Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past five years, then chances are you’ve seen and utilized the savvy of social media sites and social networking sites. It’s become an integral part of our common shared culture, and when we say sharing we mean it! Sharing updates, stories, photos and videos – all of the time! But are all of these sharing based websites actually good for our health – or bad? Taking a look at this is important, as those who are going into pharmaceutical careers need to know about how outside factors have the capacity to impact their patients’ health.
Do social media have the ability to make our medical interactions easier? The answer appears to be no, suggesting that these social media sites make our interactions with the conception of healthcare more confusing and unclear than ever before. Because patients feel they now have more power over their treatment due to information online, they feel that they can’t trust the doctors and pharmacists to do what they’re trained to do. Issues with the professionalism of medical staff and doctors is coming into question, as these staff members are posting on these social networking sites, in many cases deterring from their professional credibility, and sometimes costing themselves their job. There has also been a complete shift in the structure of relationships and business dealings in the healthcare industry that make everything seem a little shaky. Yes, while social networking sites do have the ability to make our personal interactions in a less healthy way, this really does depend on the independent variables and people involved in each situation.
Yes, there have been advancements and adaptations in the medical field for hundreds of years, but never has it occurred and adapted to a fast pace, like the one that is presented to the masses via the Internet. Doctors, companies and corporations have had to take on an ‘online presence’ to compete in the global market, and hop on the bandwagon with popular trends and phrases on the Internet. Many people use this fast paced outlet of information to look for medical information to research or ‘self-diagnose’ themselves, which can cause issues for psychosomatic patients and hypochondriacs, who begin exhibiting the symptoms online – just by reading about them. People are not as trustworthy with their actual doctors due to this, but instead trust shady and inaccurate websites who post information that they want to hear.
There is a moral based and ethics based approach that is used by doctors in ideal cases, but it is difficult to continue using this behavioral model on patients, particularly young ones, who don’t have exposure to a moral code, as the Internet in many cases desensitizes youth from what is right and wrong, with pornography, violence and ignorant humor and content that is often offensive. Not that all Internet interactions are like this! This is just a growing trend that is impacting the way doctors feel about their patients, as the distrust that many patients who ‘self-diagnose’ before going to the doctor can cause resentment issues, as often times these self-diagnosis’ are incorrect.
Social media and networking should enhance the ‘human experience’ instead of making it obsolete. With the updates and upgrades that have revolutionized the world, you would think that these advancements would be used to bond humans and make human interaction a high priority, right? Wrong. Instead, machines and computers with social media have stripped away the name from the face, and machines and mechanized systems have been replacing the care, compassion and human touch that doctors and pharmacists bring to the medical industry. With the stripping away of human interactions, many children and young adults now have issues interacting in society, and lash out accordingly. This doesn’t need to happen! Why not use technology and retool it so the compassion and interaction between medical professionals is maintained, versus a faceless technological tool?
It really is a bigger look at what technology has done to society as a whole, which trickles down into the medical profession and many other crucial industries as well. With people unable to interact with others, how can we expect these people to reach out and get the medical attention that they need? Or even, how will they be able to work in groups, like exercise groups, to better their health and body, when they are so conditioned to sit stationary, alone in front of a computer screen? As an entire society, proactive steps are going to need to be taken from both sides to prevent this degradation in the interactions of patients in health professions. Doctors and pharmacists are going to have to better monitor their online presence, and work with the various available technologies to better human interactions in the office, not just productivity and streamlined processes that focus more on making money.
From the other side of this, patients are going to need to make a more conscientious effort to listen to what a doctor is saying fully, instead of only trusting online articles that are usually factually incorrect. They are also going to need to better communicate their symptoms, needs and habits to medical staff, so any issues can be addressed, before they evolve into a severe issue. Patients need to be more open to meeting with support groups or groups that have a common goal, as a means of alternative treatment. If this is done, then there will be a better symbiotic relationship between the medical professionals and the technology that surrounds them each and every day.