Computers = lonelyness

The extremly rapid growth of computer technology increases the possibility of reaching the Internet`s most variable services. This makes us ask ourselves: What is going to make our interpersonal relationships the most deficient ?

In our research we are trying to answer this question. We tried to find out if there is a difference from the point of sociability between those students who spend a lot of time with computer and those who spend a little or none of their time. Our next question was if we can find any statistically significant variance between those who work with their computer and those who use it (Inter)net surfing. We assumed that there is a relation between real social relationships (or the lack of it) and the typical usage of computers.

We used two type of questionare for our study. In first we assessed the extension of the “social field”of the subjects and also the frequency of interaction with computer. In second we used a modified version of the Friendship Questionare [1], including 75 items (1: totally disagree, 7 totaly agree) for measuring actual friendships and options about friendship in general. The questionare measures five dimension of friendship relations. A special software was developed to be able to determine objectively, who spend a lot of time with a computer (much more than average). By this program we were able to check in the Computer Center of Kossuth University, which user how much time spent with working on computer. Obviously, personal rights were preserved.

The study reveals the typical patterns of social relations of computer users and find the role of the computer in social life.

REFERENCES:

1.Sallai Hedvig: Serdülõkorúak társaskapcsolatainak elemzése. A KLTE Pszichológiai Intézete és az ELTE BTK Társadalom- és MunkalélektaniTanszéki Szakcsoportja, Debrecen, 1986.