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Facebook Leads To Increase In STDs in Britain

Posted by samzenpus on from the friends-and-really-good-friends dept.

ectotherm writes "According to Professor Peter Kelly, a director of Public Health in Great Britain: 'There has been a four-fold increase in the number of syphilis cases detected, with more young women being affected.' Why the increase? People meeting up for casual sex through Facebook. According to the article, 'Social networking sites are making it easier for people to meet up for casual sex. There is a rise in syphilis because people are having more sexual partners than 20 years ago and often do not use condoms.'"

53 of 270 comments (clear)

  1. Damn by Dyinobal · · Score: 4, Funny

    Dammit so I didn't have to sign up for fuckbook?

    1. Re:Damn by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 3, Funny

      One place this isn't happening is Shatner's myouterspace.com.

    2. Re:Damn by Tetsujin · · Score: 2, Informative

      Isn't James T. Kirk's habit of dating outside his own species more commonly referred to as "beastiality"???

      Actually, this is one of the facets of Star Trek's backstory that isn't frequently spoken about.

      Star Trek takes place in the 23rd century, by which time humankind has colonized other worlds, met all kinds of alien life, etc. But in fact all the "alien life" they meet are actually just people in silly costumes and possibly with some makeup on. What happened is that the 22nd century was an era of peaceful exploration. Humankind set out to meet alien life, and they failed. So it became fashionable for individual colonies to adopt their own "alien" customs and styles of dress. In the mid-23rd century this rarely extended beyond some distinctive clothing or some body paint. It was only later in the 23rd century that these rogue colonies really got their act together.

      --
      Bow-ties are cool.
  2. Wrong places by JWSmythe · · Score: 5, Funny

        I've obviously been looking at the wrong places on Facebook. Where's the "casual sex hookup" area?

    --
    Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
    1. Re:Wrong places by MikeFM · · Score: 3, Funny

      My wife is on my buddy list. Does that count? And no STDs.

      --
      At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
    2. Re:Wrong places by Hatta · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's what you think.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    3. Re:Wrong places by spun · · Score: 4, Funny

      You don't live in the UK, do you? Obviously, something has happened to the stuffy Brits. The UK just had to cut down a bunch of trees because people were 'dogging,' or having public sex there. There is evidently an epidemic of sexy times in the North Atlantic Archipelago. When did 'stiff upper lip' turn into 'stiff willy saluting passing motorists?' and more importantly, can you teach us American how to be a little less puritanical?

      --
      - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    4. Re:Wrong places by TheRaven64 · · Score: 5, Funny

      When did 'stiff upper lip' turn into 'stiff willy saluting passing motorists?'

      A little while after we exported all of our puritans to the Americas.

      and more importantly, can you teach us American how to be a little less puritanical?

      Sorry...

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    5. Re:Wrong places by joss · · Score: 4, Informative

      There was a nice article in the spectator as to how you people from continental europe list the UK as a favorite destination. This is despite of the food, weather, shitty attitude. It's because we have large numbers of drunken sluts who will fuck just about anything.

      --
      http://rareformnewmedia.com/
    6. Re:Wrong places by Grishnakh · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It sounds like the answer here is to join Facebook, but use an alias instead of your real name. That way, the people from your past can't find you, and if you need to disappear because one of your new hook-ups turns out to be a psycho, then it'll be easier since you can just create a new alias and start over.

      But honestly, this Facebook hookup thing sounds like a lot of work, alias or no. Wouldn't it be easier to just join AdultFriendFinder for casual sex? Probably not; it seems like women want to believe that men they meet might actually be interested in something long-term, even though it's plainly obvious that they're not, so they need men who tell them all kinds of lies, like "my wife are I are married in name only", "we're separated but staying together just for the kids", etc. Then they act all surprised, like Tiger's girlfriends, when they find out that he's been lying to them.

      Women, is it really so hard to just be honest? If you want casual sex, stop making men jump through hoops and make up lies for it. If you want a long-term relationship, then find a man who's actually single (not one who's married and supposedly "separated"), and keep your legs shut until you actually know him well enough to know he's the one you want to have kids with, or at least know him well enough to know he's not a psycho or a liar.

    7. Re:Wrong places by natehoy · · Score: 2, Funny

      Not sure. There's a "poke" feature, you can try that and see if it works for you.

      --
      "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
    8. Re:Wrong places by rgviza · · Score: 3, Informative

      >> But honestly, this Facebook hookup thing sounds like a lot of work, alias or no. Wouldn't it be easier to just join AdultFriendFinder for casual sex

      LOL. after my divorce I joined facebook. AFF is a site full of scammers, cam girls and hookers. Facebook is real people.

