Web Use - Signs of Ills, or the Usual Drama? - NYTimes.com In "How Depressives Surf the Web" (Gray Matter, Sunday Review, June 17), Sriram Chellappan and Raghavendra Kotikalapudi claim that depressed college students use the Internet more frequently than others. Moreover, they suggest installing software programs that would monitor Internet use and notify parents and colleges about such presumably pathological styles of Internet behavior. In fact, their findings seem to show that students who are having ordinary problems with their boyfriends and girlfriends, parents or academic work consequently develop mild symptoms of distress. Their styles of Internet use are more likely to indicate that they are seeking assistance for their problems from friends, blogs or chat rooms. Such behaviors are not signs of pathology but of potentially helpful ways of dealing with natural distress and psychosocial problems. The writer is a professor of sociology at Rutgers University.