The
internet: saving lives or encouraging hypochondriacs?
We’ve all
done it. Had an ache, pain or health grumble and headed to Google. With endless
internet pages telling us about every medical condition known to man, the
question is – is this giving people information that could save their lives or
egging on the hypochondriacs among us?
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| The place to go with a health question? |
I think one
of the best things to hit the internet is NHS choices. Informative and factual,
this website is reliable and allows us to understand health problems, their
causes, symptoms and treatments. This also encourages people with minor ailments
such as the common cold not to visit their doctor and cuts down the increasing
number of time wasters draining the NHS of funds and resources needed to treat
people who are actually ill. The cold is a virus and there is nothing a doctor can do but to tell you to rest and keep hydrated – exactly what the NHS choices
website tells you. This website doesn’t just stop people going to the doctors
unnecessarily, but encourages us to see the GP at times when we really should
get something checked out – in some cases for things we may otherwise have put
off going to the doctor for. Here, I say
clever internet.
But this is
just one website. If you Google a cough, the snippet of writing under the third
website down shows “coughing is a common
reflex, which can indicate other more serious problems”. Now, from a distant
view this is a reasonable sentence. On the other hand, if you are concerned
about a cough, which is generally why you search it on the internet, you are
undoubtedly going to glaze over the words ‘common reflex’ and immediately focus
on the two words ‘serious problems’. Although a website may say your problem is
most likely nothing but rarely it could be cancer, as soon as the ‘C word’ is
mentioned that’s all that’s needed to set off the angst in most of us.
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| I don't think this definition made it into the Oxford English Dictionary... |
And some websites aren’t even as balanced as the above,
giving truly misleading and inaccurate information, suggesting old wives tails
that just don’t work, and can give some dangerous advice. Reliability is a crucial
flaw of the internet. Pages like Wikipedia (which I think is a great concept to
spread knowledge, as any students will agree) can be detrimental when it comes
to medical issues, as anyone can change the information written. And unfortunately
the fact that anyone can write on the internet means that there will always be
websites exploiting people’s fears for money. I personally am one to Google any
health queries and often find scare mongering websites. Funnily enough, many of
these websites seem to endorse certain products, magic creams and potions which
can cure your pain…all for the small cost of...you get the idea. Money makes the world go round and inspiring
fear is an easy way to make some sales.
As with
anything in life, this issue isn’t black and white, this is a typical grey area
with both pros and cons. However, if I had to sit on one side of the www. Fence,
I would have to side with the fact that the internet is a scare mongering,
inaccurate, money making source of knowledge when it comes to health.
Disagree
with me? Have a human opinion to share? Tell me why by commenting here on the
blog, or go to my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/HumanInterests , or tweet your opinion @Human_Interests.
