UB Sociologist Says Internet Replacing Personal Contact

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Gabbing at the water cooler or over the back fence may become a thing of the past, thanks to the information "superhighway," a University at Buffalo sociologist says.

America's infatuation with the Internet is causing many people to lose the personal touch in their social and professional relationships, says Robert L. Boyd, UB assistant professor.

"With the Internet, people have instantaneous communication on a worldwide basis. It's the next step beyond the telephone," says Boyd. "As this network has expanded, it's brought people together across the country. They are interacting frequently and more closely than they interact with their neighbors. In fact, they may be communicating much more frequently with people long distance than they are with their neighbors," he notes.

Boyd says the revolution in telecommunications technology has created a phenomenon called community without propinquity, where people's interactions are no longer restricted by their geographic location. Many professionals in "knowledge-intensive" kind of work, such as management consulting or stock brokerage, are locating beyond the suburbs because they can keep in contact with the major financial centers in New York, London and Tokyo, he says.

"They can keep in contact with their colleagues without any loss of feedback. They don't have to wait three or four days for a letter to arrive. Since so many people are doing work on the computer, they find it much easier to send a message over e-mail than picking up a telephone. "They're able to live a rural lifestyle in places like Montana with no loss of contact with the people they interact with professionally," he says.

This dependence on electronic communication in the business world is, unfortunately, extending to social interactions, Boyd says. People aren't gossiping over the back fence anymore; they're gabbing over the Internet.

"The trend is that people increasingly are not interacting with their neighbors, or if they are, it's only on a superficial level. Their close contacts, and in many cases their friendships, are continued over telecommunications.

"It makes people less dependent on their neighbors for social interaction. It's possible that as a result, they just don't feel compelled to get to know the people next door."