Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Twitter Called Internet Crack By Scientists

Cambridge, England - Researchers with Oxford University released a portion of a study they’ve conducted that shows the popular social networking site Twitter is more addictive than crack cocaine or heroin. 

“People don’t realize it, but right now, the biggest threats to the United Kingdom are Twitter and Facebook. It’s not obesity or cancer, it’s lost time and productivity due to social networking,” the statement read.

Continuing, “With the younger people, teenagers and young adults, they have a hard time if you take away their cell phones and computers. They are incapable of finding other activities to do. They constantly crave the attention that comes from posting on these site. We feel they should be limited in their use, as one would limit alcohol consumption.”

When asked for the specifics, Dr. Ian Gallagher told us that, on average, a teenager will spend approximately five hours a day on social networking sites. This trend continues though til the age of 25, when usage starts to decline to three hours a day. With more older Brits using social networking, there is an increase again to four point five hours a day from age 45 through 70.

“The trend is very disturbing. It shows that with all the time lost to social networking, Britain could double their productivity with the existing labor force. That alone would be enough to help stimulate the economy and help us move forward in time for the 2012 Summer Olympics here in London,” Gallagher stated.

If you or someone you know is addicted to social networking sites, Gallagher suggests using a timer on your power supply to turn off after a certain amount of time. Change from a smart phone to a traditional talk and text phone. The urge to Tweet and Post have proved to be harder to overcome than heroin and cocaine. The longer this usage goes untreated, the harder the habit will be to break down the road.

“Just Tweet responsibly and with limits,” was Gallagher’s final statement to us.

Annabel Lee is a freelance journalist with the Baltimore Fake Times Journal. She is addicted to Twitter and Facebook. She is also addicted to =3 and hopes Ray William Johnson doesn’t hate her after June 10th.

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