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TV Really Might Cause Autism
Alien54 writes "Cornell University researchers are reporting what appears to be a statistically significant relationship between autism rates and television watching by children under the age of 3. The researchers studied autism incidence in California, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington state. They found that as cable television became common in California and Pennsylvania beginning around 1980, childhood autism rose more in the counties that had cable than in the counties that did not. They further found that in all the Western states, the more time toddlers spent in front of the television, the more likely they were to exhibit symptoms of autism disorders. The Cornell study represents a potential bombshell in the autism debate."
This paper will be a bombshell, all right. I'll use it over and over again as I explain to medical students and colleagues that you don't have to have much in the way of actual brains to write a scientific paper. Or, as I said about another paper in journal club once, "the font is nice, and I like the layout of the tables. It's a shame the actual science is such garbage."
You would rather trash talk the paper rather than either doing the necessary research, or teaching that followup research should be done to confirm/debunk the hypothesis. Do you think that, perhaps, this is because the paper suggests it is possible that autism could have been prevented by the parent of the autistic child?
Honestly, even though you make well reasoned points early on in your comment, it is clear that your conclusions are influenced by your situation.
There's even more space for debate:
Maybe the increased number of autism cases results from bored doctors who had their midlife crisis earlier cause they watched so much TV all their lives?
Maybe autists just like to watch TV so they don't have to socially interact with other kids?
Maybe the hyping omega fat stuff causes both autism and TV-watching?
Maybe stupid diagnoses causes children to watch stupid TV?
Nowadays every kid has ADD as soon as you tell him/her that.