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The Internet Doesn't Make People Depressed
from the oh-sure,-now-you-change-your-story dept
The same folks who did the study three years ago that said the internet made people depressed (and about which there has been a ton of info discrediting the report - such as the failure to even do such basic things as get a random sample and instead just use test subjects in the ever depressing city of Pittsburgh), are now coming out with a new study saying that the internet does not make people depressed any more. That's right. They're standing by their old study, but times have changed, and now the internet can make people happy. Anyway, it sounds like there are a lot of questions about this new study as well, and after the details of the first one came out I find it hard to take anything they say seriously.
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No Subject Given
I love crap like this: "His key finding: The more time people spent on the Net, the more lonely and depressed they became."
Could it be that lonely and depressed people spend more time on the net?
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Re: No Subject Given
no. statistical correlations ruled out most of that causality. you should read the white paper before making inferences about the study's results.
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Depression/Internet Use and job satisfaction
Research conducted for my Master's degree explored various elements related to job satisfaction, including the relationship between job satisfaction and internet connectivity in the workplace. The study was conducted in both urban and rural areas. A strong statistical correlation was found in that rural (more isolated) workers with internet connectivity experienced greater job satisfaction.
As with the authors of this most recent study, in my experience I have found that it is overly simplistic to assume a direct cause and effect relationship between internet usage and depression -- or any other mood influence for that matter. One must also consider such things as the context of such usage, aspects of individuals' personalities, and impact upon overall personal/social functioning before beginning to draw such definitive conclusions.
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