Abstract

The study is designed to compare the degree of alienation as a dimension of human relations between those who have been involving in the computer- mediated communication and those who have not, and to help build a healthy environment for the computer users by finding ways to resolve the problem of alienation. A total of 907 college students completed the questionnaire. To estimate the degree of alienation, we borrowed Seeman's classifications of alienation. According to him, the concept is comprised of 5 sub-types: powerlessness, rnoaninglessness, normlessness, social isolation and self-estrangement. The independent variables are 1) the average time spent in the cyberspace, 2) level of interntet syndrome based on the items made by a notable psychiatrist to diagnose webaholism, and 3) the main purpose of using the computer-mediated communication; whether it is information-acquiring or pleasure-seeking. The degree of depressed feeling, the frequncy of family get-together and satisfaction with family relations, the stability and health of family, and involvement in social activities such as volunteer activities are used as control variables. The results showed that level of 'webaholism' significantly affects the degree of alienation. In other words, excessive indulgence in net activities aggravates a feeling of alienation. This warns possible negative effects of the computer-mediated communication upon the individuals' psychological well-being. In addition, the level of alienation varies with the individual's main purpose of using computer-mediated communication. People who visit internet sites or personal computer network to acquire information for academic of constructive purposes tend to show lower level of alienation. On the contrary, those who use cyberspace for leisure and pleasure reveals higher level of alienation. Interestingly enough, the academic-oriented net users show lower level of alienation than the individuals who do not participate in the computer net activities, This result suggests that network participation may attenuate our feeling of alienation if it is used in positive ways.

• Keywords: Cyber-space, Alienation, Internet, Webhaholism;