The powerful network

Internet research shows that the Internet is not necessarily a danger zone that may cause increased loneliness and depression, but also a place of personal and social empowerment - especially for the introverted person

Yair Amichai-Hamburger Galileo

The Internet network "wins" news from critics to harsh criticisms in the media. Recently, we have become aware of reports that reveal to us the negative nature of the network: not long ago, a boy committed suicide due (so it was reported) to the campaign of humiliation and harassment he experienced on the Internet, and in another case there was a report of a pedophile who tried to establish online relationships with children. There is no doubt that for many the Internet is perceived as a technology that affects society in a negative way. But is this a new criticism?

It turns out not really. It was 14 years ago, when the Internet was in its infancy, that a team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University led by Prof. Robert Kraut published a comprehensive study that led to the firm conclusion that the Internet causes increased loneliness and depression and reduced social ties. The findings of the study were quite frightening. We can safely say that this study led to the negative image of the Internet at the time, and then like today (and not surprisingly) the press made a celebration of the study's conclusions.

The Internet Psychology Research Center at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya was established to understand and study the complexity of the Internet and its effect on our psychological well-being. In its early years, the center focused on balancing the negative image and examining the positive aspects of Internet use.

A critical examination of the first Internet studies (such as Kraut's study) revealed that the perspective of these studies was dogmatic and narrow, and examined a limited number of aspects: the studies tended to ignore the personality of the surfer and the wide variety of possibilities in surfing the Internet. In the first Internet studies, Internet users were seen as one entity, and at the same time, no examination was made of the great wealth of the various uses that can be made on the Internet. As a result, the conclusion that the Internet causes depression and loss of social relationships has been questioned.

Controlling messages, finding an interest group

The analysis of the variables that characterize internet surfing brings up several important factors: first, the anonymity factor. A significant part of active surfing on the net is characterized by anonymity. It turns out that even when providing identifying information, most people still feel a certain level of anonymity. Second, physical exposure: in a significant part of internet browsing, the surfer's appearance is not revealed. Even in cases of social networks where the surfer is supposed to upload his picture, he has the power to design and limit the exposure.

A third factor is communication control. Surfing the net is usually done from the surfer's private territory, usually this environment will be the home or the computer at the workplace. While surfing the Internet, the surfer feels that he can disconnect whenever he chooses from the Internet in general, and from Internet interaction with others in particular (even though we know that there are dangers that he is not aware of).

In addition to that, the interaction on the Internet allows the writer to shape the message according to the impression he wants to create and carefully formulate the message before it is sent. The surfer drafts the message, reviews it and only then, when the surfer is satisfied, does he send it. These browsing characteristics give the surfer a strong sense of control over communication.

Ease of finding an interest group is the fourth factor. The Internet makes it very easy to find people similar to me in any field. Since the Internet is a huge space in terms of the number of people on it, there are central nodes in each and every field that make it possible to find a group of interest in the most "strange" topics in the world, including hobbies that we would not find partners for in the physical environment.

Pleasure, availability and equality

Another distinct internet area is availability and accessibility. In the mobile era, where every surfer can access the Internet through his mobile phone even if he is on a bus, train or on the street, the Internet and his interests are actually available 24 hours a day and from anywhere. This is how the Internet experience in general and the Internet group in particular becomes the most significant for the surfer.

An equally important factor is fun, FUN - surfing the Internet is fun for most surfers. We live in a reality where sites that fail to create a real user experience are quickly abandoned, which leads to competition between sites to constantly try to maximize the experience, and thus browsing the websites that the surfer has located and chosen becomes a site of choice, enjoyment and control.

And finally, an important feature of surfing the Internet is equality. The Internet was created on the basis of sharing information that is available to all. With the recent revolutions that resulted from intensive use of social networks, the Internet preserves a spirit of sharing and equality to this day.

Browsing the Internet is carried out in the absence of status symbols. A popular saying in this spirit is "on the Internet no one knows you have a Rolex." In this way, the net surfer is perceived as having equal rights to others, at least on a subjective level. A 16-year-old boy who created a YouTube video, which gained two million views, is an example of an Internet success story that creates a strong sense that equality can easily become a source of meteoric success.

The shy learned - on the Internet

In a joint study by me and Dr. Elisheva Ben-Artzi and in a series of follow-up studies conducted at the Internet Psychology Research Center at the Interdisciplinary Center, it was found that the Internet benefits many people, but there are those who benefit more from it, and they are the introverts. Introverts and extroverts are generally considered opposite personality types. The introverted person is defined as a quiet, thoughtful person who prefers his own company and does not enjoy social events with many participants, while the extroverted person is defined as a friendly person who actively seeks company.

