Sad surfers debate their web woes
October 5, 2012
Depressed people send more email.
Researchers at the Missouri University of Science and Technology recently assessed some college students for signs of melancholia, then tracked their behaviour online.
''We identified several features of internet usage that correlated with depression,'' they said. Sad people use instant messaging and file share.
They play video games. They surf the web in their own, sad way.
Not everyone found the news believable. ''Facepalm. Correlation doesn't imply causation,'' wrote one unhappy internet user.
''That's pretty much how I read this too … correlation is NOT causation,'' agreed a Huffington Post superuser, seemingly distraught.
''I was surprised not to find a discussion of correlation vs. causation,'' cried someone at Hacker News.
''Correlation does not mean causation,'' a reader moaned at Slashdot. ''There are so many variables here that it isn't funny.''
And thus a deeper correlation was revealed, a link more telling than any that the Missouri team had shown.
Correlation does not imply causation. Your hype is busted. Your study debunked. End of conversation.
No, correlation does not imply causation, but it sure provides a hint. Does email make a man depressed? Does sadness make a man send email? Or is something else again to blame for both? A correlation can't tell one from the other; in that sense it's inadequate. Still, if it can frame the question, our observation sets us down the path towards thinking through the workings of reality, so we might learn new ways to tweak them. It helps us go from seeing things to changing them.
....more at link
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/techno ... z28OosfyHd
