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Europe, Measured

ESS-10 / The good life

Connected, but less alone?

Does online contact reduce loneliness, or only when it supplements face-to-face contact?

PlannedWave 1Research question, not a published result

The question

Distinguish digital-only contact from a social life that combines screens and physical company.

What the analysis will test

Primary quantity
Adjusted wellbeing differences across online and face-to-face contact portfolios.
Evidence
ESS rounds 10. Modules: digital contact, wellbeing.
Primary comparison
Contact portfolio comparison. The final form depends on validated data and uncertainty.
Publication threshold
Pinned source editions, reviewed questionnaire comparability, survey-design-aware intervals, disclosure checks and reproducible aggregate outputs.

What this evidence does not prove

Loneliness can change contact patterns as well as follow them; the survey does not identify direction of causation.

The ESS interviews different probability samples in each round. It measures structural differences and change, not today's mood or the same individuals over time.

Sources and next release

This page reserves the permanent address for ESS-10. Estimates and downloads will appear here after the data, statistical, editorial and reproducibility checks pass.

Series methodology and source register / ESS11 edition 4.2