      Within a 2 months of joining I had hooked up with 4 women I knew in the past who had a crush on me and I never figured it out. All were divorced or separated. I actually stayed with 4th for a year before she dumped me because I didn't want to get married for "a while" and she wanted kids *now*. After that I met up with a friend of a friend. Then I stopped using facebook for dating.

      Facebook wins hands down vs. AFF ;) to meet new women either use a reputable site for dating (if there is such a thing) or you could leave the house and meet people. That's what works for me. After my initial year of tapping facebook, I prefer to stay out of my network of friends for dating since people treat you differently after a breakup and gossip if you both know them all. That's the real drawback about facebook.

      I sincerely doubt that using aliases on facebook would work for dating. Starting a relationship with a lie doesn't usually bode well.

      AFF is a scam. Been there, done it.

      Oh, and wear a condom for chrissakes. I do agree with one of the parents that google voice is indispensable for dating. Anyone that's ever gotten 150 texts in a day from someone you just broke up with will agree. You can block numbers from reaching your cell with GV. My number is xxx-xxx-[first name]. Freaking awesome.

      --
      Don't kid yourself. It's the size of the regexp AND how you use it that counts.
    9. Re:Wrong places by hey! · · Score: 2, Funny

      The UK is the nation that gave us Benny Hill. The US is the nation where the Benny Hill show could only be seen on educational television.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    10. Re:Wrong places by spun · · Score: 2, Funny

      Whoah. Wait a minute. Are you claiming Benny Hill is not educational? It's intended audience is twelve year old boys. It was sure educational for me!

      --
      - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    11. Re:Wrong places by smellsofbikes · · Score: 2, Interesting
      >Women, is it really so hard to just be honest?

      If you're really curious about this answer, there are some interesting books that discuss the reasons for interpersonal ambiguity (aka 'dishonesty') and how that gives people (of both sexes) both more negotiation room and better options for negotiation. A few really worthwhile books:

      Promiscuity: an evolutionary history of sperm competition by Tim Birkhead, talks very little about humans but discusses (in great detail) how and why out-of-relationship and non-relationship sexual contact can benefit different reproductive strategies.

      The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life by Robert Wright, which talks about how often our behavior seems to contradict our professed beliefs but how very well it matches evolutionarily successful mating strategies, and

      The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature by Steven Pinker, especially the second-to-last chapter which specifically addresses how ambiguity can be modelled in game theory to show huge advantages to people who use it skilfully.

      In short, what people say they want isn't always what they want, but they often don't know that. They're unconsciously using successful strategies they don't actually understand, because we seem to instinctively know what works and what doesn't. In this specific case, there are many animals with mating strategies similar to humans, where females who aren't a male's primary partner benefit heavily from providing sexual access to, and receiving resources (money, food...) from, the males in question.

      --
      Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
    12. Re:Wrong places by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Many women have to be in denial that they actually want sex or are headed towards it.
      They prefer an atmosphere of "whoops--- how the heck are we having sex??"

      On the flip side, many men also want women who act that way since a man hunting sex predator makes their jumbly bits shrink.

      Ironically, many men really only want orgasms- not sex. So they finish in 6-10 minutes. Meanwhile, women can easily have sex for 2 to 3 hours. So you have the people who are saying "no" actually able to enjoy it much longer than the people who are saying "yes" all the time. Women can have and enjoy 10 to 13 hours a week of sex as long as they are having orgasms.

      Mean while, many guys really want to play sports, compete in games, go hunting or fishing and do guy things more after the orgasm.

      Read up on tantric sex. Learn how to have sex longer before orgasm-- trust me- it can be like a continuous orgasm, floating along the edge.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  3. What? by Em+Emalb · · Score: 3, Funny

    lolwut? facebook/myspace/craigslist/etc/etc/etc.

    But hey, a lot of people are on facebook, let's blame it on that.

    Vanessa Kensington: Mr. Powers, my job is to acclimatize you to the nineties. You know, a lot's changed since 1967.
    Austin Powers: No doubt, love, but as long as people are still having promiscuous sex with many anonymous partners without protection while at the same time experimenting with mind-expanding drugs in a consequence-free environment, I'll be sound as a pound!

    --
    Sent from your iPad.
  4. You heard it here first, folks: by PhasmatisApparatus · · Score: 5, Funny

    You heard it here first, folks: Facebook users cannot figure out how to use condoms!

  5. C!=C by Sta7ic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Correlation is not causation. Facebook usage may correlate, but doesn't cause it.

    "Don't drink and park. Accidents make people."

