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- NEW YORK - When meeting
people for the first time, it's best to follow the old adage, "Be
yourself." Unless you're on the Internet, where you can be anybody,
say anything and wear nothing.
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- Wide-ranging use of e-mail, instant messaging, live chat
and other Internet-based technologies have fostered a sense of community
regardless of actual location " making it relatively cheap and easy
for a stranger in midtown Manhattan to find her soulmate in Madagascar.
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- But can all this solitary keyboard-tapping really be
good for anyone?
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- Researchers studying the Internet's impact on human behavior
think that if we don't stop to consider the mental health implications
of this medium soon, we're heading for trouble.
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- "We create technology, drop it into our lives, and
leave it alone. We ignore the consequences until it's too late. It happened
with TV, and now with the Net," says Dr. Kimberley Young, a clinical
psychologist who studies Internet addiction and author of Caught in the
Net.
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- "Sitting behind a monitor is a private experience
in which you remain seemingly undetected...like being drunk at a party
with no repercussions."
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- "The difference is that the Internet has changed
our social behavior, and our idea of what is socially appropriate, particularly
in our use of email and online chat. Regardless of real-world personalities,
in cyberspace a meek person can be aggressive, a sexually repressed person
can be very sexual, and anyone can be a voyeur."
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- According to Young, the real issue is anonymity. You
can be blunt, rude, or even aggressive with little consequence. "Sitting
behind a monitor is a private experience in which you remain seemingly
undetected," says Young. "When you have those variables, it's
like being drunk at a party with no repercussions."
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- Steve Jones, head of Communications at the University
of Illinois, Chicago, and author of Internet for Educators and Homeschoolers
(ETC, Sept. 1999), said the Internet's influence is mostly positive.
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- "It's given us an alternative form of communication
that's been great for seniors, students, and others who never felt a sense
of belonging in society. We now have a textual conversation " a form
of written conversation that didn't exist before," says Jones.
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- The irony is that while the technology has allowed for
self-expression and the exchange of ideas, it has also lead to further
alienation for those who use the Net in place of real social interaction.
"We don't call it media for nothing. The Internet mediates,"
says Jones.
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- Because communicating with others online is so easy,
the Internet can breed a false sense of socialization.
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- "Email and shopping online are not social activities,"
says Clifford Nass, professor of communications at Stanford University
and the author of The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, TV, and
Media Like Real People.
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- "People who feel awkward and don't have rich relationships
like it. But using this stuff too much over time only leads to more loneliness,"
says Nass.
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- "Reliance on technology to fulfill our needs is
dangerous," says Young. "If you're spending your entire time
at home online, then you're forgoing real relationships with real people.
You're separating people rather than bringing them together."
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- Let Your Fingers Do the Shopping
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- "People who feel awkward and don't have rich relationships
like it. But using this stuff too much over time only leads to more loneliness."
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- E-commerce is further enabling folks to use the Internet
as a replacement for genuine human contact, and it has the double whammy
of making people feel like they aren't really spending money. Everything
from clothes and furniture to groceries is available at the click of a
button. You never have to leave the house, or see your cash disappear in
a transaction.
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- Online auction sites such as eBay are particularly dangerous
for compulsive shoppers.
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- There are eBay junkies waking up at all hours just to
be the last bidder, says Young. "It differs from QVC, though, in that
you are competing. I call it the ACE model, for accessibility, convenience
and excitement." People feel they're winning, not shopping, and they
feel triumphant at the moment of purchase no matter the item.
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- Jones argues that e-commerce is not all that different
from retail sales. "Impulse buying occurs anywhere, whether by click
or location. In some senses the Web is identical to the mall."
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- <http://foxnews.com/scitech/082399/behavior_quiz.sml
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- Taking a cue from children may help. Dr. Allison Druin,
assistant professor at University of Maryland's College of Education and
the Institute for Human-Computer Interaction, has found that kids make
working with PCs into true social experience.
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- "If you have five computers for five kids, you'll
find them all five clumped around one computer. They want shoulder-to-shoulder
collaboration, not an individual experience," says Druin.
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- "Clearly, there are benefits to the Internet,"
says Young. "But we've neglected to talk about the negative. This
is not a benign tool, and you need to monitor your own and your family's
usage."
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