

Meanwhile, growing percentages of internet users are going online to post information, whether on a blog, posting photos, or maintaining a personal website. The number of people who keep a blog has more than doubled in three years (now 7.4% of internet users). Likewise, the number who post photos online has more than doubled in three years (now 23.6%). The number of users who maintain their own website continues to grow steadily (now 12.5%).

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