Enemies of Reason Poundshop potshots at the media moral maze.

WARNING: The Daily Mail makes you autistic

...if you believe the Daily Mail.

Yes, hot on the heels of last week's "Facebook = cancer innit?" load of old drivel comes this week's teh evil internetz scream story.

The template is pretty much the same. Someone somewhere has said something, not even linking stuff but more wondering aloud whether there might be a connection between one thing and another. But eek! Children are being destroyed by it (just as they were by television, comics, radio programmes, computer games, videos etc etc)

And once again, if you believe that increased amount of communication via a screen - including receiving your news through it, meeting people on it using Mail Dating or using the Mail messageboards, for example - is really dangerous to you or your children's health, then you should unplug the internet and chuck your PC out the window. I could kind of understand if the Mail were just a newspaper and didn't have an online presence, but this story is on the ruddy internet itself, no?

Anyway:

She pointed out that autistic people, who usually find it hard to communicate, were particularly comfortable using computers. 'Of course, we do not know whether the current increase in autism is due more to increased awareness and diagnosis of autism, or whether it can - if there is a true increase - be in any way linked to an increased prevalence among people of spending time in screen relationships. Surely it is a point worth considering,' she added.

No shit! Thank goodness we have a scientist-type brainiac to tell us that she doesn't know what the fuck's going on. Phew! But... is the computer making people autistic? Really? There's no evidence, but maybe something's happening somewhere, is about all she's saying.

What's all this shit really about?

But while the sites are popular - and extremely profitable - a growing number of psychologists and neuroscientists believe they may be doing more harm than good.

Aha. Of course, if these sites were owned by the Mail...

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