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Oxford Professor Taken To Task For Linking Internet Use To Autism

Posted by timothy on from the well-it's-just-a-theory dept.

esocid writes with excerpts from a piece written by Ben Goldacre of The Guardian: "Baroness Susan Greenfield, Professor of pharmacology at Oxford, apparently announced that computer games are causing dementia in children. ... Two months ago the same professor linked internet use with the rise in autism diagnoses (not for the first time), then pulled back when autism charities and an Oxford professor of psychology raised concerns. ... When I raised concerns, she said I was like the epidemiologists who denied that smoking caused cancer. Other critics find themselves derided as sexist in the media. If a scientist sidesteps their scientific peers, and chooses to take an apparently changeable, frightening, and technical scientific case directly to the public, then that is a deliberate decision, and one that can't realistically go unnoticed. ... I think these serious scientific concerns belong, at least once, in a clear scientific paper. I don't see how this suggestion is inappropriate, or impudent, and in all seriousness, I can't see an argument against it."

3 of 247 comments (clear)

  1. good because we all know it causes by Ralph+Spoilsport · · Score: 5, Funny

    Tourettes syndrome FUCK YOU and similar FUCKETY fuck fuck problems. We all know FUCK that you know fuck face. Next thing they'll be saying the Internet causes FUCK problems with people's ability to interact in a FUCK face to FUCK face context. FUCKERS.

    --
    Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
  2. I'm pretty sure... by FlipperPA · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...that everything is causing autism in children. Shit, I'm probably autistic. And please, that microwave does NOT belong there.

  3. Yes, Autism diagnosis rates have increased . . . by Cyberllama · · Score: 3, Funny

    . . . Over the last 20 years or so. And yes, internet usage, interestingly enough, has increased over the same time period.

    Here's a list of other things you can correlate to the rise in autism diagnoses:

    1) Cell Phone usage
    2) Rap Music
    3) Movies starring Keanu Reeves.
    4) The Simpsons
    5) Baby names that start with the letter "J"
    6) The number of different flavors of Mountain Dew
    7) The decline of the fax machine

    Clearly, we as a country, need to use fax machines more and name all of our children "Cody" from now on.