Internet usage strengthens social networks

Pew’s Internet and American Life Project released a new report today, “The Strength of Internet Ties,”
confirming previous research that suggests that Internet use “supplements, rather than replaces, the communication people have with others in their network.” Their release states:

The Pew Internet & American Life Project today released a report
describing how the internet improves Americans’ capacity to maintain
their social networks and how they gain a big payoff when they use the
internet to activate those networks to solicit help.

The report is based on two surveys and finds that the internet and email
expand and strengthen the social ties that people maintain in the
offline world. The surveys show that people not only socialize online,
but they also incorporate the internet into their quest for information
and advice as they seek help and make decisions.

Disputing concerns that heavy use of the internet might diminish
people’s social relations, the report finds that the internet fits
seamlessly with Americans’ in-person and phone encounters. With the help
of the internet, people are able to maintain active contact with sizable
social networks, even though many of the people in those networks do not
live close to them.

The full report is available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/172/report_display.asp.