Internet Increases Happiness!? Say Wha--!?

A pictorial representation of internet data packets traveling around the world over a two-week period in 2005. Who knows what it looks like now? From Discover Magazine. Click here for a better look.

This news kind of surprised me, but here it is:  the Ashdown Group, a job recruitment agency, reports that internet access improves a person's happiness. This information comes from a study done by BCS, a UK institute for information technology. The study also found that women benefit the most from the internet, supposedly because of their openness to online social networking. Elizabeth Sparrow, president of BCS, says, "IT has a direct positive impact on life satisfaction, even when controlling for income and other factors known to be important in determining well-being." You can read more about the study, and watch a few (long) videos about it here.

Maybe the results surprise me because they go against the stereotype that internet users are all lonely nerds typing away from their parents basement (no offense if that describes you!). This also comes at an interesting time, because David Fincher's new movie The Social Network comes out on Friday here in the U.S. It looks like a great film, maintaining a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, but it also seems to be a part of the "internet=lonely emptiness" image, as depicted in the story of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. I can't wait to see it, though.

So this might be a case of actual research going against "common sense". I hope more people study the internet's effect on actual happiness (a long-term one would be nice), but what do you think? Do you think the internet has made you happier?