Okay, so is the internet helping increase the average weight by encouraging people to eat less healthy, quicker foods? On top of the sedentary lifestyle that it causes.
It doesn’t have to be all or nothing to be correlated. If you accept that people with fewer frinds IRL use the internet more and that overweight people are more likely to have fewer friends, then it would make sense that there are more overweight people on the internet a lot, even though being on the internet doesn’t cause one to gain weight. The observation that there are overweight people out socializing doesn’t refute either of the premises given.
No it isn’t.
That said, internet use has a positive correlation with economic class, while obesity has an inverse correlation; the internet is obviously not the main cause of obesity.
Overweight People Online
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runs
Of course it’s not the main cause, but neither is soda, or fast food eating. It’s a split cause. But with every other cause there is research on it, stating why. TV watching, I have seen reports on, office work I have seen reports on, chatting/addicted to the internet life, no reports on.
Maybe I will have to start a secret poll somewhere and see what the thousands upon thousands sitting in chat rooms whether they started gaining weight since they become chat addicts. Same with forum addicts, or just plain internet addicts. It doesn’t take much for my mind to see the link, and so far nobody here has been able to say there isn’t a link.
You are right… i’ve been combining two different things in my head… more than 50% of the US is overweight… and a study believes it will be 50% obese in 10 years…
Age itself seems to add on pounds… as does different living conditions (after marriage is a good steriotypical example)…
The problem is simply we eat too much and excercise too little…
We can blame anything (as we tend to)… truth is it is the fault of the individual (in non-medical cases)…
Not soda’s fault… nor the interenet… nor food… and blaming any of them won’t help
Not true, blaming smoking for causing cancer has caused the amount of cigarettes sold in the US to shrink down to something like mid 1900’s amounts now. Linking the two (smoking/cancer) helped in making people cut back.
Linking soda to weight gain may cause some people to stop drinking so much soda, both by giving the people the knowledge, and also by making those who are overweight drinking soda being told about it by there kids, family, friends. Much as smokers are bombarded by those same people to quit for there own good.
Same with the internet, if a link is found then there is ammo for the people who love and care for the person to try to get them to break the habit. Not foolproof nor exactly perfect but it may help.
Being overweight is not a victimless thing, we are all victims, both by higher medical costs, and losing loved ones to early. And the same money that was spent on finding any and all bad information on tobacco should likewise be used to finding any and all bad information on weight gain.
There are many medical reasons for being overweight, but there are also many lifestyle choices. If the government finds it in there hearts to protect us from smoking, they should also find it in there hearts to protect us from gaining weight. And if the internet has a link to weight gain, it should be researched.
The warning went out in 1964… it isn’t a new thing in any respect… it is only in the last 10-20 years that we have seen the major decrease (20-30 years AFTER the report and linkage)… so…
You think people that are overweight don’t understand what calories are? My expirence is they know EXACTLY what causes weight gain (most people dont WANT to be overweight)…
The relationship between internet usage and pay is proportional… the more you use it… the more you get paid… (in general) you really want to curb that?
Being a bad driver isn’t victomless either… nor not paying proper taxes… nor being selfish… there is no secret to what causes weight gain… eatting more calories than you need… There has been an presidental ‘challenge’ in schools since the 80’s to get people more active… all this would really do is spend money on something already understood