    1. Re:C!=C by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Correlation is not causation. Facebook usage may correlate, but doesn't cause it.

      "Don't drink and park. Accidents make people."

      I'd love to see your data disproving causation in this scenario. Or are you just making a blind guess?

      Just because "facebook usage may coorelate" you cannot take the logical leap and say that it "doesn't cause it"

      Correlation is often a good grounds for doing a study to determine causation/non-causation.

      People who don't understand what "correlation != causation" is supposed to convey should avoid using it.

  6. Really? by cbope · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wow, that's about as enlightening as saying bars and nightclubs lead to more casual sex. People socializing more, and it leads to sex? No shit. Doesn't really matter how the contact is made, does it?

  7. Facebook?? by esobofh · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ahh facebook? I think craigslist takes the blame here...

    --

    ----------------------------
    Esobofh - Currently drinking fresh mango juice.
  8. Um... by Pojut · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...I wouldn't say this is a problem with Facebook so much as a problem with fucking stupidity. It's not my place to question someone's sexual activity, but come on...who has sex with a stranger without using a condom?

    --
    Living With a Nerd
    1. Re:Um... by char70ger · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why would you want to have sex with a "stranger" even if you did have a condom?

    2. Re:Um... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Because it's fun? And they are less of a stranger afterwards.

    3. Re:Um... by Pojut · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I personally wouldn't, but plenty of people would. Like I said, it isn't my place to judge someone's sexual appetites...but I'll judge the hell out of someone recklessly screwing around.

      --
      Living With a Nerd
    4. Re:Um... by sharkman67 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think the GP is wrong. I'll bet you find that in most cases people are hooking back up with high school sweethearts or other long lost boy/girl friends. So these people are not "strangers". Still not excuse for unprotected sex though.

    5. Re:Um... by Jason+Levine · · Score: 2, Funny

      This reminds me of my college days. When my father visited the campus, he'd look at all of the nice looking female students. (And by "look" I mean turn his head so quickly that I was afraid he'd get whiplash. No subtly!*) As each one passed, he'd tell me that I should walk up to her and ask her to sleep with me. My answer was if she said yes, then I definitely didn't want to sleep with her!

      * Of course, this is the same guy who thought having "the talk" with me was "Hey, let's watch porn together!" There's just something Not-Right about watching porn with your dad!

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    6. Re:Um... by phantomfive · · Score: 2, Informative

      Surprisingly, prostitutes who work in places where it is legal, and always use condoms (like in Nevada), show a very low rate of STDs. Condoms are amazingly good. You are right about needles though, sharing is a bad idea. Also, condoms don't stop herpes or HPV, but neither of those is as bad as AIDS. Not by a long shot.

      --
      Qxe4
  9. same old by Tobor+the+Eighth+Man · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hey, look, an interesting statistical effect. How to explain it? Rigorous analysis? Nah, let's just blame it on new technology, 'cuz that wasn't around before and now things are different - obviously, there's a meaningful correlation!

    Reminds me of the piracy/global warming graph: http://www.samizdata.net/blog/~pdeh/piratesarecool4.gif

  10. Fuckbook? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Try SitOnMyFacebook.

  11. ..as reported by Murdoch's newspapers by RMH101 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...as they pointedly do NOT mention MySpace. Hmm. Wonder why that could be, NewsCorp?

  12. Murder! by DIplomatic · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hmmm... that's a pretty good shock-headline-mostly-unrelated-to-the-facts, but I bet I can do better.

    "Levi Jeans are Murdering Texans"

    In a whopping 80% of deaths in the state of Texas, the deceased was wearing denim jeans - says a study conducted by the University of Jumping-to-Silly-Conclusions.

    1. Re:Murder! by Em+Emalb · · Score: 2, Funny

      And they deserved it to, what with their fancy-schmanzy "button-fly" jeans and delicious BBQ.

      --
      Sent from your iPad.
  13. False report by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The german media watchblog BILDblog just reported (in german) this to be a hoax. The connection between Facebook and STDs was constructed by The Sun, not by Prof. Kelly.

    The Department of Public Health even issued a counterstatement according to the BBC.

    1. Re:False report by Faluzeer · · Score: 4, Informative

      If correct that does not surprise me. The Sun is well known (in the UK) to never let the truth get in the way of a good story, especially if the story involves sex.

  14. Public awareness campaign by ThreeGigs · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So someone says social networking sites are to blame, instead of the amazing coincidence that syphilis cases increased as the government stopped their public awareness campaigns against STDs. I'm thinking someone needs to expand their search for causalitis.

    "These are your genitals. THESE are your genitals on Syphilis. Any questions?"

