If people in the Great Depression flocked to 25-cent movies to escape from bad news, economic worrywarts nowadays are finding solace on the Internet.

That's the conclusion of a survey released Thursday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

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Aaron Smith, research specialist at Pew Internet, acknowledged the seeming contradiction of the Internet's being a source of both anxiety and relaxation for economic users.

"You see people using it for information, using it for tangible reasons related to their own personal finances, and then you also see them using it to relax from all that stuff," Smith said.

But the Internet is so thoroughly intertwined with modern life that it's no surprise it's capable of bringing both grief and relief, he said.

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