Internet Contributes to Loneliness

The Internet may be contributing to loneliness. People who frequent the Internet and social websites instead of direct contact with others may isolate themselves and become lonely. According to Moody, E.J, (2001), Robert Weiss theorized, “emotional loneliness is a feeling of emptiness and restlessness due to the lack of intimate relationships.” Moody’s study suggests “that by limiting the face-to-face component of social interaction, loneliness or other problems might result despite one feeling a strong connection with the social world around him or her.”

The Internet becomes the a leading venue for social interaction for people that have stunted or nonexistent social skills. People that lack social skills are able to camouflage this deficit when interacting on the Internet. More Internet usage will deplete the time these people have to develop and engage in face-to-face social interaction. Junghyun, LaRose, Wei (2009) in a study on loneliness, claim that “A preference for online interaction is also likely to have isolating effects offline, since it implies that online social interactions will be more valued and less time will be devoted to real-world interaction. Deficient social skills are a likely contributing cause to loneliness as well.”

As the generation baby boomers retire and increase their Internet usage they may also limit their direct contact with their peers and become lonely. Previous generations of retired persons did not have the Internet for contact with others and they relied on senior centers, and church groups to interact with their peers. The Internet facilitates being connected to family members via email and software application such as Skype. It is the contact with non-family members that increased loneliness. In a study conducted by Sum, Hughes, and Campbell (2008) evidence was presented that found “that using the Internet for communication with unknown people was associated with greater levels of family loneliness.”

Twelve years ago I was in a new city, Wichita, Kansas and I became a frequent user of chat rooms. I made contact with a group of people with similar interests. The group and I chat for about two years in a Yahoo chat room. I spent more time with this group of strangers than I did making friends or doing activities. I was lonely. There was drama, love a non-televised soap opera and I was a participant.