Hello, my name is Dr. Web. How can I help You?
These days, the internet provides a plethora of information. And guess what? When people read some stuff online, they dont understand what they are reading. Because not everyone has the proper foundations to understand complex matters.
In terms of medicine, people are self- diagnosing. They read about the symptoms, and they think, “hey! I totally have that”!
They are also turning to the Internet for help, or therapy. Is this the same as self- medicating?
There is a reason doctors and therapists go to school for so many years.
Are people hurting themselves by empowering themselves so much as to decide their own plight? Are they hurting themselves? Or is this empowerment the strength of the new generation?
On my blog, I plan to explore these questions, hear what doctors and all different sorts of people have to say about this.
Lets see what we can dig up! Check out what’s on my mind!
Nomi, I think this is a really cool and interesting topic. More than that, it’s completely relevant to me, which is why I’m happy to be commenting on it. Whenever I’m not feeling well, I go online and immediately start to draw conclusions based on what comes up. When I go to the Dr., I usually first tell him what I think I have (based on my Internet searches) and then let him agree or disagree. It’s kind of funny, but also a little bit crazy. I mean here I am- a young girl with practically no medical knowledge or experience- telling my highly trained, highly educated Dr. what I think I have! It’s ridiculous. I think exploring our tendency to self-diagnose via the Internet and to use the Internet as a tool of knowledge empowerment is a really great research avenue. I can see that you are skeptical about whether or not this empowerment is good for us int he long run. I am too. I’m excited to see how this blog progresses.
I, like Chaya, tend to diagnose myself whenever I get sick. WebMD makes me super paranoid. The internet promotes a false sense of empowerment — and that’s what fuels the fear and the paranoia. Very interesting concept! I can’t wait to see where you go with it.
Nomi = Your approach towards using the Internet for self-diagnosis and therapy is very unconventional and intriguing. Few would research that for this kind of paper, but there’s definitely a lot that you can get out of this. I’m sure that The Shallows can also prove to be a good jumping off point for this, as well as your own experience. Let’s get the first draft in!