require individuals to check digital
devices and respond 24/7, there’s no
clear separation between home and
work. These pressures, Amichai-Ham-
burger says, put modern society at
danger of “swapping standard of liv-
ing for quality of life.”
In fact, studies show that heavy
technology use can result in higher
levels of loneliness and depression—
and the U.S. and other countries are
trending upward. Irena Stepanikova,
an assistant professor of sociology at
the University of South Carolina, ex-
amined various digital tools in a 2010
study, “Time on the Internet at Home,
Loneliness, and Life Satisfaction.” Re-
searchers found that people who spent
more time at home browsing the Web
and using instant messaging, chat
rooms, and newsgroups felt lonelier
and less satisfied. Email, on the other
hand, neither increased nor decreased
mental well-being.

The thing that’s easy to overlook,
Stepanikova says, is that we frequent-
ly use digital tools in isolation as a
way to connect with others. While
digital technology can connect fami-
lies and friends over geographic dis-
tances, it’s critical to recognize that
Facebook pokes and postings aren’t
equal to actual conversation. Too of-
ten, “we use the Internet alone, and
even if others are present, we do not
actively interact with them,” she says.
Consequently, “the solitude of these
activities may counter some of the po-
tential social benefits.”
It’s no small problem. “The more
time people spend at home on the
Internet,” says Stepanikova, “the
less time they spend on social activi-
ties, parties, conversation, attending
sports and cultural events—and es-
sentially on any activities performed
together with family members and
with friends.”

switching off

A growing number of researchers and
social scientists believe it is impor-
tant to take steps to regain control of
the technology and our lives. One ap-
proach that is gaining popularity is
the concept of switching off electron-
ics and taking clearly defined breaks.
In 2010, the Sabbath Manifesto proj-
ect emerged. It promotes the idea of
unplugging every seventh day, “dead-
lines and paperwork be damned” and
creating more defined boundaries in
order to avoid “destroying the fabric
of your life.”
Amichai-Hamburger says that be-
ing unplugged at least one day a week
“gives you a chance to be with those
you care about.” No less important: It
changes the flow of life and provides
perspective about what’s really impor-
tant. “It reminds us that we have to
lead technology and not be led by it. It
gives us space to think.”
Turkle also believes that ventur-
ing offline can be refreshing. “It can
be a reminder of the importance of
solitude that refreshes and sustains.”
Nevertheless, she believes that “un-
plugging” is not the way of the future
and that we’ve only begun the process
of adapting to digital technology and
learning how to manage our actions
and reactions effectively.

Further Reading
Amichai-Hamburger, Y. and Hayat, Z.
The impact of the Internet on the social
lives of users: A representative sample,
Computers in Human Behavior 27, 1,
January 2011.
Amichai-Hamburger, Y. and Vinitzky, G.
Social network use and personality,
Computers in Human Behavior 26, 6,
november 2010.
Nie, N.H., and Hillygus, D.S.
Where does Internet time come from?
IT & Society 1, 2, Fall 2002.
Stepanikova, I., Nie, N.H., and Xiaobin, H.
Time on the Internet at home, loneliness,
and life satisfaction: Evidence from
panel time-diary data, Computers
in Human Behavior 26, 3, May 2010.
Turkle, S.
Authenticity in the age of digital
companions, Interaction Studies 8, 3,
2007.

Samuel Greengard is an author and journalist based in West linn, or.

© 2011 acM 0001-0782/11/10 $10.00

Milestones

CS Awards

Microsoft Research, ACM SIGPLAN, IEEE, and Women Entrepreneurs in Science & Technology (WEST) recently honored a select set of computer scientists for their innovative research and leadership.

micRosoft ReseaRch
facuLt Y feLLoWs
Microsoft Research recognized
eight new faculty members
from Austria, Australia, Brazil,
and the U.S. as 2011 Faculty
Fellows. They are Maria Florina
Balcan, Georgia Institute
of Technology; Krishnendu
Chatterjee, IST Austria; Jure
Leskovec, Stanford University;
Alistair McEwan, The University
of Sydney; Shwetak Patel,
University of Washington;
Anderson de Rezende Rocha,
University of Campinas;
Keith Noah Snavely, Cornell
University; and Brent Waters,
University of Texas.

siGPLan soft WaRe a WaRD
ACM SIGPLAN awarded the
2011 SIGPLAN Programming
Languages Software Award to
Simon Peyton-Jones and Simon
Marlow of Microsoft Research,
Cambridge, for their authorship
of the Glasgow Haskell
Compiler, the preeminent
lazy functional programming
system. Peyton-Jones and
Marlow donated their $2,500
prize to Haskell.org.

emanueL R. PioRe a WaRD IEEE presented the Emanuel R. Piore Award to Fred B. Schneider, Samuel B. Eckert Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University, for “contributions to trustworthy computing through novel approaches to security, fault tolerance, and formal methods for concurrent and distributed systems.”

West LeaDeRs

WEST celebrated its 2011 Leadership Awards at the Microsoft New England Research & Development (NERD) Center, and presented Leadership Awards to Lydia Villa-Komaroff, chief science officer for Cytonome; Jennifer Tour Chayes, distinguished scientist and managing director of Microsoft’s NERD Center; Laura Fitton, founder and CEo of oneForty.com; and Joanna Horobin, CEo of Syndax Pharmaceuticals.