Happiness

elicihttp://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/does-technology-affect-happiness/
Does Technology Affect Happiness?
By MATT RICHTEL
 | January 25, 2012, 12:59 PM 
As young people spend more time on computers, smartphones and other devices, researchers are asking how all that screen time and multitasking affects children’s and teenagers’ ability to focus and learn — even drive cars.
A studyfrom Stanford University, published Wednesday, wrestles with a new question: How is technology affecting their happiness and emotional development?
The answer, in the peer-reviewed study of the online habits of girls ages 8 to 12, is that those who say they spend considerable amounts of time using multimedia describe themselves in ways that suggest they are less happy and less socially comfortablethan peers who say they spend less time on screens.

Michelle Litvin for The New York TimesLucy Gray with her daughter, Julia.
The research raises as many questions as it seeks to answer, as the scientists readilyacknowledge. That is because the research was based on an online survey taken by more than 3,400 girls, a sample that may well not be representative of the larger population and, because the responses are self-reported, are not subject to follow-up or verification by the researchers.
Among the crucial questions that the researchers were not able to answer is whether the heavy use of media was the causefor the relative unhappiness or whether girls who are less happy to begin with are drawn to heavy use of media, in effect retreating to a virtual world.
But the researchers hypothesize that heavy use of media is a contributing factor to the social challenges of girls.
The reason, say the researchers, is that on a basic, even primitive level, girls need to experience the full pantheon ofcommunication that comes from face-to-face contact, such as learning to read body language, and subtle facial and verbal cues.
“Humans are built to notice these cues — the quavering in your voice, perspiration, body posture, raise of an eyebrow, a faint smile or frown,” said Clifford Nass, a Stanford professor of communication who led the study. Social media, he added, leaves the conversationtwo-dimensional. “If I’m not with you face to face, I don’t get these things. Or, if I’m face to face with you and I’m also texting, I’m not going to notice them.”
The peer-reviewed study appeared Wednesday in Developmental Psychology, a journal published by the American Psychological Association, as part of a series of articles on interactive technology and human development. There is no analogous studyabout how screen time affects boys.
The fact that the study was based on an online survey gave pause to some academics. While they said the paper raised good questions, they also expressed concern about giving it too much weight, given that the researchers were not able to follow up with the survey subjects to get important context, including their family circumstances, income or ethnicity.Moreover, the limitations of the online survey did not even allow the researchers to verify the ages of the girls.
Lyn Mikel Brown, an education professor at Colby College who studies girls’ behavior, cautioned against reading too much into the research because so little is known about the survey subjects.
It may well be, she said, that girls who seek out online relationships are girls who otherwisemight not feel social at all.
“Finding like-minded people online and issues they can relate to and work on with others can be incredibly important,” she said.
But she also said the research should provoke further study about the connection between time spent online and social development, and should provoke conversations in families.
“The clear message is also how important it is for parents...