Leave it to some mainstream media outlets to grab onto a 1,000-person survey done by an advertising agency and suggest it’s somehow “news.” Sorry folks, an advertising agency’s marketing survey isn’t equivalent to a peer-reviewed published journal article.

Here’s a representative sample of the smattering of news stories done on their “findings:” Some Americans giving up friends, sex for internet: survey. This story is better than most because it actually adds to the press release marketed by the advertising agency (that some news agencies, including Reuters, simply reworded as a news story). They mention an actual respectable organization, the non-profit Pew Internet Life Project, that also recently found that Americans are spending more time online working on their hobbies. Gee, that’s nice.

Anyways, back to the advertising agency’s findings (which, naturally, support the use of one of their new products, which is conveniently left out of most of the news stories)… They found that Americans are, glory be!, spending less time doing other activities in order to make room in their lives for online activities.

Not having access to the actual survey to see how the questions were worded, we have no idea to make of their findings. This is the main problem with such press-release-driven “news” stories. They are glaringly lacking on details.

The Internet is a new form of socializing, of entertainment, of even sexual release. It should not be surprising to anyone that more people are using it for exactly the same things it offers. It’s like researchers conducting a similar survey after TV became commonplace and being surprised to find people are actually spending time watching TV!

Time is a finite resource. If we’re doing more of X, we’re probably not doing as much of Y. X changes over time, however. Thirty years ago, X was TV. Thirty years before that, X was the radio. Thirty years before that, X was a book.

Don’t be misled by these dumb marketing surveys that tell us nothing of value or substance. And shame on mainstream news media outlets reporting this as “news.”

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 20 Sep 2007
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