It was found that introverts use the Internet as a playground for self-compensation, and this is because they have difficulty making social connections in their daily lives. On the Internet, which provides protection from many directions, the introverted surfer can redefine himself and is not bound by his old social definition. The introverted surfer can be someone else, open and sociable and succeed in making important social connections.

In a famous cartoon showing two dogs talking in front of a computer screen, one says to the other: "On the Internet, no one knows you are a dog." The cartoon illustrates the power of online anonymity.

As a paraphrase of that statement, I published a study carried out together with Galit Vinfel and Prof. Shaul Fox (2002). The study concludes that on the Internet no one knows that I am an introvert. In this article we examined two theories relating to the power of the Internet as a socially enriching medium. One theory that examined this issue refers to the idea that has been taken for granted until now, that it is precisely the socially wealthy who are getting even richer in the Internet field. According to this theory, the Internet surfer, who has an extroverted character, is a socially dominant person outside the Internet and uses it as an additional platform to strengthen this dominance. According to this theory, there is practically nothing new under the sun: whoever is dominant in the offline world will remain dominant online.

A second theory, which opposes this idea and is called "the poor are getting rich", holds that the people who are socially poor in reality can become rich on the Internet...

In a joint study by me and research students Hadar Kaplan and Nira Dorfchaun, we examined the interrelationship between the surfer's personality and the way the surfer uses the Internet and social networks. In this study we wanted to check whether only one of these opposing theories is correct? Are the rich getting richer or rather the poor? Could there be a situation and a time when either theory could be true and if so, how?

This study was conducted in 2005, a long time before the entry of major players in the social networking field such as Facebook, and was conducted among users surfing the Israeli social network "Guys". This site was their home. In contrast, surfers who did not use this social network or any other social network were tested. As part of examining the habits of using social networks, we focused on comparing the characters of the research participants, the extroverts and the introverts. Some of the subjects were heavy users of the Guys website, and some did not use the website at all.

Examining the level of use of social sites brought up interesting results: extroverted guys users behaved according to the theory that the rich get richer, and used the social uses of the Internet (chats, forums) more than introverts who used the guys site. On the other hand, among surfers who are not users of Guys, the picture was the opposite and the poor got richer, that is, introverts used the social uses of the Internet more than extroverts.

reinvent yourself

The results of the study indicate two different models of Internet use; Among those who use social networks, a pattern of social identity preservation was discovered, in accordance with the theory of the "rich getting richer": these surfers, whether they are introverts or extroverts, will in fact determine their old identity, this is because when surfing the Guys website they meet friends they know They know them well from the past and the present, so they will have a hard time presenting a new persona to people who know them.

People can still stretch a bit how they present themselves on social media, but they will struggle to present a completely different type of personality than they present off the internet. In this way, the introverted person will find it very difficult to suddenly present a behavioral model of an extrovert. In the absence of an opportunity, the new experience in the social network will not develop into a new and cohesive internet persona.

On the other hand, we observed a second pattern of behavior that corresponds to the approach of the poor getting rich, when we examined surfers who did not use the social network Guys or another social network. These surfers entered a new Internet world, a world where they were completely protected; A world that allowed them to recreate themselves, try new social experiences and free themselves from the shackles of their social identity outside the Internet. This new reality caused introverts to create new social experiences, which allowed them to succeed and express themselves well in the social internet arena.

This research taught us about the wealth of the Internet: theories that so far seemed contradictory were found to be correct in different situations. One of the main lessons that can be learned from this study is that one must be careful of stereotypes and drawing careless conclusions in the Internet field, where the Internet has created a complex and rich reality.

Upload a profile - on Facebook

So far we have described a complete dichotomy, whereby the Internet splits into two different environments: one is an anonymous environment where people feel greater freedom to reinvent themselves. This environment serves as an identity laboratory, for example the chat environment and the fantasy games. The second environment is the identified environment, which is represented by the social network. In this environment, people tend to behave in a way similar to the way they behave in reality, outside the Internet, and this is because they transfer the social network that is outside the Internet into it.

From a study I conducted in 2010 with Dr. Gideon Vinitsky, it appears that the dichotomous work assumption is incorrect. In this study, we tested whether there is a connection between the surfer's personality and his behavior on Facebook. Unlike previous studies, which examined this question through a questionnaire answered by Facebook users, in this study the users were asked to give permission to the researchers and allow access to their Facebook page to actually see what they are doing and what they are not doing. The findings of this examination brought up several usage categories that were crossed with a personality test taken by the surfers.

The purpose of this test was to examine whether the friend's personality on the social network affects his behavior on Facebook. The research revealed that there is a strong connection between the surfer's personality and his behavior on Facebook. A focused examination of the research findings, with an emphasis on the behavior of extroverted and introverted surfers on the social network, revealed that, unsurprisingly, extroverts were more socially active than introverts. This finding is consistent with our previous conclusion that the Facebook field where you meet friends outside the Internet is another field that allows the extrovert to express his dominance.

