WSJ/NBC Poll Suggests Social Media Aren't Replacing Direct Interactions

Social media and online networking have exploded over the last 15 years, but they don't seem to be replacing direct social connections among neighbors or family members around the dining room table, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll has found.

More than two-thirds of Americans have a social media profile and shop online, and more than 60% pay bills online, the survey found. But people are still nearly as likely to have frequent family dinners as they were 15 years ago. The poll findings paint a broad portrait of how Americans live and communicate with each other, and how their interactions have changed since 1999, when similar lifestyle questions were asked by Wall Street Journal and NBC News pollsters.

Bill McInturff, the Republican pollster who conducted the survey with Democrat Fred Yang, said the results seemed to counter the widespread concern that the proliferation of online connections was undermining direct social contact.

Despite the growth of online culture, the poll found that 58% said they had a family dinner at least five times a week -- about the same as the 60% who said so in June, 1999. Married couples with children were the demographic group most likely to have family dinners.

Looking beyond family life, the poll found that 69% of Americans said they knew their neighbors well, compared with 73% who said so in 1999. Neighborliness didn't seem to diminish among people who make connections through social media. Among adults between 18 and 49 years old, 68% of people with a social media profile said they knew their neighbors well, compared with 57% of people without a social media profile.