Introduction letter for our questionnaire

Globalisation, new technologies and demographic developments constitute an enormous challenge in contemporary societies. One of the new technology challenges is the growing role of the Internet in people s lives. Today the Internet is part and parcel of our work and study as well as it is used for other purposes in our every-day life. We read the newspapers on-line, we visit websites of different institutions and organizations we deal with in managing our businesses, and we even do our shopping in the Internet. Besides more and more of our communication with other people is facilitated by the Internet or other new technologies.
Does this mean that we go out less and we meet fewer people? Does it leads to the point that one day we do not have anyone to lean on when we have problems or we don not have a companion to share our joys? Or could the affect of new technologies be vice versa? Does the Internet and other ICT represent a new way to be social and the challenges in reality turn out to be new opportunities?
The aim of this survey research is to find out does the Internet affect the ways how people are communicating and socializing with other people and if so, then how those two aspects of human life in contemporary societies are related to each other? The survey is conducted among students, professors, lecturers and other university workers in four countries: Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Turkey. The questionnaire is anonymous and all data will be treated confidentially, so please do not hesitate to fill up the questionnaire and give your contribution to an international research. The research team will be very grateful to your time and effort.