Some people are addicted to scare reports in the media.

 

Industry observer Paul McNamara writes on a recent “study” finding “a strong link between heavy Internet use and depression” conducted by U.K. psychologists: “The Journal Psychopathology found 1.2 percent of people surveyed were ‘Internet addicts,’ and many of these were depressed.”

 

John Crace, writing for The Guardian, says “the Leeds researchers identified social networking, porn and gambling sites as the natural habitat of depressed addicts. No surprise there.” 

Indeed not. One wonders how many depressed people listen to music. Bet you’ll find a higher percentage of people who read books, watch television or talk to people on the phone being depressed than 1.2 percent.

 

Since when did “strong preferences” become “addictions?” Look at me – I’m addicted to breakfast, spending evenings with my wife and kids and lifting weights, working out the punching bag and getting in some tennis now and then. Where do I get my government grant?

As McNamara says smoking is an addiction. Crack cocaine and meth are addictions. Facebook (News - Alert) is not an addiction. Let’s all take a deep breath and get a grip.

 

Crace says “having done time in hospital with depression, I can’t help feeling that anyone with the energy to switch on a computer and even care what’s happening on Facebook is showing a level of engagement with the world well beyond the catatonic. So it may not be quite as healthy as actually chatting to someone, but it’s a vast improvement on staring at the wall. My shrink would certainly have taken it as a positive sign.”

 

“It’s more than a matter of semantics, too,” McNamara says. “Once these ‘addictions’ [the Internet itself] become labeled as such they lend credence to the belief that the activities themselves are somehow harmful; online gambling being a primary example that frosts my butt… depression is serious business and ‘linking’ it to something as nebulous as ‘Internet addiction’ trivializes a major illness.”

 

And of course the obligatory disclaimer tossed in somewhere towards the end: “The Leeds University team stressed they could not say one necessarily caused the other, and that most Internet users did not suffer mental health problems.” Certainly not. But the headlines look cool.