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The Internet, like its network predecessors, has turned out to be far more social than television, and in this respect, the impact of the Internet may be more like that of the telephone than of TV. Our research has shown that interpersonal communication is the dominant use of the Internet at home.1)That people use the Internet mainly for interpersonal communication, however, does not imply that their social interactions and relationships on the Internet are the same as their traditional social interactions and relationships, or that their social uses of the Internet will have effects comparable to traditional social activity.
Whether social uses of the Internet have positive or negative effects may depend on how the Internet shapes the balance of strong and weak network ties that people maintain. Strong ties are relationships associated with frequent contact, deep feelings of affection and obligation, whereas weak ties are relationships with superficial and easily broken bonds, infrequent contact, and narrow focus. Strong and weak ties alike provide people with social support. Weak ties including weak online ties, are especially useful for linking people to information and social resources unavailable in peoples closest, local groups.2)Nonetheless, strong social ties are the relationships that generally buffer people from lifes stresses and that lead to better social and psychological outcomes. People receive most of their social support from people with whom they are in most frequent contact, and bigger favors come from those with stronger ties.
Generally, strong personal ties are supported by physical proximity. The Internet potentially reduces the importance of physical proximity in creating and maintaining networks of strong social ties. Unlike facetoface interaction or even the telephone, the Internet offers opportunities for social interactions that do not depend on the distance between parties. People often use the Internet to keep up with those with whom they have preexisting relationships. But they also develop new relationships online. Most of these new relationships are weak. MUDs, newsgroups, and chat rooms put people in contact with a pool of new groups, but these online “mixers” are typically organized around specific topics, or activities, and rarely revolve around local community and close family and friends.
3)Whether a typical relationship developed online becomes as strong as a typical traditional relationship and whether having online relationships changes the number or quality of a persons total social involvements are open questions. Empirical evidence about the impact of the Internet on relationships and social involvement is sparse. Many authors have debated whether the Internet will promote community or undercut it. Much of this discussion has been speculative and anecdotal, or is based on crosssectional data with small samples.
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［A］ the dominance of
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