A more interesting finding is that introverts invest more in building their profile than extroverts. This finding proves that even in the identified social field, the introvert still has a certain possibility of turning the Internet into a compensatory field. It turns out that even on the Facebook network, which is a more difficult place for the introvert, he still has the ability to try and compensate himself in a protected and controlled manner suitable for his nature, and this is reflected in the multiple investment in building the profile. This multiple investment was expressed in the amount of information provided by the surfer on diverse personal areas such as activities, interests, types of favorite music, popular TV shows, favorite books and more. In these areas it was evident that the introvert invested more than the extrovert.

An interim conclusion is that we see that the internet social field enables empowerment for everyone, but the empowerment is mainly evident for the introverted person. Introverted people who know how to use the tools that the Internet gives them manage to upgrade themselves socially. There is no doubt that for them the Internet is an invaluable tool.

The shadow surfers

There are other sites on the Internet where you can notice empowerment on a personal level. A unique and fascinating community is the community of Wikipedia editors - the free online encyclopedia. This community, which is essentially anonymous, provides much of Wikipedia's content. These surfers navigate the largest encyclopedia in the world, while serving as its editors. One of the unique features of this community is the fact that their contribution is completely confidential. The Wikipedia reader is not exposed to their names and they are essentially unsung heroes.

In the research I conducted with the research students Naama Lamdan, Rinat Medial and Tzachi Hait, we made a comparison at the personal level. It was found that Wikipedia editors are characterized by the fact that they "live online" - they experience their significant experiences online and feel that there they can express themselves better than outside the Internet. In terms of personality, we found that Wikipedia editors tend to be more closed and introverted compared to the control group of internet surfers.

Another field where we asked to check the issue of internet empowerment is the blogging field. Although there are exceptions, there are many cases where the blogger is not known to the general public. Therefore, the question of the relationship between the blogger's personality and his motivation is an interesting question. 79 bloggers participated in the study and examined the differences between the motivational characteristics that accompany the stage of starting a blog and those that characterize the stage in which the blog exists and must be maintained.

At the same time, the interrelationships between these motivations and the blogger's level of loneliness were examined. It was found that the higher the loneliness of the blogger, the higher his motivation to expose the blog to as many people as possible at the stage of opening the blog when the blog already exists, the higher the loneliness in life outside the Internet, the more dominant the motivation for self-expression through the blog.

These results demonstrate once again that one of the main reasons for the existence of the blog medium is the fact that it is a major compensation tool for individual people. For the lonely person, opening a blog satisfies the important need for contact with others and in the conservation phase is a central mouthpiece for self-expression. In this way, the blog provides a potential answer to the existential conflict between the desire to realize individuality and the need to belong.

The Internet can be a playground for many people. This situation creates a fascinating complexity, where on the one hand people have to be helped to turn the potential of the Internet into actual psychological help. Many of the surfers do not make good use of the capabilities provided by the Internet because they are not sufficiently familiar with the possibilities inherent in it. On the other hand, there is no doubt that when the Internet becomes a compensatory playground, it may also become an addictive playground. An introvert's social success on the Internet may focus him exclusively on this field, and he will stop trying to improve his social ability outside the Internet.

About the author:
Dr. Yair Amichai Hamburger is the head of the Internet Psychology Research Center at the Sami Ofer School of Communication, the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya. Yair completed his doctoral studies in psychology at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on the empowerment that the Internet is able to give to surfers on a personal, interpersonal, group and community level. Yair publishes his research in leading academic journals. His work has been commended by the Academy of Management and the American Library Association. In 2005, the book The Social Net was edited by him and published by Oxford University. His second book, Technology and Psychological Well being, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2009.

for further reading

Amichai-Hamburger, Y. & Vinitzky, G. (2010). Social network use and personality. Computers in Human Behavior 26, 1289-1295.

Amichai-Hamburger, Y., Kaplan, H. & Dorpatcheon, N. (2008). Click to the past: The impact of extroversion by users of nostalgic website on the use of Internet social services. Computers in Human Behavior 24, 1907-1912.

Amichai-Hamburger, Y., Lamdan, N., Madiel, R. & Hayat. T. (2008). Personality Characteristics of Wikipedia Members” CyberPsychology and Behavior 11, 679-681.

Amichai-Hamburger, Y., Wainapel, G., & Fox, S. (2002). "On the internet no one knows I'm an introvert": Extroversion, neuroticism, and internet interaction. Cyberpsychology and Behavior 2, 125-128.

Hamburger, YA, & Ben-Artzi, E. (2000). The relationship between extraversion and neuroticism and the different uses of the Internet. Computers in Human Behavior 16, 441-449

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