• Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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    6 hours ago

    They did not in fact find that the shorts are making you dumber. They said it affects your attention span.

    Ironically I found this out in the first sentence of the article and then stopped reading.

    • Victor@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Yeah I can’t imagine it making me dumber. Most of my shorts are interesting scientific facts/discoveries. Or CSS tips and tricks.

      Attention span I can definitely believe.

        • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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          4 hours ago

          Then they were already dumb.

          Short attention span correlates with low intelligence but short attention span doesn’t cause low intelligence.

          I can’t remember the whole thing but there is a sort of pseudo research paper that got published exactly to demonstrate the difference between correlation and causation. In the paper they “found” that yellow teeth cause cancer.

          Of course smoking causes yellow teeth, and cancer. The yellow teeth are correlated, but do not cause.

          • Victor@lemmy.world
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            2 hours ago

            You could do this with anything. Most cancer patients spend a lot of time indoors (hospitals) => being indoors now leading cause for cancer!

            Statistical correlation is very useful if used correctly — to lead you where to do proper technical research and not quantitative research. 👍

    • JustinTheGM@ttrpg.network
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      4 hours ago

      Wouldn’t the knock-on effects of a reduced attention span pretty much look like ‘dumber’?

        • JustinTheGM@ttrpg.network
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          9 minutes ago

          Sure, but “being dumb” isn’t an exclusive club for people with low intelligence. There plenty of very smart people that are also dumb. Hell, most AIs could be classified as smart but dumb.