I disagree with all the negative comments here, if I understand the article correctly, they found a correlation like "IF you are depressed, THEN you might anxiously check your emails all the time'' They arent saying this internet use pattern makes you more likely to be depressed (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modus_ponens#Justification_via_...)

In my personal case, I have bipolar depression and I have gone through several depressive episodes and have definately changed my internet usage during them as described in the article. So I believe this research has value and I will probably build a tool for self-tracking these variables...

What I disagree with is that there should be a central software to notify "counselors'' of this behavior. I believe there would be too many false positives and it would be a huge intrusion of privacy.

Maybe a system where users by the software get an automated "Need help?" email once where they can schedule an anonymous appointment with 1 click at the student health center or something would be fine. But it should really just be a relatively cheap way to screen for students who might be in trouble and contact them proactively, the internet usage itself shouldnt be logged or discussed as a problem ever...