1、Is the Internet the Secret to Happiness?When it comes to mental health, the Internet gets a bad rap. There are countless studies that suggest regular access to the Internet is linked to stress, anxiety and addiction. But before you stop tweeting and toss out your iPhone, it turns out that spending t
2、ime on the Web could actually be making you happier.A May 12 report by British researchers from the U.K.s Chartered Institute of IT (known as BCS) has found a link between Internet access and well-being. But some benefit more than others from tapping into the information superhighway, including thos
3、e with lower incomes or fewer qualifications, people living in the developing world and, perhaps most surprisingly, women.Overall, the study found that access to the Internet leads people to feel better about their lives. “Put simply, people with IT access are more satisfied with life even when taki
4、ng account of income,” said Michael Willmott, the social scientist who authored the study, at a press conference. “Our analysis suggests that IT has an enabling and empowering role in peoples lives, by increasing their sense of freedom and control, which has a positive impact on well-being or happin
5、ess.”Few studies have been done on how Web access directly affects happiness. So researchers from the Trajectory Partnership, a U.K.-based think tank that carried out the study on behalf of the BCS, analyzed data from 35,000 people across the globe who took part in the World Values Survey from 2005
6、to 2007. Looking at a number of social and economic factors that determine happiness - including gender, age, income and education - the survey showed that Internet use empowers people by increasing their feelings of security, personal freedom and influence.“The results . are very plausible,” says C
7、arol Graham, chair in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., and author of Happiness Around the World. “If you introduce a technology in the developing world, whether it is the Internet or the cell phone, that allows people to reduce their very high constraints of g
8、etting through daily life, it has a tremendous well-being affect.”The survey showed that the correlation between Internet access and happiness does not appear to increase with age, meaning its not just kids who get something out of surfing the Web. “Whether young or old, were all social beings, we a
9、ll have a need for the things IT access facilitates,” Paul Flatters, a partner at the Trajectory Partnership, told reporters.But the researchers werent expecting to discover that women gain so much from technology, given that its such a male-dominated industry. Although the report didnt explore why
10、women reap more happiness from Internet access than men do, the report hypothesizes that because women tend to be at the center of their familys social network, the Web is a tool to help them keep their home lives organized. According to the Brookings Institutions Graham, while the findings may surp
11、rise initially, they do make sense. “Particularly the results on gender and lesser developing countries, if you consider that women in many of these contexts are either isolated or repressed in a way,” she says. “IT gives them communication with the outside world, access to networks and so on. Frien
12、dships are very important to well-being as well, and one can imagine e-mail and IT being a good way to maintain those, particularly in contexts where telephones and transport are far from ideal or reliable.”The Trajectory Partnership says that the surveys results have motivated them to go further in
13、 trying to answer the question of why some people benefit from Web access more than others. “We hope to establish why this works and in particular how is it working with women and disempowered groups,” says social scientist Willmott.With burgeoning interest in finding ways to measure progress beyond
14、 GDP - Bhutan has its index for gross national happiness and the U.N. produces a Human Development Report each year - countries could use future studies like this one to help form government policy. The BCS hopes its report will play an important role in shaping how the technology industry develops its products and works toward bridging the digital divide. “The more we can make technology work for humankind, the better,” says Willmott.
