> 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.
Yes, that's it exactly. The social science research jargon for this type
of error is "correlation does not imply causation."
I have to say that the CMU project is pretty neat. It has a lot of
potential. On the other hand, the inferential error (assuming that
Internet usage -> depression) is glaringly obvious. Having talked to some
people involved with the CMS project, I would suspect they know better.
Hopefully, this was just a case of the press misinterpreting research data
(again).
Bottom line: Let's not dismiss the CMU project because of this.
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Kieran Mathieson, Chair
Department of Decision and Information Sciences Voice: (248) 370 3507
School of Business Administration FAX: (248) 370 4275
Oakland University
Rochester, MI 48309
Email: mathieso @ oakland.edu
URL: http://www.sba.oakland.edu/faculty/mathieson/mathieson.htm
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