

People Who Are Constantly Online Can Develop Mental Disorders - stfu
http://charlotte.cbslocal.com/2012/07/17/study-people-who-are-constantly-online-can-develop-mental-disorders/

======
fein
"...studied more than 4,100 Swedish men and women between the ages of 20 and
24"

""Daily computer gaming for 1–2 hours meant an increased risk for symptoms of
depression in the women," the study found. Often using the computer late at 48
night (and consequently losing sleep) was a prospective risk factor for stress
and sleep disturbances, including reduced performance, in both sexes."

So in other words, people between the ages of 20-24 who don't sleep enough are
having problems? No kidding...

I'm also pretty sure any female (who makes it evident that they are, indeed, a
female) playing any sort of male dominated online game would become depressed
VERY easily given the general caliber of online male/ female social
interactions.

------
mistercow
As the paper points out, this is an analysis of cross-sectional and
prospective studies, so while interesting, this evidence tells us nothing
about the direction of causation and cannot account for confounding factors.
It could easily be that sleep disorders and depression cause people to spend
more time online rather than the converse, or it could be that some external
factor causes both increased time online as well as mental disorders.

To actually figure out if being online _causes_ these disorders, we'd need a
randomized controlled trial.

