Twitter: Probably Not the Eighth Deadly Sin

i-555ecf68255ec339d84c5dad191c1a5b-failwhale.jpg


With news headlines prompting readers to question if Twitter causes a decay in one's moral fabric, ScienceBloggers are attempting to set the record straight. As Jessica Palmer from Bioephemera explains, the mainstream media got wind of a press release from the University of Southern California, the author of which jumped to conclusions based on hypothetical speculations in the 'future applications' section of a neuroscience paper unrelated to Twitter. The press release claimed the networking tool "might reduce the frequency of full experience of such emotions, with potentially negative consequences." Palmer responded: "Apparently very few people thought it was necessary to check the facts."

Related ScienceBlogs Posts:

More like this

We all know Twitter can be annoying, but is it really evil? During the past week, you may have heard that there is brand-new neuroscientific evidence proving exactly that. But the hype turns out to be just that: hype. It all started with a press release from USC about an upcoming PNAS paper by Mary…
I know the medium is the message, but does every message have to be about the medium? People on twitter love tweeting about twitter, just as people on facebook love writing about the facebook redesign. Sometimes, this navel gazing can get out of hand, which is what I think happened with a recent (…
Ed Yong examines how a simple writing exercise helps break vicious cycle that holds back black students. The Questionable Authority considers The Torture Memos, Medical "Professionals", and the Hippocratic Oath. Jessica Palmer, in a healthy display of online media's corrective power, tries to make…
While the rumor that Google is in "late stage negotiations" to acquire Twitter, the social networking website based on text message-style entries of 140 characters, hasn't been confirmed, the feasibility of such a notion says volumes about Twitter's massive rise in popularity over the past years.…