摘要：

The Internet represents a departure from previous communication technologies, combiningfeatures of interpersonal and mass communication. The "functional equivalence"argument in media studies predicts decreases in both types of communication activitiesas Internet use increases. A 1998-9 national sample of 948 individuals aged 18-64 whocompleted 24-hour time diaries of all daily activities is used to test this hypothesis.Few differences in either interpersonal or mass communication activities are foundacross Internet users and non-users. Nor are there significant decreases in other freetimeactivities. As has been the case of television, certain personal care and other nonfreetime activities are most different. This raises questions about whether the Internetacts more to enhance communication behaviors rather than to displace behavior (whichhas been the case for television)

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