Wednesday, February 25, 2009...6:02 pm

Daily Mail and social networking: a fisking

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So, ever-reliable blog fodder the Daily Mail believes social networking sites damage children’s brains.
A selection of accurate criticism about the lack of evidence beyond one person’s opinion based on one anecdote can be found here in the comments to a Cafe Hayek post, so I won’t bother adding to that.
But seriously – how can you read the following and trust anything the Mail has to say about the matter:

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.

No, really – can’t they just use Google for a few seconds to check? If they did they’d quickly find out that Twitter makes no money at all – unless you think that $35 million in VC funding is actually income (which, given the Mail‘s general economic illiteracy, actually wouldn’t surprise me).
Oh, and nor does Facebook, actually – it bled an estimated $150 million in cash in 2008, and founder Mark Zuckerberg has admitted he doesn’t really know how to monetise the site. (Nor does he seem that bothered about it – shades of the dotcom bubble).
No research, no thought. Another day on Fleet Street…

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