  15. UK by TheMeuge · · Score: 3

    Well, it's the UK, so I doubt I'd be the first:

    "Ban Facebook now!"
    "They're corrupting our innocent children"
    "It's all the work of secret terrorist pedophiles... we must root them out by recording all facebook conversations and having a central database"

    Sounds good?

  16. Facebook? by Broken+scope · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'll state the obvious then.

    This is about sex education and access to reproductive health services/products. Facebook is just a way to shift blame.

    --
    You mad
  17. Wrong. FB leads to increased casual sex. by Kenja · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Its all the stupid people having sex that leads to the STDs.

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
  18. syphilis cycles by GayBliss · · Score: 2, Interesting
    There is also the theory of syphilis cycles, that have little to do with a change in sexual behaviors by the masses:

    http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn6935-syphilis-cycles-not-driven-by-risky-sex.html

  19. Re:Really? by nelsonal · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How bout, facebook makes it easy for women to filter and select the few men they all want to sleep with, so those men sleep with huge numbers of women (and disease spreads rampantly).

    --
    Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
  20. I've Never Had Casual Sex by mindbrane · · Score: 3, Funny

    Pleading, desperate, begging, even grovelling sex, sure, that's pretty much my norm, but casual, no. My ex, I'm pretty sure she had a lot of casual sex, even disinterested sex, at least it seemed that way to me, but then I really didn't care. I was just so grateful just to be getting some.

    --
    ideopath @ play
  21. Just curious by AskFirefly · · Score: 2, Funny

    Is any of this happening in Farmville????

    --
    I'm not a human, but I play one on T.V.
  22. toothing by confused+one · · Score: 2, Informative

    This sounds too much like the toothing hoax from a few years ago.

  23. Re:i call by icannotthinkofaname · · Score: 4, Funny

    I swear to God, I'll pistol whip the next guy that says "shenanigans"!

    --
    Let q be a radix > 1. I am in ur base-q, killing 10 d00ds.
  24. Re:If Facebook give you an STD.... by ihatejobs · · Score: 2, Funny

    So you are saying its Slashdot 2.0 then?

    --
    Can anyone tell me why 99% of /. users are total assclowns?
  25. Facebook Suggestions by Tetsujin · · Score: 4, Funny

    Herpes
    120 of your friends are members
    Join This Group

    --
    Bow-ties are cool.
  26. Re:Network promiscuious mode by natehoy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Young whippersnappers hanging their ports out promiscuously.

    Get off my LAN!

    --
    "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
  27. The original article didn't mention Facebook by alanw · · Score: 2, Informative

    Here's an article in the local press of March 19th:

    http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/2010/03/19/syphilis-cases-rise-400-on-teesside-84229-26067098/

    No mention of Facebook.

    There was then an article on the 24th in The Daily Telegraph:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/7508945/Facebook-linked-to-rise-in-syphilis.html

    Again, no direct claim that Facebook was responsible, just an unsubstantiated paragraph stating that


    Case have increased fourfold in Sunderland, Durham and Teesside, the areas of Britain where Facebook is most popular.
     [sic]

    There was another instance recently where Facebook are threatening to sue the Daily Mail

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/mar/11/facebook-daily-mail

    after the Mail took some general research into unnamed social networking sites and attributed the dangers specifically to Facebook.

    I would think it far more likely that AdultFriendFinder or GetItOn would be responsible for any increase in STDs, and that it's bad journalists seeking to sensationalise stories, by trying to make them more familiar and relevant to their readers, who are using Facebook as a synonym for any social networking site.

  28. Fucking leads to increased STDs in Britain by Locke2005 · · Score: 2, Informative

    There, I fixed the headline for you.

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  29. Slashdot causes decrease in STDs by sc0p3 · · Score: 2, Funny

    In a new publication just released, reading Slashdot has been found to miraculously reduce the number of STDs in males.

  30. Prof. Wild Claim by nfc_Death · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So this guys proof is "I don't get the names of people affected, just figures, and I saw the several of the people had met sexual partners through these sites," he said Which means that facebook is the cause of an increase in syphilis? Or maybe its this statement he made "Social networking sites are making it easier for people to meet up for casual sex," Prof. Peter Kelly, director of pubic health in Teesside, told the paper. "There has been a fourfold increase in the number of syphilis cases detected, with more young women being affected." Hmmm seems to me hes just made a bunch of inflammatory statements about something he has no data, proof, or clarity about. So the story is, Public Health officer makes wild claims about facebook use and casual sex, when he should have just made a statement about using condoms. Why is this being considered as news? Why wasnt this story vetted properly?