ABSTRACT
What follows was stimulated by Nie and Erbring (2000), who concluded on the basis of cross-sectional evidence that Internet use reduces social contact. I contend that their finding is methodologically flawed because longitudinal panel survey materials are necessary to draw any such implication; I argue for a ‘neo-functionalist’ theoretical perspective within which the impact of such new technologies may more helpfully be considered; and I illustrate these propositions through the analysis of a UK panel study of time-diarists.
Technologies as chains of provision for services
