News Flash: Sitting on Your Ass All Day Isn't Healthy

[Bran1470]

well im going to die soon

 

[twaddle]

People can spend less than 2 hours in front of a computer a day?

Christ on a bike.

Also this.
The good thing is: if you got a desk job, whatever else you don't do, won't matter anymore apparently.

Damnit.

I work a desk job. 8 hours in front of a computer.

Guess I better buy one of these:

------------
Lol. My captcha was Toyota Care and I drive one and had a flat tire today. IRONY!

wait seriously where do i get one of those?

 

[Asuka Soryu]

This just in, poison isn't good for you. We'll have more about that after these messages from our sponsors, Mcdonald's.

 

[tautologico]

Really? Then I guess you should get out of the Internet, stop using phones and basically almost any piece of modern technology. Almost anything you use nowadays has had statistical techniques applied into their making at some point.

True, statistic findings are quite popular in this day and age, but there's actually a whole lot that can go wrong with it [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misuse_of_statistics#Types_of_misuse]. Though it only takes one of those things to make the way this news story is being presented to be an exaggeration: correlation does not imply causation [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation]. Because all statistics are is correlations, no true scientist would attempt to use statistics to imply there is an underlying cause at work. To say, "sitting around on your butt causes you to die young," is scientifically unsound. At most, they may use statistics as a basis to spin hypotheses, "sitting around on your butt has a statistical correlation that suggests a likelihood it may cause you to die young, so lets run some experiments and see if we can establish if that's true." The news agencies don't see the difference, however, and neither do the majority of their viewers, so hey, big scoop!

I wasn't debating that. I didn't say statistics can't be misleading or misused. If even a pure mathematical proof can be misused and misinterpreted, what to say about statistics, which is founded on inductive (and hence intrinsically risky) reasoning?

But I was responding to someone who said "statistics is useless and no one in their right mind should take it seriously". This is beyond silly, is ridiculous.

Personally, I think any study that claims, "it doesn't matter if you exercise, you're 50% likelier to die if you use a computer x hours a day" is massively poorly conducted. Of course regular exercise helps, any amount of exercise, no matter what your lifestyle - it's stupid to suggest otherwise, and it's pretty likely that your exercising or not is going to be a factor on which side of the 50% you land on.

This is our expectation. It doesn't need to be true. I'm not saying this study is true, either. I'm just saying maybe the finding has merit. Many scientific discoveries run contrary to what people expected at the time.

Further, they completely cut out vital factors of what kind of exercise, diet, ect.

There are statistical techniques to isolate factors like that. I didn't see the data for the study, but it's not hard to do. So you can't say they didn't consider that. Maybe they did not, but maybe they did (and a serious study wouldn't be accepted if they didn't).

 

[Asuka Soryu]

Eh, who cares? We're all gone to die anyway. No matter how much excercise and money you have, one day that life of yours shall end. Maybe you can prolongue it, but you can never stop it.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

Actually, school must be lethal, and since PE does nothing and everyone sits around durring lunch... oh no, the end of the world is upon us!

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

And those that spent 4 or more hours were 50 percent more likely to die of any cause.

150% probability of death? Urk!

I was thinking this too o.o Bit vague. It's not like 150% of eventual death is worse than 100% of eventual death. If it can't get any better than 100% chance of death then there's no real concern, right? n.n

Immortals are screwed though ;P

 

[Trogdor1138]

No shit, next you're going to tell me that smoking is actually harmful for you...

But seriously, who wouldn't think it's a good idea to get exercise and take a stretch every now and then when you're playing games/on a computer all day?

 

[imperialreign]

I'm curious, then - what about those who perform manual labor and are on their feet 10-12 hours a day constantly walking and moving . . . and relax at home by spending 2-3 hours browsing the webz, playing games or watching vids?

I guess they're equally screwed as everyone else, right?

 

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

I'm not Scottish...

 

[cainstwin]

And those that spent 4 or more hours were 50 percent more likely to die of any cause.

Wait... does that include old age?
On a more serious note, unless your job involves a large amount of physical activity, how can you not spend 2 hours a day sitting?

 

[Digikid]

Really....well no duh EINSTEIN.

Seriously who is the dummy that thought up this study.....he deserves a fricken medal.....made out of chocolate.

LOL!!!

 

[Stormz]

So no matter what I'm basically gonna have a greater risk of dying if I sit down and use the computer or sit down to do anything...

Welp time to stop exercising I guess. Oh they better take away chairs from schools as well, it's unhealthy.

 

[archvile93]

If I didn't care before when this was already common knowledge, I'm not going to start caring now.

 

[Raziel_Likes_Souls]

Oh sweet, no matter what I do, I'm more likely to die.

What next, I'm more likely to shoot someone because I play video games, even if it's Bejeweled.

 

[RatRace123]

BWUUUUUUUUUUUUUH!!!???
Has the government been sitting on this information all this time?
When was this discovered, the people must know this!!!

Yes, I'm sure this information was pretty well known, do we really need another study confirming it?
There's got to be a few at this point.