Apparently so.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University found that the more time subjects spent on the Internet, the higher they scored in measures of loneliness and depression. Teenagers appeared the most vulnerable to the darker aspects of the Internet.
"We were surprised to find that what is a social technology has such antisocial consequences," said Dr. Robert Kraut, the study's lead author. Kraut and his colleagues also advised that "Until the technology evolves to be more beneficial, people should moderate how much they use the Internet and monitor the uses to which they put it."
Reference
Study: Net use causes depression. Reuters, September 4, 1998.
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