TV & Video Games Increase Teen Depression Risk

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A new study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry journal claims that watching television or playing video games as a teenager may lead to depression in young adults.

Researchers looked at the exposure to electronic media of 4,142 adolescents who were not depressed when the study began in 1995, before DVDs and the Internet were widely used. The teens reported an average of 5.68 hours of media exposure per day, including 2.3 hours of television, 2.34 hours of radio, 0.62 hours of videocassettes and 0.41 hours of computer games.
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people who get depressed often poop everyday, therefore pooping causes depression.
thanks, give me my research money....
 
They're justifying that watching TV and playing video games increases depression when only 308 out of 4,142 people had depression symptoms?

What the fuck? What else will science spend their time on studying nonsense?
 
That is a correlational study. Correlation does not equal causation. It just shows that there is a related tendancy to the results. Not all kids that play video games will be depressed caused directly from the video games
 
Sounds to me that:

The teens get depressed over something (school, girlfriend, etc) and don't feel like being very sociable and thus play video games to pass the time.


It sounds like they are trying to imply that it is the video games that cause the depression. Not very objective.
 
There is no way to create a proper control group here. The people in both groups were affected by so many other factors from their everyday lives. Each person lives a different life and has different emotional backgrounds that could lead them to a happy lifestyle or one of depression. I understand their thinking behind the theory, but I would have to say that the theory being proved correct, is a rather large stretch.
 
Someone actually used adjusted statistics in a research study with Video games I am shocked and stunned.



That said concurrence is not consequence. They might have watched TV because they sucked at social skills sports etc. Depression is directly related to feeling of inadequacy if they played games because the did not feel comfortable doing other things no surprise. It is very hard to weed out that kind of bias because of the nature of studies. Games have become far more social though it may not reflect all the coo op and casual games people play together. It is better to do more things with people than alone to some extent.
 
Has anyone done a study on how high the suicide rate would be among depressed kids if they didn't have games and television to fall back on?
 
SelousSizzle said:
Has anyone done a study on how high the suicide rate would be among depressed kids if they didn't have games and television to fall back on?
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That wouldn't jive with the "TV and Video Games are Evil" propaganda popularized by the media, so no, no one has.
 
Reality causes depression. Games/TV/friends/drugs/alcohol/etc are just escapes from that reality.
 
All this money spent on research...

And the results are pretty much a giant "BAAAAAWWWWWW" fest...

Guess what? Life is a terminal condition and it may cause depression!

Oh wait never mind, it must be entertainment, because as human beings we seek out everything that will make us hate life.

In before the /wrists.

:p
 
TV can be depressing, I agree with that because most of it is outright garbage.. movies and games on the other hand are awesome and life just wouldnt be as fun without them.. so a big fuck you to this 'study' is in order
 
Correlation does not imply causation. I hate articles like this... It's the old "fat people drink more diet soda, so diet soda must cause people to be fat" argument :/
 
This is like saying video games make people violent! It just attracts violent/depressed people and then researchers change the results to get attention :angry:
 
novadude said:
Reality causes depression. Games/TV/friends/drugs/alcohol/etc are just escapes from that reality.
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My argument the last time we saw this crap. Honestly, our entire world culture is becoming so liberal (not in the literal sense of the word, more like the political sense of it) that we can't let our children develop normally. We can't spank, we can't expose them to "risks", we can't do anything that gives a child the sense of reality that is out in the world. We have to hide them from everything, then when they mature into teens and adults, they are totally fucked up. No sense of right and wrong, no idea what the repercussions are for doing something bad, oblivious to loss and how to handle emotions. We are just raising a bunch of emo losers that dive into escapism whenever they feel threatened. If every kid is going to grow up into an ostrich with it's head buried in the sand then we should all just end it right now! I can't imagine how we are going to find leaders out of these pussies.

Honestly, most young adults have no clue and the younger generation is even worse...entire classrooms in college not doing their homework because they think they will just pass. Well, not in my class...don't do the work and I will have no fear of failing every single one. I was taught to finish on time, I was shown that you had to earn to be on the football team, I realize a break up is hard. We need a restructuring of our children's education, but not in schools. It starts at home, when they are babies and continues till the get out of the house. Do wrong and you get punished, do right and get rewarded, grandma died and it's ok to cry, work for what you want...let alone any biblical morals that nearly nobody teaches anymore! Take your kid to church...it doesn't matter if you hate God, just let the church assist you in the moral and ethical teachings children need, a parent can't do it all. If the bible is good for two things, it's that it gives a great sense of right and wrong and it gives old people hope. For kids, it's Aesop's Fables on Holy Crack and Sunday school can teach children a lot...once they hit preteen or teenage years they probably have absorbed all they can and you can let them decide to continue with church or not.

Blah...morning rant finished.
 
If they are getting depressed they need to quit sucking so much so they stop losing. I never get depressed when I am winning.

:D
 
With all the garbage coming out of Hollywood nowdays, I'm suprised the number of depressed isn't alot higher.
 
its ok pharmacies have pills to fix this. I mean hell if they have pills that will make a kid "less hyper/happy/whatever" why not one that will make him more happy?
 
There should be a clear distinction between social sciences like psychology, sociology, and economics, and real sciences like physics, biology, and chemistry.

Generally, the social sciences are soft, easily disproved through counter-examples, and have the disturbing ability to not react or change when evidence to the contrary arises like real sciences should and do. It kind of lies in the fact that the social sciences are far removed from mathematics, which is quite rigorous, and supplies a very solid foundation for scientific inquiry. Beware of "formulas" in things like economics, they don't tend to come with proofs, hence should not be taken as truth or fact in any mathematical light. Follows is one of my favorite quotes:

"In physical science the first essential step in the direction of learning any subject is to find principles of numerical reckoning and practicable methods for measuring some quality connected with it. I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely in your thoughts advanced to the state of Science, whatever the matter may be." [PLA, vol. 1, "Electrical Units of Measurement", 1883-05-03]
 
It's true. Going from playing video games and watching TV everyday to having to go to work everyday is very depressing.
 
TV (Well Netflix and watching shows on the internet) and Video Games are the only things that have keep me sane this past year after quitting my job. I didn't see this recession coming. Good thing I saved money for such a occasion. Maybe after my two month vacation to Indonesia things will be looking better job wise.
 
Being depressed leads to video games and TV, big surprise there. Would they rather depressed people commit suicide?
 
Video games make me happy.

Taxes depress me.
Work depresses me.
Fiat currency depresses me.
Society depresses me.

But video games that makes me happy.
 
sfsuphysics said:
its ok pharmacies have pills to fix this. I mean hell if they have pills that will make a kid "less hyper/happy/whatever" why not one that will make him more happy?
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I was thinking the same thing......Now where are my pills??:D
 
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