<p>There are quite a few users who are pretty much addicted to the Stack Exchange network and spend over 3-4 hours per day here. Time spent here will result in lower amount of social interactions, and lesser time for other activities as well. </p>

<p>What are the effects that this has on the social skills of a person ?</p>

<p>In a way, we are all interacting with other individuals on this platform as well, but the communications are mostly textual and in a way, <em>buffered</em> (for lack of a better term). So, its safe to say that spending half an hour interacting with individuals here will be very different from interacting with individuals face-to-face. In such a scenario, what are expected and/or observed effects on communication abilities. </p>

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2013-03-06T16:00:41.467Z
Just a thought: interacting with others without being able to look at their face(ex: VoiP, Mumble, Ventrillo) would not trigger the person's "mirror neurons", thus the emotions of the other person's would be harder to understand. Text only communication (forums, emails, reddit) makes it very easy to misinterpret messages in a negative light.
Alex Stone
<social-psychology><communication><internet>
What effects does spending a lot of time in online communities have on interpersonal skills?
asheeshr
# What effects does spending a lot of time in online communities have on interpersonal skills?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-03-06)

There are quite a few users who are pretty much addicted to the Stack Exchange network and spend over 3-4 hours per day here. Time spent here will result in lower amount of social interactions, and lesser time for other activities as well.

What are the effects that this has on the social skills of a person ?

In a way, we are all interacting with other individuals on this platform as well, but the communications are mostly textual and in a way, *buffered* (for lack of a better term). So, its safe to say that spending half an hour interacting with individuals here will be very different from interacting with individuals face-to-face. In such a scenario, what are expected and/or observed effects on communication abilities.

**Tags:** social-psychology, communication, internet

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Just a thought: interacting with others without being able to look at their face(ex: VoiP, Mumble, Ventrillo) would not trigger the person's "mirror neurons", thus the emotions of the other person's would be harder to understand. Text only communication (forums, emails, reddit) makes it very easy to misinterpret messages in a negative light.  

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## 0 answers

