A recent survey of 250 adults between the ages of 30 and 45 showed an association between the number of hours adults spend online each day and self-reporting of symptoms commonly associated with depression. The survey found that adults who spend 30 hours or more online each week were twice as likely as others to report that they “frequently” had trouble concentrating. Of adults who reported spending more than 30 hours per week online, 20 percent also reported that they had felt “sad, down, or blue” at least three times within the past month.
These results suggest that spending too much time online is linked to depression and people who want to improve their well-being should strictly limit the time they spend online.
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
The argument reaches the conclusion that depression is linked to the time spent online by an individual, and that strictly limiting this time would improve their health and well-being. This conclusion has been made on the basis of a recent survey, that it claims supports the argument due to the statistical data provided. However, in reaching their conclusion, the author of the argument fails to answer three important questions, the answers to which can make or break the argument.
First, Is the survey's sample space of 250 people representative of the general public? Even if we assume that the author's intention is to make the argument only for adults between the ages of 30 and 45, they fail to address the aforementioned question. It may be possible that the people who reported spending more time online did so to socialize and talk with other people, to alleviate existing mental health issues. It may also be the case that those who reported spending less time online took the decision to do so because they did not like the toxic environment that some social media platforms may possess, and then solve their mental health issues afterwards. Considering these two cases: If the survey overrepresented the people of any one of these groups, then it fails to form a fair sample space. It is possible that 50% of the population has good mental health and higher screen-time, but formed only 10% of the sample space. Hence, the author must prove that the answer to this question is a definitive 'yes,' if they want to cement their conclusion.
Second, were the utilized surveying practices logically sound? A related question is: Have the people who felt 'sad, down or blue' been diagnosed with depression? The argument's author fails to provide a definitive answer to these questions, and this decreases the validity of the conclusion. It may be the case that feeling 'sad, down or blue' three times within the past month is not a sure way to diagnose depression, or to imply that it caues that sadness. If the survey had instead asked if the respondents felt that their sadness was a cause of their time spent online, then it would have made for a better argument. In fact, if a psychologist were to prove that this frequency of sadness is not a valid diagnosis/symptom of depression, then the answer to the above question has a higher possibility of being no, and the argument's claims would be unwarranted.
Finally, even if we assume that the answers to the above questions were in favour of the argument, did the survey observe any plausible trend in their findings from the survey? (Also, was the trouble in concentrating provably caused by screen-time? This is a more minor aspect of the survey, but a clear link has not been proven.) The survey provides information that only depicts the proportion of people who reported spending more than 30 hours per week online, and claims that 20% of such people felt sad atleast three times in the past month. Perhaps, there may be a trend among the other people that has not been presented in the survey results. The percentage of people who report feeling sad may be 50% or 60% for, say, adults who spend less than 10 hours online. If this were the case, and the trend observed showed, say, a decreasing level of sadness as screen-time increases, then the argument would break down.
In conclusion, the argument, in its current form, fails considerably in reaching its conclusion, by failing to answer the three questions discussed above. Failing to provide a definitive answer to these questions (as the argument stands now) has led to the argument having little to no persuasiveness. The author of the argument must conduct or consult a more comprehensive survey that thoroughly substantiated by evidence, must be logically sound.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-07-06 | Technoblade | 73 | view |
| 2022-08-29 | bhavna288 | 50 | view |
| 2020-09-07 | hemildesai | 66 | view |
| 2020-04-28 | elisabetta_fedele | 58 | view |
| 2019-07-08 | SOUMEDHIK | 63 | view |
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Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 9 2
No. of Sentences: 26 15
No. of Words: 645 350
No. of Characters: 3063 1500
No. of Different Words: 262 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 5.04 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.749 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.616 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 214 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 140 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 107 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 65 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 24.808 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.293 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.731 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.312 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.489 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.085 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 72, Rule ID: GENERAL_XX[1]
Message: Use simply 'public'.
Suggestion: public
...ace of 250 people representative of the general public? Even if we assume that the authors int...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 115, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...eral public? Even if we assume that the authors intention is to make the argument only ...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, hence, however, if, may, second, so, then, well, in conclusion, in fact
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 28.0 19.6327345309 143% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 18.0 11.1786427146 161% => OK
Relative clauses : 26.0 13.6137724551 191% => OK
Pronoun: 53.0 28.8173652695 184% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 76.0 55.5748502994 137% => OK
Nominalization: 22.0 16.3942115768 134% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3148.0 2260.96107784 139% => OK
No of words: 644.0 441.139720559 146% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.88819875776 5.12650576532 95% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.0375743251 4.56307096286 110% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.73236160318 2.78398813304 98% => OK
Unique words: 280.0 204.123752495 137% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.434782608696 0.468620217663 93% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 948.6 705.55239521 134% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 4.96107784431 161% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 9.0 1.67365269461 538% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 9.0 4.22255489022 213% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 26.0 19.7664670659 132% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 22.8473053892 105% => OK
Sentence length SD: 46.1129947414 57.8364921388 80% => OK
Chars per sentence: 121.076923077 119.503703932 101% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.7692307692 23.324526521 106% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.76923076923 5.70786347227 66% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 8.20758483034 49% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 17.0 6.88822355289 247% => Less negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.159650292122 0.218282227539 73% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0479603805175 0.0743258471296 65% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0525983322144 0.0701772020484 75% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0884259734223 0.128457276422 69% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.062091840566 0.0628817314937 99% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.0 14.3799401198 97% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 55.58 48.3550499002 115% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.38 12.5979740519 90% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.14 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 135.0 98.500998004 137% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 12.3882235529 85% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 11.1389221557 104% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Write the essay in 30 minutes.
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.