The perception of the type of person who spends all their time online as a Billy-No-Mates is bogus, according to an expert in cyber-sociology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Interviewed by the BBC, Professor Keith Hampton said it was more likely that people who spend a lot of time online had a greater number of social ties than those who did not. He said the internet increases communication skills and leads to more social ties.

While various studies have suggested that people who spend time online are more vulnerable to unhappiness and loneliness, Hampton said that this was because they were using the internet as a way of reaching out.

The MIT research has found that the internet can bind a community together. Hampton said that rather than being seen in isolation, technology needed to be considered as part of people's everyday life.

"If you look at it as just another technology that provides you with access to people, you see that communication online leads to more communication, in person or on the phone," he said.