Blog Assignment #10

The Merriam-Webster dictionary describes a blog as "a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer." Blogging is a useful tool to get the average person's voice heard. Anyone can write a blog, making free speech from the First Amendment even more accessible.

I believe bloggers should only post their comments about a topic if that thought is relevant and well thought out. As Jason Falls said, you can get a lot of knowledge from the right blogs and you will become a better professional faster. If a blogger writes even the most non-sense, irrelevant things, I think it hurts the whole blogging concept.

There are a lot of crazy and stupid people out there and obviously, some of them are writing blogs. That's why you have to be aware you can't believe everything a blog says. People can write blogs whether the topic is the cure of cancer or humiliation 101.  Giving the power to publish to anyone is a really sensitive thing to do because people can involve themselves in libel acts, providing false claims. People or company's reputations can touch the ground with just a click of a button. So yes, of course it can create problems.

Regarding what I've learned, it really impacts me that hospitals are using Social Media the way they are. Only 12.54% of hospitals are in this trend, making them the exception, not the rule.

I think it's amazing how hospitals use SNS to improve customer service, to provide community opportunities for patients sharing and support, and to refer physicians in an interface/database setting. Paul Levy's story surprised me a lot. I think more hospitals CEOs should copy his technique. Other hospital stories such as the Sutter Eden Medical, Georgetown Community Hospital and the Mayo Clinic are great. They give people hope and other hospital should take notes from them as well.

Communication technologies have impacted my life a great deal. Especially, the cell phone. I spend a lot of my day sending or answering texts and emails, talking to someone, checking the calendar, enabling or disabling alarms and surfing the Internet. I think this relates to the Media System Dependency theory because the more media I have, the more dependant I am of it.

I take my cell phone everywhere I go and if I can't find it for a few minutes I'll start freaking out. It has a lot of valuable information I need in a daily basis and makes me available 24/7, which makes it kind of like a pact with the devil, as we discussed in class.

Have a good Summer =)