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How Depressives Surf the Web

nytimes.com

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Re: How Depressives Surf the Web

#51

Post by robyates »

kijin wrote: post #39
electromagnetic wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be simple to create a program to log the usage and recommend the user seek counselling, without having to log thousands of peoples internet usage. I don't get why 1) everyone has to be HAPPY , and 2) why the high ups seem so intent on making sure we're HAPPY . Here's reality: life can be utterly fucking shitty. People get depressed. Then you get over it and life goes on and eventually someone will die, or yo…

> without having to log thousands of peoples internet usage. > why the high ups seem so intent on making sure we're HAPPY. You just rediscovered the age-old correlation between a desire for totalitarian control and a preoccupation with superficial happiness. The theory is that the best way to ensure that existing structures of power and domination remain in place in perpetuity is to ensure that everyone is happy. Bec…

Reminds me of how Lincoln dealt with depression: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/10/lincoln-...

Re: How Depressives Surf the Web

#52

Post by steve-howard »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #18
jQueryIsAwesome wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally; some companies may use it to identify depressed employees just to fire them (because they think depressed people is less efficient).

Hmm. I wonder if that would be possible to do without risking lawsuits. Wouldn't depression fall under a medical condition?

It does, but if you identify it before it can be reported, don't leave a paper trail, and find another reason (because there's always a reason if you want there to be one), you can probably get around that. I'm not suggesting that it would be ethical or even a good idea, but it's certainly possible that an early-detection system could be used to be very evil indeed.

Re: How Depressives Surf the Web

#53

Post by steve-howard »

_delirium wrote: post #5

Well, this article started interesting, and ended in a somewhat scary proposal that universities log students' internet usage and data-mine it using robo-depression-screening software that would report them to counselors. The caveat ("raises privacy concerns that would have to be addressed") does not really reassure me... My hope is that's just a cynical eye-on-funding thing thrown in, and the researchers are really…

My concern is that in my years of struggling with my depression (and my current state of doing quite well), I've had people make heavy-handed attempts to "help" me and I've had people who actually helped me. There's no guarantee that anyone who can guess without my telling them that I'm depressed is going to be the kind of person I'm willing to trust.

Re: How Depressives Surf the Web

#56

Post by koningrobot »

kijin wrote: post #39
electromagnetic wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be simple to create a program to log the usage and recommend the user seek counselling, without having to log thousands of peoples internet usage. I don't get why 1) everyone has to be HAPPY , and 2) why the high ups seem so intent on making sure we're HAPPY . Here's reality: life can be utterly fucking shitty. People get depressed. Then you get over it and life goes on and eventually someone will die, or yo…

> without having to log thousands of peoples internet usage. > why the high ups seem so intent on making sure we're HAPPY. You just rediscovered the age-old correlation between a desire for totalitarian control and a preoccupation with superficial happiness. The theory is that the best way to ensure that existing structures of power and domination remain in place in perpetuity is to ensure that everyone is happy. Bec…

If everyone is happy, then nothing is broken.

Re: How Depressives Surf the Web

#57

Post by pnathan »

_delirium wrote: post #28
mstromb wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a pdf of the paper: http://web.mst.edu/~chellaps/papers/12_tech-soc_kcmwl.pdf It's interesting seeing my alma mater show up here. I wouldn't be surprised if Rolla students exhibited a higher rate of depression than the norm. Having spent 4 years there, I knew a lot of people that were bitter about being there. It's a small state engineering school in the middle of nowhere, without any particular pedigree or no…

That's a major problem with many (maybe even most) psych studies. I don't think anyone who's thought about it at length really thinks these kinds of populations of convenience ("recruited N students at my university") are a good way to do science, but they are... convenient, so they keep getting used. At some schools, psych students have to participate in a certain number of studies for credit, which makes it easier…

A comment I've heard before from a psych researcher is that psych research at universities is the really the research into undergrads taking psych courses...

Re: How Depressives Surf the Web

#59

Post by readme »

kijin wrote: post #39
electromagnetic wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be simple to create a program to log the usage and recommend the user seek counselling, without having to log thousands of peoples internet usage. I don't get why 1) everyone has to be HAPPY , and 2) why the high ups seem so intent on making sure we're HAPPY . Here's reality: life can be utterly fucking shitty. People get depressed. Then you get over it and life goes on and eventually someone will die, or yo…

> without having to log thousands of peoples internet usage. > why the high ups seem so intent on making sure we're HAPPY. You just rediscovered the age-old correlation between a desire for totalitarian control and a preoccupation with superficial happiness. The theory is that the best way to ensure that existing structures of power and domination remain in place in perpetuity is to ensure that everyone is happy. Bec…

Very insightful.

I have to point out one little oversight though:

> Seriously, we need depressed folks, autistic folks, OCD folks, and all these other kinds of people in our world in order for progress to happen. Happy people won't fix what they don't think is broken!

It almost sounds like you're implying that people are either happy, or have one of n classifiable psychological disorders. The reality is that the disorders are statistical classifications that fit an infinite number of shades of the human condition. Umbrellas.

Personally I consider myself hapilly-awake? I guess I know we live in a very suboptimal world but I am happy to exist and do my best to change what I can about it.

Re: How Depressives Surf the Web

#60

Post by koide »

electromagnetic wrote: post #26
_delirium wrote: post #5

Well, this article started interesting, and ended in a somewhat scary proposal that universities log students' internet usage and data-mine it using robo-depression-screening software that would report them to counselors. The caveat ("raises privacy concerns that would have to be addressed") does not really reassure me... My hope is that's just a cynical eye-on-funding thing thrown in, and the researchers are really…

It would be simple to create a program to log the usage and recommend the user seek counselling, without having to log thousands of peoples internet usage. I don't get why 1) everyone has to be HAPPY , and 2) why the high ups seem so intent on making sure we're HAPPY . Here's reality: life can be utterly fucking shitty. People get depressed. Then you get over it and life goes on and eventually someone will die, or yo…

I just wanted to point out that non depressive people is not necessarily happy people and have hard times when life's shitty, they just have emotional rewards (not only emotional punishments) when confronting (and overcoming) the shit.
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