Social Media and Social Isolation: A study of relationship between new communication technologies and social isolation

The survey aimed to study the use of new communication technologies (NCTs) and social isolation among students of Shiraz University. Using Proportionate Stratified Random Sampling 404 students (190 male, 214 female) randomly selected and answered to questionnaire. For a more comprehensive study of Isolation, researchers have tried to use multiple indicators to measure social isolation in both objective (social disconnectedness) and subjective (perceived loneliness) dimensions. The results show that the Internet use has a significant inverse correlation with social isolation, both, subjective and objective. But the mobile phone use has not statistically significant correlation with Isolation. The results indicate that NCTs, especially Internet, not only do not lead to decreased social interaction, but also to complement and strengthen them. Also, results showed perceived loneliness of students has decreased by using NCTs. We do not have a clear picture of youth's social networks on virtual and actual worlds and need to focus on individual's social network in future researches.