NEW YORK – A study by the Annenberg Center for the Digital Future has concluded that the Internet is now the most effective way to avoid interaction with one’s family members. According to the survey, the Internet is poised to overtake television, which has a long and rich tradition in helping individuals avoid the drudgery of family dialogue, offering the cocooning, self-indulgent comfort of vapid programming in its stead.

Family activists have called the development a major change to the model that has governed family relations for decades.

In this photo, an advanced user uses his laptop and mobile phone to tweet to himself in order to avoid his daughter

“This is very interesting,” said C. Clarence Flotchstein, an underfellow with the Center for Family Resonance. “Throughout history, there have been great ways to avoid your family: drinking, having affairs, wild boar hunting, heavy drug use, fight clubs and even reading, which was easily the most challenging and dangerous refuge from family life of the lot.

“Then, along came TV, and that really created a happy medium. Here was a way to be in the same room with your family without having to acknowledge their existence. Best of all, absolutely no thought was involved; it really was the best of both worlds. You didn’t have to concentrate on dealing with your family, and you didn’t have to concentrate on what you were replacing your family with, because the TV did the thinking for you.”

Flotchstein urges those switching from television to the Internet as their preferred antidote to family to be cautious and take things slow. “Lots of people haven’t really had to think in years. Although they will likely use the Internet simply to view TV online and to watch their fellow cretins perform on YouTube, there will still be an element of interaction and they will need to be prepared for that.”

As an example, Fotchstein pointed out that Internet use typically requires a computer and at least a remedial level of reading comprehension (“probably third or fourth grade,” he says).

“On the ‘Net, people have to overcome things like entering usernames and passwords, bookmarking favorite sites and, worst of all, reading substantially more than they’d have to contend with in, for example, a lineup of program listings on their TV screen. To post videos of themselves cavorting around naked, for example, they will need to manage through a tricky upload process, which does require some reading. TV was just point and shoot.”

Flotchstein added that a computer keyboard typically has “26 letters and all the numbers” while a TV remote has “at most, 15-20 buttons. This is a big step for a lot of people.”

Still, that doesn’t mean the Internet is not a very effective counter to the tiresome demands of family, said Flotchstein.

“Despite its inherent complexity, the Internet is proving it can help you get through a solid 168 hours without acknowledging your family, and it offers some unique ways to do it that TV could never dream of. Best of all, if you simply must communicate with your family, you can use the Internet to do so, using e-mail or, even better, by twating.”