A study into wasting time? (From Bournemouth Echo)

A study into wasting time?

9:40am Thursday 4th February 2010 in

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WHAT exactly is a scientist? I ask this because of the increasing amount of publicity given to university research.

Here are two examples from this week. The longer people spend online, the less likely they are to be happy is the finding of a study carried out by the Institute of Psychological Sciences at the Univeristy of Leeds.

A small group of the worst affected individuals were found to be both depressed and addicted and the “dark side” of the internet suggests a strong link between time spent surfing the web and depression.

Meanwhile, researchers at Birmingham appear to have solved the mystery of why the good guy always won the gunfight – even though he would draw his Smith and Wesson second.

Laboratory ‘shoot outs’ (using push buttons rather than revolvers) found that the person reacting to, rather than initiating the move, completes it a split second quicker.

As interesting as this may be (actually not very), I wonder what practical application it all has – or indeed whether it does anything to increase the sum of human knowledge.

It’s seems obvious to me that those who spend a huge amount of time on the internet are almost certain to be unhappy – they clearly don’t get out enough for one thing.

Call me old fashioned, but I would have thought university ‘scientists’ could find something more useful to look into – or even more revolutionary, actually spend a bit more time teaching.

Perish the thought.