Complex root systems: MIT Technology Review - "Evidence Grows That Online Social Networks Have Insidious Negative Effects," Comparably or comparatively to TV watching, say pre-GUI internet in the 1980s, or even with book reading? Free open "Information Technology and the Network Society" course a free open course online this autumn PROBLEMATIZING the development of wiki MIT OCW-centric WUAS in the second half on Harvard's virtual island in SL and in Google + group video Hangouts

P and AoIR friends,

Thanks for this:

"Social Networks Diminish Personal Well-Being, Researchers Say"
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/social_networks_diminish_personal_wellness_researchers_say_20140830

Here's the actual MIT Technology Review article about this study referred to in the above article:

"Evidence Grows That Online Social Networks Have Insidious Negative Effects: A study of 50,000 people in Italy concludes that online social networks have a significant negative impact on individual welfare."
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/530401/evidence-grows-that-online-social-networks-have-insidious-negative-effects/


In its comments' section in the MIT Technology Review, I asked:

Are there any comparable or comparative studies asking similar questions concerning TV watching, say pre-Graphical User Interface (GUI) internet in the 1980s, or even concerning book reading, on subjective well being, both of which might be similarly isolating? ...  It seems like any hypothetical comparative studies might examine and emphasize the increase in the sociality in Italy thanks to social media relative to TV watching or book reading. And now with emergent Google + group video Hangouts and Adobe Connect, etc. and face-to-face sociality will re-emerge in new ways, generating data for important studies ahead. Professor Manuel Castells ("The Rise of the Network Society") casts these questions in different contexts, sociologically, and concludes from the sociological studies of the internet on alienation and sociality from the 1990s that, in the aggregate, social media increased sociality, - but he didn't examine rigorous sociological studies of self-reported well being. Thanks for this study.

Scott
(http://scottmacleod.com)


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I'm planning to teach - "Information Technology and the Network Society" - on Harvard's virtual island in SL and in Google + group video Hangouts a free open course online this autumn, which in the first half will examine, among many questions about how the information technology revolution came about, a) the related sociological literature that precedes the study above, and in the second half b) problematize the development of wiki MIT OCW-centric World University and School, which is planning free CC online accrediting university in large languages (and I.B. degrees in UN languages), and wiki schools in all 7,106 languages among much else:

http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2014/08/sundews-drosera-prolifera-planning-to.html

Come join the conversation in the course.

Best,
Scott

http://scottmacleod.com

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