QUALITY OF

Online

Social Relationships
ONLINE RELATIONSHIPS ARE LESS VALUABLE
THAN OFFLINE ONES. INDEED, THEIR
NET BENEFIT DEPENDS ON WHETHER THEY
SUPPLEMENT OR SUBSTITUTE FOR
OFFLINE SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS.
{ By Jonathon N. Cummings, Brian Butler, and Robert Kraut} eople use the Internet intensely tor interpersonal commimication, sending und receiving email, contacting friends and family via instant messaging services, visiting chat rooms, or subscribing to distribution lists, among other activities. The evidence is clear that interpersonal communication is an important use of the Internet, if not its most important use. For example, both selt-report surveys 112] and computer monitoring studies [5] indicate that email is the most popular online application.
Claims regarding the Internets usefulness for developing social relationships, however, remain controversial. Both personal testimonials (for example,
[]()]) and systematically collected data document the deep and meaningful social relationships people can cultivate online (for example, |8]).
This evidence, however, conflicts with data comparing the value that people place on their online relationships with offline relationships and with data comparing social relationships among heavy and light
Internet users. For example. Parks and Roberts [9] surveyed users of multiplayer environments called
MOOs. Ninety-three percent of the users had made

friends online, but when asked to compare their online friendships with those otTline, respondents rated offline ones higher. Respondents to Nies [7] national survey reported spending less time with friends and family since going online, with the decline greatest among the most frequent Internet users. And
Kraut et al. [6] presented longitudinal evidence to demonstrate that among new Internet users, online time diminished social