Journal
SOCIAL INDICATORS RESEARCH
Volume 132, Issue 1, Pages 489-516Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s11205-015-1227-8
Keywords
China; Digital divides; Depression; Happiness; Internet use; Life satisfaction
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Funding
- project, Tuscany: a Global Laboratory for quality of Life [2014/3014/8.4.1/30, 135 del 28/04/2014, 325 del 15/12/2014]
- Food Security Center at the University of Hohenheim part of the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) program Exceed
- DAAD
- German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
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Using data from the 2010 China Family Panel Studies, we analyze the association between Internet use and various measures of subjective well-being (SWB) in a sample of 16- to 60-year-old Chinese. Our analysis shows that although intensive Internet use is significantly associated with lower levels of SWB, we hardly observe any associations when the focus is on participation in specific online activities. Nevertheless, SWB depends on the reasons for using the Internet and the extent to which individuals feel that their Internet use is displacing other activities. Our results suggest that, contrary to previous findings, differences in beneficial outcomes (the third level digital divide) do not necessarily arise from individuals' actual Internet use (the second level digital divide) but rather may result from their subjective perceptions of such usage. Our findings also point to a possible cultural factor that puts Chinese Internet users at psychological risk.
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