Internet use among us linked to higher well-being: study
Using the Internet may be good for your well-being, an international study has found. The findings suggest that despite popular concerns to the contrary,the association between Internet use and well-being is likely to be positive. Researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute, part of the University of Oxford, analysed data from two million people aged 15 to 99 in 168 countries, including Latin America, Asia and Africa. They found that life satisfaction across all countries was 8.5 per cent higher for those who had access to the Internet and their positive experiences were 8.3 per cent higher.
Across more than 33,000 different statistical models and subsets of data, the researchers found that 84.9 per cent of associations between Internet connectivity and well-being were positive. Andrew Przybylski, professor of human behaviour and technology at the Oxford Internet Institute, said: “It’s a bit cliche, but extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
“And if we’re to make the online world safer for young people, we just can’t go in guns blazing with strong prior beliefs and one-size-fits-all solutions. “We really need to make sure that we’re sensitive to having our minds changed by data, and I really hope that message comes through instead of just another volley, in another silly debate.”
He added that he believed a time would come when people would no longer be worried about social media and Internet use in young people because they would be concerned about the next thing that comes along. Assistant Professor Matti Vuorre from Tilburg University, and previous research associate at Oxford Internet Institute, said: “We were surprised to find a positive correlation between well-being and Internet use across the majority of the thousands of models we used for our analysis.” In the study, well-being was measured according to eight indicators — life satisfaction, daily negative and positive experiences, two measures of social well-being (well-being attached to liking where you live and feeling safe there), physical wellbeing, community well-being and experiences of purpose. Factors like education, income and health were also taken into consideration, however, the study did not look at social media use. Prof Przybylski said: “Overall we found that average associations were consistent across Internet adoption predictors and well-being outcomes, with those who had access to or actively used the Internet reporting meaningfully greater well-being than those who did not.
“We hope our findings bring some greater context to the screen time debate.”