Does The Internet Cause Psychological Harm To Teens?
from the sounds-familiar dept
It's been about five years since the famous Carnegie Mellon study suggesting that the internet made people depressed. That study got a ridiculous amount of publicity, and its findings were quickly picked apart and discredited. Of course, that won't stop psychologists from coming up with all sorts of ways to prove that the internet is "bad". The latest, is a study out of Australia saying that the internet causes psychological harm to teens. The basis for this conclusion? That many teens are more comfortable chatting online than in person. So, because these teens actually find a social space where they're comfortable communicating (rather than bottling everything up inside) we're supposed to conclude that it's had a bad psychological effect on them. The inherent assumption in the conclusion is that communicating online is bad, while communicating in person is good. It never seems to occur to the psychologist doing the study that by being able to communicate comfortably online, the teen may be able to build up self-confidence in their own opinions and ability to express themselves, which can translate into the real world as well.