Gill, Kathy wrote:
>
> I just *love* the way reporters report "research" - none of this (no
> controls, not random selection) showed up in any stories I saw.
>
> >From Edupage:
>
> NET DEPRESSION STUDY CRITICIZED
[snip]
> Hoffman says the CMU research is "not ready for prime time. This is not
> saying that Internet does not cause depression. Maybe it does -- but
> this research does not prove that." She adds that the CMU finding is
> hard to believe because it runs "counter to experience, anecdotal
> evidence, practice and scholarly research."
Okay, this one is a no brainer. Why don't they give us the hundreds of
thousands they likely paid for this and we can do it right? *grin*
Wondered if it occurred to them that perhaps people with pre-existing
depression turned to the internet email, chat and other "social"
services as a way to escape it? While the net may make it worse for
already depressed people who eventually find it isn't a solution to
whatever problem they're having, I don't think "cause" is a very useful
word.
I have a theory here . . .
I bet if we sit 400 depressed people in a park, they'll feel good for X
amount of time, and then they'll go back to being depressed because the
park didn't change their fundamental circumstances.
Hence, as per this logic, parks and nature cause depression. (Guess we
better pave it all over!)
Or even better, we give 400 depressed people copies of all studies done
like this about why they are depressed. While they may feel better for
X seconds while they see occasional glimpses useful info, eventually
they'll all be depressed again when they realize there are no answers to
problems in these reports.
Hence, studies about depression will inevitably cause depression.
What depresses me is people get paid to "generate" this crap when I can
sit here and make it up 100 times faster (but no one pays for that . . .
well, okay, dave barry gets paid for that . . . .) . . . well, that and
things like that fact that Bangladesh is suffering one of the worst
natural disasters in the history of the planet right now, and crap like
this is being covered by reporters as news :P
Brett
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