I wouldn't even show up in the kind of data they used:

"We, therefore, investigated data from nearly 500,000 people from the UK Biobank, with a mean age of 57. People were classified as socially isolated if they were living alone, had social contact less than monthly and participated in social activities less than weekly."

"Our study also included neuroimaging (MRI) data from approximately 32,000 people. This showed that socially isolated people had poorer cognition."

They focused on older people, severely isolated, for whom brain MRI data was available.

If you're not already having some sort of brain problem, you won't be listed in a database where your brain MRI data is available. "People with brain MRI data" is biased toward cognitive problems.

The article only makes assumptions and I guess a debugging session would also stimulate brain regions needed for higher thoughts. Perhaps different ones of course. But there certainly are people that basically do nothing when alone and very creative people on the other hand. It would be surprising if the negative effects were the same.

On the other hand even as a passionate programmer I see some form of mental decay in people describing debugging as fun. It can be fun but it probably shouldn't.

> Sorry, but this is cope.

Sorry I don’t understand this sentence. Are you saying he is not coping with the findings of the experiment? Did you typo “crap”?

If it’s slang for “You are misinterpreting the facts to support your own biased opinion” it’s not slang I’ve seen before

"(slang) A coping mechanism or self-delusion one clings to in order to endure the hopelessness or despair of existence."

- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cope#Noun

not to mention who's to say people like HN users at parties, lol. being a karma farmers doesn't make you appreciated, it makes you vain.