Cyberquacks and Cyberchondriacs

http://earthoughts.tumblr.com/post/4084780402/drugs-are-not-always-necessary-belief-in

Every day, we are bombarded by information that claims to help us lose weight, improve health, and gain vitality; now, more markedly and prolifically than ever, via the Internet (Wyatt et all, 2008).

Which has given rise to behaviours Lewis (2006) has dubbed “cyberchondria” and “cyberquackery”.  This begs the question; is the internet a good source of health information? How does access to health information online affect the medical industry’s practices?

A huge proportion of all chronic illnesses requiring hospitalisation are preventable, had the patient had access to health information and early intervention by a General Practicioner, according to  Dr John Kastrissios, from General Practice Queensland (2010).

While there is always a degree of bias present in the health information process (Wyatt et al, 2008), if access to this information engages patients and encourages them to consult their GP regularly, and this in turn helps them in establishing healthy dialogues with their doctors and the people they come into contact with outside of the health system, this can only be a positive step forward in improving the health of our society.

However, the scope of the Internet means that differentiating between reliable information and “cyberquackery” (Lewis, 2006) amongst the mass of complicated, often contradictory information isn’t always easy. The Internet can be a helpful tool when it comes to managing our health, as long as its information is consumed within a social context, and with the help and advice of a trained medical professional.

References

Kastrissios, John. 2010. "Preventative Health Strategy puts general practice at the forefront: Call for the doctor." Accessed April 8, 2011. http://www.gpqld.com.au/content/Document/Media/Media%20Releases/MEDIA%20RELEASE%20070909_the%20strategy.pdf

Lewis, T. (2006). Seeking health information on the internet: lifestyle choice or bad attack of cyberchondria? Media, Culture & Society, volume 28, issue 4: 521-539. 

Wyatt, S., Harris, R. and Wathen, N. (2008). The Go-Betweens: Health, Technology and Info(r)mediation. In Mediating Health Information: The Go-Betweens in a Changing Socio-Technical Landscape. Sally Wyatt, Nadine Wathen and Roma Harris (eds), pp. 1-12. New York: Palgrave Macmillan 

Mediopolis; a constant in the life of a citizen of nowhere.



http://www.scenicreflections.com/download/193579/Cyber_World_Wallpaper/



My postal address says I’m a resident of Brisbane. Emotionally, I’m a universal nomad. If my life were a Sofia Coppola movie, it would be an adventure love story about a flaxen haired, dreamy-eyed country kid who set off at 17 to find her place in this too-big world; a journey driven by an obsessive curiosity, a short attention span and sheer dumb luck, punctuated by one big romantic distraction, the odd threat of deportation and a penchant for sudden changes to the plan.

The concept of “home” to me is purely contextual, and could be Cairns, or New York, or Sydney, or Brisbane depending on who’s asking, or the nostalgia I’m feeling about the various stages of my life at the time.

But there is one place where I have put down roots.  I am a permanent citizen of “Mediopolis”.

"Mediopolis" is a cyber world which Silverstone (2007), de Jong and Schuilenburg (2006), and Inkinen (1998) describe as “…a comprehensively mediated public space where media underpin and overarch the experiences and expressions of everyday life” (cited in Dueze, 2011).

The nature my life dictates that much of it is lived in, rather than with media (Deuze, 2011).  Dueze argues that perhaps - given the ubiquous and pervasive nature of media today - this notion should be the basis of studies into the realities of our existence, and that as a society we have grown blind to the very thing that defines modern life as we know it.

References

Deuze, M. (2011). Media Life. In Media, Culture & Society, Volume 33, issue 1, pp. 137-148

Playing Nice in the New Media Playground

As a child of the digital age, to me, communication via New Media is as ubiquitous as my Diet Coke addiction and the use of "random" as a blanket adjective. In highschool it was text messaging and online chat rooms, evolving into user generated content sites like Facebook and Youtube with the inception of Web 2.0 in 2004 (Sternberg, 2010), and now, as I prepare to take the next step in life post-university, Facebook, Twitter, email, blog updates, entertainment media, and RSS news feeds are delivered straight from Cyberspace into my back pocket thanks to my beloved BlackBerry.

Which raises important questions about how we conduct ourselves ethically and morally in this virtually unlimited cyber playground, especially where intellectual property rights, piracy, privacy, computer crime, censorship and free speech are concerned (Hamelink, 2006). 

While "nettiquette" (Hamelink, 2006) frameworks have been put in place, the size and scope of the Internet make policing ethical or moral breaches a near impossible task (Sternberg, 2010).  As argued by Hamelink (2006) “The speed of digital communication does not create new forms of immorality…But it makes it possible to commit immoral acts so fast that one hardly notices.”

In other words, the moral and ethical dilemmas we face in the cyber playground aren’t all that different to those faced in the real world.  The Net does not imply a confrontation with new moral problems. The difference is the digital playground is a whole lot bigger, and provides the cloak and mask of pseudonym and anonymity, and subsequently, a better chance of getting away with morally and ethically questionable behaviour.

References

Hamelink, C. 2006. The Ethics of the Internet: Can we cope with Lies and Deceit on the Net? In Ideologies of the Internet, K. Sarikakis & Daya Thussu, pp. 115-130. New Jersey: Hampton Press.

Sternberg, J. 2010. "KCB301 Media Audiences, Week 3 Lecture Notes". The active audience: User-led co-creation and the re-negotiation of media power. Accessed March 28, 2011. http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/.