There were three males and twenty-five females who participated in the study. The average age of the twenty-eight participants was 18.29 (See Table 1). All participant were users of Instant Messenger. Their average hours of use of Instant Messenger were 4.2054 hours with a range of 15.75. The minimum
use was .25 hours and the maximum use was 16 hours (See Table 2). The participants’ average score on the UCLA Loneliness Scale was 18.821. The minimum score was 10 and the maximum score was 36 with a range of 26 (See Table 3). A Pearson Correlation on the data between hours of use of Instant Messenger and Total Score on the UCLA Loneliness Scale was in concluded (See Table 4 and Table 5). A Linear Regression was done on the data of hours of use of Instant Messenger, number of names on a participant's Buddy List and question 6 (How often do you feel completely alone?) on the UCLA Loneliness Scale. Using hours of use and number of names on their Buddy List as predictors of question 6 it was found that there was a relationship with significance at the level of .02 (See Table 6, Table 7 and Table 8). This means the more hours of use of Instant Messenger and the smaller the number of names on a participants Buddy List the higher the score on
question 6. The high the score on question six, the lonelier a participant feels. Similar evidence was found using question 9 (How often do you feel it is difficult for you to make friends?) on the UCLA Loneliness Scale with
significance at the level of .012 (See Table 9, Table 10 and Table 11). Evidence was also found for a relationship between question 9 and the time of day a participant uses Instant Messenger, specifically nighttime (after 11pm) and its percentage of use. Two groups were made: group 1 who had less than 20% use at a particular time of day and group2 who had more than 20% use at a particular time of day. Participants who used Instant
Messenger at night during the weekend differed in group 1 and group 2. An Independent T-test was done on this data and significance was found at the level of .0235 (See Table 12 and Table 13). This means group 1 who uses Instant Messenger less at night during the weekend scores lower on question 9 and is less lonely. It also means that group 2 who uses Instant Messenger more at night on the weekend scores higher on question 9 and is lonelier. Similar evidence was found for question 9 and weekday night use. The significance of the Independent T-test on this data was at the level of .026 (See Table 14 and Table 15).
     Evidence of the present data supports the hypothesis that Instant Messenger Use and Loneliness are positively correlated when aspects of Instant Messenger and loneliness are looked at. To summarize the findings, the time of day and the amount of use leads to a relationship of significance with loneliness. Also the amount of hours of use and the number of names on a Buddy List has a significant relationship with loneliness.