Success in Social World Doesn’t Translate to Offline Relationships

By John Rossi :: 11:55 PM

According to a recent study, led by led by Thomas V. Pollet of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, an individual’s success, socially, in a virtual setting doesn’t appear to carry into the real world.

117 people, aged 18 to 63 were asked questions about the amount of time they spent on instant messaging and social networking sites, and the number and closeness of relationships they had overall.

The study revealed that spending a lot of time online was not linked to having a larger number of friends offline. In addition, the relationships of people who socialized more online weren’t any closer or stronger than people who didn’t use social networks.

Pollet’s study was published in April’s edition of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.