I found this a few days ago…unfortunately, I forgot to take note of where I found out about it :/
Anyway, it’s a study, written by a Ph.D. and his collaborators, so it’s kind of dry, about how Internet use and depression relate to each other…and it’s a mixed bag.
On one hand, Kraut and others found out in 1998 that there’s enough evidence to say that using the Internet provokes depression, but it may be specific to novice Internet users.
On the other hand, Bandura reformulated the whole thing and came to the conclusion that Internet use brings social support that helps self-efficacy to *fight* depression.
In other words, the Internet helps provoke *and* fight depression, depending on your personal circumstances lol!
Anyway, read the study, it’s an interesting, if slightly dry, read. Reformulating the Internet Paradox: Social Cognitive Explanations of Internet Use and Depression
Technorati Tags: internet, depression, social studies, robert larose, ph.d.
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You’re alive! You haven’t posted in so long I was ready to send out the polizia to find you!
So… internet depressing eh?
http://www2.gamesville.lycos.com/html_poke/poke_penguin.htm
Poke the penguin until he responds. You linux users are behind this I’m sure.
So, you quit reading? Or just quit reviewing? :P
It hasn’t been that long, come on :P
And yes, I bet that was a linux user’s creation lol! Except he forgot the Vista logo on the glove :)
I’m half-way through writing a review, should be posted tomorrow some time, hopefully…monday at the latest.
I thought it had a couple of serious flaws in it’s thinking. I have to skim read these days, so I may not have given due credit to the overall report. This parapragh made me laugh, which was the last.
“It might also be argued that the problem will solve itself as new users progress to become experienced ones. However, to take this approach would be to condemn new Internet users to years of unproductive effort. It also risks widening the Digital Divide if frustrated users, unable to use the Internet effectively to obtain desirable outcomes, abandon its use or fail to strive for new levels of attainment.”
Competely fails to take into account that someone that learns will guide their childen through the pit falls and advances them through a before mention problem. I mean it’s not like we have to use boot disks to play a different game any more in DOS. Things have improved. Did I read that part right? “fail to strive for new levels of attainment” Like there is some kind of mark branded on those that use and those that don’t and we are then thrust into a segregated world? Yeah pretty dry and need to reread, my attention span for that blather has gone the way of the telegraph. … _ _ _ …
PHD’s ahh god love em. I never ran into a more dedicated group in a structured constricted way of thinking in my life and I’m not speaking of the scientific method. It was a real shock how few of them could or would think out of the box. I loved to get in their face. I had one that I swear was stalking me apologizing for blowing off a prehistoric site as unimportant, in central Florida. Christ there was no settlement pattern that even took into account the sites location, it was hugely important. His arguement was, well we saved it, because of the turtles that lived there, what an ass hole. But back then I was picking the mentors and I choose those with the open minds, not easy to find.
I got a hoot out of one of the other pieces from this ones home page about online game friendship. Good lord, they used MUDs and they did it in 2000. I didn’t see a single referance to PvP either. I didn’t even think MUD’s were even around anymore, had gone the way of UseNet.
Damn depressing I tell you ;p
postpaleo
Indeed, it does have its faulty assumptions here and there…but when talking about subjective things, like humans, it’s hard to find a way to base those assumptions on real facts.
On the other hand, that paragraph made me cringe more than laugh lol! My first thought was “so, if you can’t grasp the Net, you get sent to the technophobic’s gulag?”; on the other hand, I believe that not getting the Net *is* limiting for people…the future is on the electronic world, and if you can’t get there, you’ll lose a lot of opportunities for growth.
As for PHDs…hell yes, square as square can be, most of them…tend to drive me crazy lol!