Internet use is associated with greater wellbeing, global study finds ( www.theguardian.com )

remotelove , 10 days ago

When someone is feeling down, I point them right at a little place called 4-Chan. Those are some of the most wholesome people you can find on the internet! Everyone is so humble, they won't even accept credit for all of their goodwill so all of their posts are anonymous.

(Seriously, this post title is almost nottheonion grade.)

HubertManne , 10 days ago

this sounds to me like rich folks enjoy greater wellbeing than poor given its a global study. they talk about how other studies were limited because it just looke at north america or europe. geez. this is so obvious. I swear I have seen so many redic studies recently.

TechLich , 10 days ago

It sounds like they controlled for that and did a bunch of different statistical models to break it down by different demographics and economics. That said, I'm finding it hard to find the original paper. It's not linked to in the article or any of the AP versions I found. Nature has a link to Google scholar but that comes up with nothing and it's not referenced in the researcher's publications on the Oxford site yet. Maybe it went to the press already but the actual article isn't out yet?

It does sound very broad though and difficult/impossible to draw any causation. Still interesting through as it does kinda show that any negative causative link that might exist between well-being and internet use is not strong enough to outweigh other positive factors that are correlated with it (even non-causative ones).

HubertManne , 10 days ago

There is another factor though which is loss of non internet options. I would say for example that before 2010 I could live completely off the net. I could do pretty much everything by mail or in person or over the phone. post 2020 this is nearly impossible. I myself am trying to only utilize companies with offices where I can talk to people in person and on the phone but I find companies are attempting to run those offices with people who are the equivalent with first line phone support. And that is for the very small subset that have physical locations. Hours of operation are much more limited as well. Phone is generally equally degraded. Basically even if using the internet is horrible for you it is becoming a requirement to get by in life such that it would appear positive. For those who don't quite get what im saying is lets say you have to take some methadone every time you have to do anything business related. A very small amount. Incredibly small but of course you will be doing it often. Then follow it up with a study on how beneficial taking opioids are for people.

Skullgrid , 10 days ago

So... "go outside and touch grass" is bullshit? :P

exocrinous , 10 days ago

Always has been, as someone with a grass allergy. I fucking hate grass and I hate touching it. No, getting the sniffles will not improve my mental health. But it might make me puke up my lunch, thanks to a little thing called a post-nasal drip caused by long covid.

Lawns aren't some great mental health boon. They're a symbol of petty bourgeois waste and excess pushed by the racist suburbs that invented them to keep black people out. TL;DR: grass is racist.

Also outside is where we trans people get hate crime'd. Fuck that place, and telling us to get off the internet is imo violent speech. The internet is the only place where many trans people are gendered correctly and allowed to be themselves. Lower internet use for trans people leads to higher suicide rate.