Participants

     Twenty-eight college freshman volunteers participated in the study. These freshman participants were from Introductory Psychology classes at a small liberal arts college in the northeast. The students were given credit
for their participation. Their ages ranged from 18 to 21 years.

Materials

     The Instant Messenger Use Inventory (IMUI)(Appendixes A) created by Lauren G. Stagg was administered first to the participants. The IMUI is a sixteen-question survey developed to determine the extent of use of Instant Messenger. The IMUI specifically looks at amount of use of Instant Messenger and use of other forms of communication, such as pagers and cell phones. Validity for this instrument has not been established.
      The UCLA Loneliness Scale substitute items devised by Russell et al., (1978) was dispensed to the participants directly after finishing the IMUI. The UCLA Loneliness Scale is considered the standard scale for measuring loneliness (White & McConnell 1999). The UCLA Loneliness Scale assessed the degree of loneliness each individual participant possessed. The ten questions are answered on a 4-point likert scale: never, rarely, sometimes, or always. The scores range from 10 to 40.

Design and Procedure

     Testing occurred in two sessions one week apart from each other. In each session, on arrival, participants were met by a female experimenter. The experimenter handed out informed consent forms (Appendixes B) to all participants before starting the study. After handing in the consent forms were verbally asked, in addition to the consent form, whether they were at least eighteen years of age and if they were currently freshman. Those participants who did not meet these specific requirements were asked to leave and not allowed to participate in the study. Participants then were given the Instant Messenger Use Inventory (IMUI). The experimenter asked all participants to please read the directions carefully before beginning the questionnaire. After the IMUI was administered, the experimenter then handed out the UCLA Loneliness Scale. The experimenter once again reminded participants to read the directions carefully before beginning. After all
the participants finished filling out the UCLA Loneliness Scale, the participants were given a debriefing sheet (Appendixes C) and were debriefed by the experimenter.