• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

33 Charts

  • About
    • What is 33 Charts?
    • Bryan Vartabedian MD
  • Blog
  • 33mail
  • Foci
    • Social/Public Media
    • Physicians
    • Patients
    • Hospitals
    • Information
    • Process/Flow
    • Technology
    • Digital culture
    • Future Medicine
  • The Public Physician
Uncategorized

Social Media as Therapy

September 7, 2010 By Bryan Vartabedian · Reading Time: < 1 minutes

Last week Robert Scoble announced on Cinchcast the fresh news that his son Milan had just been diagnosed with autism.  I often listen to his Cinchcasts and the disappointment in his voice was heartbreaking.

Then I began to wonder:  If one of my children were to receive a devastating diagnosis would my first impulse be to share the news on a public platform?  Probably not.  And that, among a number of obvious things, is what differentiates me from Robert Scoble.

Everyone’s got their transparency threshold.  You can see it with attitudes surrounding location applications.

The importance of community to each of us varies tremendously.  I see it among people with their own health.  And its no different with our sick children – some of us start blogs, Facebook groups and even national movements surrounding the issues of our kids.  Others prefer the private support of family alone.

And social media has nothing to do with this.  The urge to reach out or withdraw is human and individual.  It’s unrelated to technology.  Social media just amplifies the effect of those who choose to reach out.

I can’t speak for Scoble but from having read (watched, and listened to) him for a number of years I suspect his online relationships are pretty important to him.

I wanted to say that it took a lot of courage to sit at a microphone and share his news.  But that’s my more private perspective.  For Scoble, it’s what he does.

Related Articles

  • Is Social Media a Fad?
  • Is Social Media Over?
  • Places - Facebook's Social Experiment

Related Articles

  • Is Social Media a Fad?
  • Is Social Media Over?
  • Places - Facebook's Social Experiment

Primary Sidebar

Bryan Vartabedian, MD

Bryan Vartabedian, MD
Bryan Vartabedian is the Chief Pediatrics Officer at Texas Children’s Hospital North Austin and one of health care’s influential
voices on technology & medicine.
Learn More

Popular Articles

  • The Fate of Fired Cleveland Clinic Resident Lara Kollab
  • Cures Act Final Rule – How It Will Change Medicine
  • 12 Things About Doximity You Probably Didn’t Know
  • Should Physicians Give Their Cell Phone Number to Patients?
  • Doximity Dialer Video – Telemedicine’s Latest Power Player

Sign up for 33mail newsletter

Featured Articles

Will the Future Need Doctors?

Context Collapse and the Public Physician

Reactive and Creative Spaces

Health Care and the Visibility-Value Continuum

Doctors and social media: Damned if you engage, damned if you don’t

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Footer

What is 33 Charts?

With a mashup of curated and original content that crosses the spaces of digital health, media, communication, technology, patient experience, digital culture, and the humanities, 33 charts offers unique insight and analysis on the changing face of medicine.

Founded in 2009 as a center of community and thought leadership for the issues doctors face in a digital world, 33 charts was included in the National Library of Medicine permanent web archive in 2014.
Learn More

Foci

  • Digital culture
  • Digital Health
  • EHR/Health IT
  • Future Medicine
  • Hospitals
  • Information
  • Patients
  • Physicians
  • Process/Flow
  • Quality
  • Social/Public Media
  • Technology

Copyright © 2023 · 33 Charts · Privacy Policy