Causing autism this week: social networking sites

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7907766.stm

Good thing that they acknowledged that it's "the other way around"(well, let the information in anyway). I expected a more bigoted article when I saw the title.

But it sucks how few "experts" in the media acknowledge the biggest factor in the claimed increase of diagnosis.

I just read that article, what utter tripe.

Susan Greenfield is a believer in the Blank Slate, that (some) people are not born autistic but the environment causes (some) autism cases, this is utter rubbish. It has been long established that autism is predominately genetic, its not caused by a "refrigerator mother" or TV or the Internet.

Before the internet, I was immersed in mineral collecting and astronomy, did these hobbies cause my Asperger's? No! Asperger's came first, then I discovered mineralogy and astronomy.

Do to 3 year olds use social networking sites? No. Do people at the age of ca. 15-18, become autistic after a year on Second Life? When they were previously NT? No.

My Asperger's causes to focused on one activity at a time intensely, and I spend allot of time pursuing that one activity. Now I spend, I admit, too much time on the internet. But it is not the cause of my AS, its the result of it.

P.S. My girlfriend told me to stay away from Second Life, in case I might get obsessed with it.

DiamondDave, I agree with your GF, stay away from secondlife...

As for the article, I say we don't have the luxury of waiting for the evidence to determine whether these sites cause autism, we need to stamp them out immediately just in case.

I'll take care of facebook, DeLoreanDude can destroy MySpace, dadum should kill youtube, and we'll let eharmony just die on its own... DiamondDave, nuke SecondLife (from a safe distance)....

If we act now, autism will be a thing of the past by tomorrow morning...

OK, lets get started... everybody synchronise your watches...

What a massive load of toss. I can only assume that nobody has ever introduced these tards to an ADULT with autism.

See the thing about the internet as it is now.. its a modern phenomena. Facebook, Myspace, Myface, Twatter, whatever.. All less than a decade old.

The thing about adults with autism is that most of us were born and raised in the late seventies, early 80s, even the early 90s, or before those times.. and back then you were lucky if you even SAW a computer.

Maybe Autism is retroactive? Maybe it DEFIES THE LAWS OF TIME AND SPACE.

Or maybe some people should sit down, and STFU before they make themselves look even more stupid...

Hmm, when I was a miserable confused teenager with far worse symptoms than I have now I had no internet and felt constantly isolated.

Nowadays I do have the internet and am much happier, more outgoing, and this is helped by the huge virtual interface I have with the real world and being able to express what I really mean via a computer screen to people.

I'm with Macbeth - it's a load of old toss.

yes, the computer causes PDDs to develop! i swear these people r purposely leading everyone away from the truth.

it's been two weeks, is it video games again, or is it still facebook ?

2/18 'health at risk from video games, MMO's'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healt ... igman.html

2/19 'facebook -> cancer'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic ... ancer.html

2/27 'facebook -> books/music that dumb/smart kids read & listen to, with chart'
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/02/27/ ... -you-dumb/

3/1 'loneliness -> health risk'
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 15VE34.DTL

3/2 'risk of asthma'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/child ... sthma.html

you cant really beat facebook causing cancer, but apart from the alcohol-> depression and alcohol-> cancer stories, it's a slow week in the campaign of terror, all those vigilant british journalistic professionals watching for public health risks.

i.e. here's another one.

3/2 'bathroom handdryers could be public health risk'
http://www.prweb.com/releases/handdryer ... 196064.htm

From the one about lists of things that make you dumber:

Ironically, students who wrote “I don’t read” in the space for favorite books were only slots 14 from the bottom in terms of SAT scores, meaning that there were 13 other favorite books that theoretically made students “dumber” than not reading books at all.

<3 that so hard it hurts.

You have to wonder: if there is such a vast increase in "social isolation" does that mean that we, the Aspies, become more normal by default? If the trend continues, will we become the masters of the universe, the highest form of life.. those who excel at social isolation?

If only all those articles werent a load of crap, we would be on to a winner...

A classical case of confusing the symptoms with the malady. Balderdash and tommyrot.

ruveyn

This is just how those old-fashioned tossers always try to demonise things they don't like: link it to either cancer or autism. BS.

It's just the hundredth pretext to discredit Internet

f**k them