Is the internet a curse or a blessing? Oh, no! No, do not worry. I am NOT going to provide any academic discussion. This evening, two incidents made me acutely aware of this conundrum inherent in the algorithm underlying the internet. Hence this blog.
Well, this evening, i attended an online meeting which was supposed to address the hurtful knee. To begin with, the trainer was suggesting generalised techniques for knee ache in a 'one size suits all' mode. Well, it is medical common sense that each case is unique. One technique/exercise can never fit all.
When it comes to the bothersome knee, each patient may have a different cause, a unique case history which would demand sensitive treatment, at least initially. A simple explanation may prove my point. Well, when the knee aches, there would inevitably be some swelling. Unless and until that swelling is under control, knee exercises cannot help nor heal. In fact, such recklessness may lead to further damage. The trainer seemed oblivious to this basic fact!
Much worse was the meet final offer. For a two hours online session for some sixty (at least) patients whom the man has never seen (the meet this evening was the first ever and one way, that is, only he was as visible as he himself repeatedly kept on saying), whose medical history he does not know from the Adam, he said, he would teach exercises, techniques, et al, that would make them fit forever. Only some regular practice would be henceforth necessary!
Obviously, it would be downright dangerous, right? How is an online consultation/training (without any x-ray, mind you) of sixty patients possible in two hours, especially when nothing is known about their individual, unique problems? Yes, if the therapist knows the patient real well, online exercises are possible, nay, can be a great help.
Much worse was the patients' idiotic enthusiasm! Because the man said, he charges Rs.6000/- per consultation, but he is offering this two hour session for Rs. 1500/-, people immediately jumped at the discount. Within ten minutes, he was rattling off names of payees as if it were an auction. His patience, the most important quality in a medical practitioner, was spread so thin that his tone would immediately be sarcastic or angry if some 'late comer' in any sense of the term asked any doubt about the payment for the second time!
What a horrible use of the internet for telemedicine! As family doctors are very rare these days, the internet could/should be sensitively used as the medical intermediary. Here, on the contrary, was some proof of the saying, "duniya zukti hai, zukanewala chahiye"!
The second incident, much worse, literally hit my eyes like a bolt from the blue because the download was very much there on the general Google search. Otherwise, i would not touch any such yuck with a barge pole. The video showed teasingly a bridal night! An intensely personal moment was being broadcast to the whole world by the bridal pair!
Before i could emerge out of my shock and close the reel, luckily, they themselves chose to stop, though tantalizingly, while undressing the bride, directly staring in to the camera!!! Speechless it left me because it proved that people can go to any extent for the sake of two minutes worth fame! The couple looked rather rich. So the ugly reel cannot be for dirty money! What horribly bad taste then!
In brief, as the technology gets finer by the minute, human beings get stupider by the second, i feel!
Pratima@The AI hopefully would indeed be truly intelligent and stop such in(s)ane misuse of the internet! Obviously, it cannot because man makes and man disposes the technology!
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