But whether being online is bad for an individual is still an open question and may depend on the motivation of the person for living virtually, the psychologists say. John Grohol, Ph.D., a psychologist from Austin, Texas, is of the opinion that being online is not negative. Grohol says that people are spending time online because something is drawing them there rather than to their real-life relationships. There is no evidence that people s relationships online were somehow different than those offline, says Grohol, who works for an Internet start-up. Mass. People who are lonely and anonymous can visit chat rooms and do not have to admit responsibility to other people as they might in real-life relationships, Orzack says.
Real relationships require responsibility.
Some people seek out the online world because they are phobic about the real world, Orzack says, and for them they go online because it gives them a sense of identity. For lonely people it is not a good thing to be online because they become more isolated. However, Orzack says, e-mail and family Web pages allow people also to keep connections to family members who live far away, reinforcing valuable relationships. David Greenfield, Ph.D., a psychologist from Danbury, Conn., who has written a book about Internet addiction called Virtual Addiction , says the jury is still out about whether online time is hurting society. The Web is spearheading the digital industrial revolution, which is a new social equalizer that creates social connections without any regard to socioeconomic status, Greenfield says.