On Mon, 25 May 2009 22:02:04 -0400, Christopher D. Green wrote: >Generally speaking, I am skeptical of the popular >computers-are-killing-our-children genre of news report. However, >"American teenagers sent and received an average of *2, 272 text >messages per month* in the fourth quarter of 2008"!! >http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/health/26teen.html?hpw
A couple of points: (1) I think that this might be another example of the "main effect fallacy" in that it gives the impression that all U.S. teenagers engage in this behavior while it is probably the case that it is a situation that if most likely present in middle-class and upper SES teenagers. That is, the magnitude of "Texting Gone Wild" is likely to vary across SES levels and other relevant economic and social factors. How many children of the homeless or migrant workers enage in such behaviors? Or, because the story in in the New York Times, as we only interested in middle class and higher teenagers? (2) At what point will this behavior be classified either as (a) an obsessive-compulsive disorder or (b) an addiction? If a person was engaging 2,272 times per month in doing a drug, engaging in sex acts, engaging in betting and gambling, eating, going to the gym/exercising, downloading internet porn, or, I admit this is really, really unusual, waterboarding people, would we think that doing these behaviors at this high a frequency was a "normal" thing? Once upon a time it was not unusual to see/know people who always had a lit cigarette in their mouth but the culture made such behavior acceptable until the inevitable diseases and deaths showed how such "normal" behaviors were truly pathological. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
