Posted on 06/17/2012 9:42:41 AM PDT by thecodont
IN what way do you spend your time online? Do you check your e-mail compulsively? Watch lots of videos? Switch frequently among multiple Internet applications — from games to file downloads to chat rooms? Enlarge This Image
Brian Cronin We believe that your pattern of Internet use says something about you. Specifically, our research suggests it can offer clues to your mental well-being.
In a study to be published in a forthcoming issue of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, we and our colleagues found that students who showed signs of depression tended to use the Internet differently from those who showed no symptoms of depression.
In February of last year, we recruited 216 undergraduate volunteers at Missouri University of Science and Technology. First, we had the participants fill out a version of a questionnaire called the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, which is widely used for measuring depression levels in the general population. The survey revealed that 30 percent of the participants met the criteria for depressive symptoms. (This was in line with national estimates that 10 to 40 percent of college students at some point experience such symptoms.)
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I don’t think we need this.
“What are the practical applications of this research? We hope to use our findings to develop a software application that could be installed on home computers and mobile devices. It would monitor your Internet usage and alert you when your usage patterns might signal symptoms of depression. This would not replace the function of mental health professionals, but it could be a cost-effective way to prompt people to seek medical help early. It might also be a tool for parents to monitor the mood-related Internet usage patterns of their children.
Such software could also be used at universities, perhaps installed on campus networks to notify counselors of students whose Internet usage patterns are indicative of depressive behavior. (This proposal, of course, raises privacy concerns that would have to be addressed.) “
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't a good reason to be.
Together with Obamacare, go to the “wrong” list of sites or in the wrong order and your compulsory prescription will soon be ready.
Depressives never spend the weekend compulsively reading the Sunday Times.
>>We hope to use our findings to develop a software application that could be installed on home computers and mobile devices. It would monitor your Internet usage and alert you when your usage patterns might signal symptoms of depression.<<
Sort of like your medicine cabinet in THX 1138...
But it might be in their browser history shortly before the symptoms started showing up.
It’s heavy on the correlations of activity, but very light on the causation side of things. It says depressives switch between email and video games a lot. Lots of non-depressive people do that too. Lots of people who have short attention spans are perfectly happy.
IOW, a practically useless study. Did we pay for it?
Yeah, you like that idea?
I can see the linkage they suggest but....
I’m on the Internet ‘cause I tend to get bored.
What could possibly go wrong?
(It's encouraging to see how many FReepers picked up on this point)
I agree with the theory that self pity is at the root of depression, and that would mean people who frequent liberal websites are clinically depressed, whatever that means. They should be put in straight jackets before they hurt themselves or someone else, or before they can use their votes to hurt us.
I’m on the internet because the household TV is monopolized by baseball games of which I tire quickly - esp. when the team you’re watching and rooting for is in last place.
Go to an unapproved site, such as FR, and "warning flags" alert the authorities, who send the jack boots to confiscate your guns "for your protection". Disagreement and protest will only confirm your "depression" and require detainment or if "severe enough", immediate termination.
I already know I’m depressed. I suspect most ‘depressives’ do.
It means you are sad for a reason not apparent to the diagnostician who lacks a particle of empathy, and who has been taught that you are just an elaborate biological machine anyhow.
>>Yeah, you like that idea?
I can see the linkage they suggest but....<<
It is a warning — and a prediction.
>>It means you are sad for a reason not apparent to the diagnostician who lacks a particle of empathy, and who has been taught that you are just an elaborate biological machine anyhow. <<
Although I think it is over-diagnosed, are you suggesting that depression is NOT a medical condition? That, if you try hard enough, a person can just undo it?
What do we have here?...online psychiatrist....using Sigmund Frued on the people who uses the computer...what the hell is it made for any way? More defecating democrat BS.
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