I remember seeing a headline about Facebook being Bad For You because it causes cancer, a few days back. Unfortunately I was so busy with enrolment (& I might comment a bit on that in a separate post) that I didn’t have time (or energy!) to chase it up. As I recall, the story had something to do with people sitting round all day chatting on Facebook, rather than going round doing ‘healthy’ things, & so leaving themselves open to cancer & other ills of the flesh.
And then today here I am, indulging in a pleasant spot of net-surfing, & I find that Ben Goldacre has done his usual excellent job of examining this claim, along with the related one that people who spend all their time on-line are more prone to loneliness, depression, & so on. For which it seems there is no convincing evidence, & in fact there are published studies which suggest no link exists.
So – visit Ben’s place & read what he has to say. (You can watch/listen as well, as he’s linked to a UK TV ‘debate’ on the subject. Great stuff.
Ken says:
My daughters told me recently that while in the past one was considered anti-social (hence prone to depression, etc) if one sat at the computer all day,. now this has reverse. It seems that a lot of people now conduct a good proportion of their social life “on line.” So now one can be considered anti-social if one doesn’t have an active on-line presence.
Alison Campbell says:
I suppose I’m one of those sad anti-social people who don’t use Facebook 🙂 I’ve never really found the need to do so. I was at a PR industry seminar a year or so back & one of the other attendees was waxing lyrical about Facebook & was horrified that I didn’t have a page. How will people find you? she asked. I answered, using Google, which in retrospect was rather smug. But the lack of any on-line presence beyond my blog (& I suppose my websites) really doesn’t bother me. (I spend enough time on the computer for work as it is…) According to my eldest & his friends, this makes me just a bit Peculiar (& yes, you can hear the capital P when they say it!).