A global, 16-year study of 2.4 million people has found that Internet use might boost measures of well-being, such as life satisfaction and sense of purpose — challenging the commonly held idea that Internet use has negative effects on people’s welfare.
The team found that, on average, people who had access to the Internet scored 8% higher on measures of life satisfaction, positive experiences and contentment with their social life, compared with people who lacked web access. Online activities can help people to learn new things and make friends, and this could contribute to the beneficial effects.
The positive effect is similar to the well-being benefit associated with taking a walk in naturec
Tbh, this study kinda sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy. In this day and age, if you don’t have web access, you are probably either stuck in your old ways or not well off. Sure you might find the oddball that willingly doesn’t own a phone, but in a study of that size they should get drowned out.
Why did those that lack access not have access? That in and of itself might be the factor here not the internet.
Well here’s the thing, I find the Internet to be so useful. I talk with my family and friends across the country nearly every day, answers to any question I have I can get to in seconds, news and other stuff I wouldn’t have known about come right to me, or it will come through the grapevine and I can immediately look it up.
I find that for some social media services, the Internet uses people rather than people using the Internet. I’m not immune to being manipulated in this way either, through ads, impulsive design and playing to emotion. I try to limit it where I can though, which helps keep me from stuff like doomscrolling.
I access the Internet, rather than it accessing me.
The internet and technology is great if we just stop companies from psychologically manipulating us.
“Having access to the internet” is a state that, I suspect, correlates with a lot of other factors that might also contribute to these stats, so I would be wary of drawing any strong conclusions here.
Social Media is the thing with negative effects, not the Internet, writ-large.
What you find on the internet is what will determine the effect. It’s like a gun, point it at the wrong thing, you might die.
