Internet use seems to cause a drop in psychological( 心 理 )health, according to research at Carnegie Mellon University. Even people who spent just a few hours a week on the Internet experienced more bad feeli ngs and loneliness than those who spent far less time online , the two-year study showed. An d it wasn’t that people who were already feeling bad spent more time on the Internet, but that us ing the Net actually appeared to cause the bad feeling. Researchers are baffled at the results, wh ich were completely different from their expectations. They expected that the Net would pr ove socially healthier than television, because the Net allows users to choose their information and to communicate with others. , The drop in psychological health is probably because of the fact that Internet use redu ces time available for family and friends, researchers thought. Faceless, bodiless “virtual” (虚的) communication may be less psychologically satisfying than actual conversation, and the relationships formed through it may be shallower. Another possibility is that exposure( 暴露) to the wider world through the Net makes users less satisfied with their lives. “But it’s important to remember this is not about the technology, it’s about how it is use d, ” says Christine Riley of Intel, one of the study’s sponsors ( 发起人 ).“What really matters is that you need to consider social factors when you design applications and services for technology.”