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xAUSxReap3r t1_j4mgte6 wrote

Reply to comment by member_of_the_order in New suicide hotline 3 digit 988 receiving half a million more calls texts, and chats since starting than prior 10 digit number by Inkling2424

Honestly, I'm not mad at it this time. Half a million more people teaching out to a suicide and crisis lifeline is a significant amount, regardless of the overall percentage.

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yoproblemo t1_j4mhez2 wrote

That's fine for you. But I'm never okay with inaccuracy or sensationalism even in instances where they happen to be innocuous. It's important to demand consistency and truth, even if especially if it refers to something you support.

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OldFashnd t1_j4n1c2n wrote

Saying half a million more isn’t inaccurate or sensationalized in this case though. There are a lot of cases where % based increases/decreases are sensationalized as well, maybe even more frequently than raw data. This was done a lot with covid. For example, if I say “the chance of getting myocarditis increases 50% with the covid vaccine” when in reality, it went from 0.2% chance to 0.3% chance, that’s sensationalized and hardly accurate even though it’s technically correct. We need all of the data, both the 42% increase and the 500,000 more callers, to get a full picture of the situation. Statistics are insanely useful, but also extremely easy to force into fitting almost any narrative.

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diuturnal t1_j4nhxt9 wrote

Sounds like a you problem. Because this had neither.

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