Survey explores secrets of Internet relationships and intimacy

by Maria Lironi

Are you young and in a relationship? Then chances are that you’re using the Net to communicate with your sweetie.

In fact, a study on Web use by Dr. Sylvain Boies, a psychologist in UVic’s counselling services, shows that people are complementing their real lives with the Internet to the point where reality and virtual reality co-exist.

“This is the first generation of people that have grown up with the Internet,” says Boies. “They’re showing us how the Web is redefining community; how people relate to one another and how they connect.”

UVic first-year psychology students took part in Boies’s study by completing a 120-question online survey. It asked how respondents feel they perform socially, their bonds with family, their sexual practices, and their interest in relationships and sex on the Internet.

The majority of the respondents said they used the Net to stay connected with online friends and with their friends and family in the real world, says Boies. The survey also revealed some interesting things about men and women with online friends.

“People who had a high potential to become addicted to the Internet perceived that they had less social support from their families and friends and were dissatisfied with their ability to master their real-life environments,” says Boies. “Not surprisingly, they said they received a high level of social support from online friends.”

Preliminary results show that 84 per cent of the 760 respondents use the Internet widely and frequently to maintain relationships with their families. Ninety per cent of them use it to keep up with local friends and 94 per cent use it to stay in touch with non-local friends.

Almost one out of three people have online friends who they’ve never met and with whom they spend an average of one hour a week. Sixty per cent of them communicate with their online friends once a week and 40 per cent communicate once a day.

While 65 per cent of respondents said their general use of the Internet helped them expand their social contacts and networks, only 13.8 per cent strongly identified with the connection. As well, only 36.5 per cent agreed that Internet usage had increased their sense of belonging to a community.

Results also show that 40 per cent of the respondents had cruised the Internet for sexual entertainment. Their online search for such information began at an early age, many before age 14. The survey also revealed that 12 per cent had used online dating services, 86 per cent had received porn from others, and 40 per cent had forwarded such material. As well, the survey showed a correlation between the number of online and off-line sexual partners.

Boies’ academic interest in the Internet began with his postgraduate studies when he investigated how online sex can turn into an addiction.

The final results of the study will be released in July. The survey can be viewed at <www.internetusesurvey.com.>