Cynical Activities - I
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INTERNET
Doctors face an epidemic of "cyberchondria," in which patients look up their symptoms on the Internet and misdiagnose themselves. Much of the health information on the Internet is hard to find, hard to read, and often incorrect or incomplete with respect to a wide range of conditions, including skin and breast cancer, childhood asthma, depression, obesity, and carpal tunnel syndrome. Plus, according to one expert, surfing through the Net looking for stuff like this can leave you with an attention span of nine seconds, the same as a goldfish's. One final note: that hot twenty-year-old lap-dancer in the chat room is actually a weird fortysomething guy who hasn't left his room since 1994. |
INTERNET FILTERING SOFTWARE
Bet you hadn't guessed what the real new threat to your freedom is. Software that lets you filter the news you receive on the Internet according to your personal interests may narrow your mind, make your views more extreme, and undercut democracy.
Look out for Rambo 12: Shattered Software, coming soon to a cinema near you. |
ISOLATION
Your chances of sickness and death are doubled if you feel socially isolated, making isolation a risk factor greater than cigarette smoking. (Since smokers are socially isolated anyway these days, they're in real trouble.) Isolation also increases the risk of dementia. |
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