Internet use associated with higher wellbeing, finds new global Oxford study

The results are interesting, but because it's a correlative study, I think the results are still compatible with internet usage being bad for your well being. People might use the internet more when they are feeling better/more sociable, even if the internet tempers that. Similarly, people might avoid the internet when they are feeling low because they can't take it.

I'm not convinced that is the case however, I wouldn't be surprised if internet usage actually improved most people's wellbeing, with some notable exceptions (teenage girls, as they mention in the article).

I find their methodology really questionable.

They used an existing survey, which had 4 questions, which they combined to 3 binary questions for their analysis:

- “Does your home have access to the internet?” / “Do you have access to the internet in any way, whether on a mobile phone, a computer, or some other device?”

- “Can your mobile phone be used to access the internet?”

- “Have you used the internet in the past seven days, whether on a mobile phone, a computer, or some other device?”

So they cannot say anything about the impacts of how much you use the internet, so long as you access it at least weekly, in some form. The correlation really says that for people who are so off the beaten track that they aren't using this ubiquitous technology, which institutions, governments and society have centered on, but are still somehow reachable for this survey, their well-being is likely to be impacted. The survey period went through 2021, so this includes a pandemic period where one presumes having no internet access might have had more dramatic impacts on well-being than normal.

I still have this 90s' feeling that the internet connects me to the world, news, science and culture. I really miss it when I don't have it. But I never use social media, so maybe that's why I'm so positive.