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YouTube Breeding Harmful Scientific Misinformation
Invisible Pink Unicorn writes "University of Toronto researchers have uncovered widespread misinformation in videos on YouTube related to vaccination and immunization. In the first-ever study of its kind, they found that over half of the 153 videos analyzed portrayed childhood, HPV, flu and other vaccinations negatively or ambiguously. They also found that videos highly skeptical of vaccinations received more views and better ratings by users than those videos that portray immunizations in a positive light. According to the lead researcher, 'YouTube is increasingly a resource people consult for health information, including vaccination. Our study shows that a significant amount of immunization content on YouTube contradicts the best scientific evidence at large. From a public health perspective, this is very concerning.' An extract from the Journal of the American Medical Association is available online."
Seriously.
Those people that go to YOUTUBE for HEALTH ADVICE?
Kind of like the age old:
Mr. Idiot has joined #IRC
Idiot: Hey guys, I hate this stuff 2 hours ago and my eyes are starting to turn green, any ideas?
IRC1: Go to a Dr.
IRC2: Go to a Dr.
IRC3: Go to a Dr.
IRC4: Call poison control THEN go to a Dr.
IRC5: Take pictures and post them for us!
Who does Mr. Idiot listen too? IRC5.
Let em die.
(no, I am not ACTUALLY suggesting eugenics by not educating these idiots, it is just tempting)
Do Or Do Not, There Is No Spoon, There Is Only Zuul. Everything in the above post is probably opinion.
To see kinks on youtube, you have to register and confirm you're an adult. :P
..as evolution in action.
(see also "Darwin Awards")
-- Alastair
"Who is stupid enough to go to Youtube for authoritative information about anything?"
Both the Republican and Democratic parties?
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
If it's on the internet, it HAS to be true!
Oh? The newspapers cover their every word up to the time when one of them gets elected.
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
Did you know you can fertilize your lawn with used motor oil?
...spike
Ewwwwww, coconut...
Ignorance is not a capital offense, but it does come with a life sentence.
(Parole is possible, but you really have to work for it!)
The popular website known as "Slashdot" is riddled with questionable legal advice.
Though it *is* the best place to find a poorly constructed car analogy.
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
I can get investment advice from stock spam, legal advice from Slashdot, and now medical advice from YouTube... however did people manage to make major life decisions before the Internet?
I do! I learned it on YouTube!
Pulp Audio Weekly - Geek News and Reviews
Wow. Who are these idiots looking for medial advice on YouTube? Before this article I would never even have considered it!
Next stop, MySpace for financial advice, and Slashdot for relationship advice. Ha!
Really, you get what you deserve people. Darwin awards for all of them.
If anyone is using youtube to get medical information, I say that the best (and laziest) solution would be to just let natural selection run its course.
The people who are going to 'YouTube' for medical information ...
Are exactly the people who you want to not be vaccinated from deadly diseases.
This is a self-solving problem.
- Roach
Then again, based on a careful weighing of YouTube comments, perhaps I can rely on it after all.
Researcher discovers that freely available material is misleading average people. And publishes his findings to a non-open-access journal where it cannot be read by average people.
*facepalm*
// MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
- Cats playing piano ....yeah, clearly, that's where I'm going to find the best medical advice! And it's FREE!
- fart videos
- stuff crashing & people hurting themselves
- a study in the limitless narcissism of humanity
-Styopa