Social media case reflection -what a blog post can do for a little boy

By Mikala Lindhardt

 For Batkid video click here. 

            There are many blogs and Facebook groups that it can be overwhelming at times. This social media case reflection is a story about a little boy, sick with leukemia, who had a desire to be batman. A simple blog post turned the whole San Francisco city into Gotham and let Miles Scott live his dream as saving a city and being a hero.

            Now there may be people who will argue this was such a waste of time and money, but can you imagine what that little boy has gone through the past few years of his life trying to battle a sickness a majority of young boys don’t even have to think about. I like to think of the unity that was made between people in a city. When separate individuals come together to support a cause, it changes people’s lives. I would argue Miles Scott’s life wasn’t the only one touched that day.

            ABCNews even commented on the feelings and emotions that day and said, “A little boy's wish galvanized San Francisco today and melted the hearts of people around the world who followed his exploits as the city transformed into Gotham to fulfill the 5-year-old leukemia patient's wish to be Batman for a day.” Hearts were ‘melted’ and changed that day as they not only watched a little boy fight and concur the villains, but fight and concur leukemia.

            We talk about viral videos and what makes them viral. There are exciting viral videos, funny viral videos but there are life-changing and tear-jerking viral videos. This news story and video just happen to be the tear jerking kind. A local San Francisco news agency reported this story and said, “Miles has become an internet sensation as the project which has taken on a life of its own through social media. The 5-year-old was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 20 months old and ended chemotherapy treatment in June, with the cancer now in remission, Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area executive director Patricia Wilson said.”

            This little boy doesn’t realize what he has done for so many people. He was greeted by hundreds of people throughout the day cheering his name. He was given a real batman costume to wear and a car was transformed into a bat-mobile he could ride in to go from villain to villain.

            His father, during one of the interviews that day said Miles was getting tired throughout the day (just like he does everyday because leukemia can be exhausting), but the amazing thing was he just kept pushing through the exhaustion because he felt he had to save the city.

            There are all kinds of news stories out there, but this exploded and grew through a simple blog post and was shared on social media. Whether you think social media is good or evil, I would argue you can change lives for good with it.

New Technology 

By Mikala Lindhardt

            So far we have discussed the amazing tool social media has been and is today. It allows us to communicate with others far away or advertise our company to many people in a short amount of time. This is just to name two of the things we can use social media for.

            There is one aspect that it fun to think about at times, and that is, what will be the social media of the future? How will it change? I think we can all agree social media will at some point change and we will begin a new era of interactions. There is one aspect of future social media I wish to discuss today—social media in health care.

            Dr. Kevin Campbell MD, FACC is an internationally recognized Cardiologist who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of heart rhythm disorders. Not only is he knowledgeable when it comes to the human body, particularly the heart, but also social media. He is an enthusiastic user of social media and you can follow him on Twitter @DrKevinCampbell.

            In an interview written and posted online by Forbes, Dr. Campbell was asked about how he deals with doctors who don’t use social media and think it is waste of time. He said, “fear and a lack of knowledge provokes immediate rejection of a novel concept or practice among the ‘old guard’ physician.” Basically, he was saying using social media in health care is a great concept and is going to be a thing of the future.

            It is interesting to think about. I believe patient care will slowly move toward social media. There are already blogs and personal experiences of people with illnesses that can be read by the public, but I have a feeling that will increase. I believe someday we will be able to private message our physician and tell him our symptoms and have him call in a prescription. Perhaps pharmacy will be heading toward a social media aspect as well.

            The reason I think this way is because it is already in place. There are already plans in place and trials being run for a ‘FaceTime Emergency Room’ type of system. Weird, right?

            Dr. Kevin Campbell, in the same interview by Forbes, said, “Social media is merely an extension of the doctor-patient relationship.” I feel that is a good way to look at it. Social media isn’t meant to change our healthcare system, but simply add to it. Granted, the privacy settings will have to be re-evaluated because of patient privacy laws (HIPPA), but this could be a great thing.

            One other aspect I would like to bring up. Patients and physicians won’t only have a relationship via social media and questions and information can be shared, but clinical trials can be better performed. Dr. Kevin Campbell said one of the greatest trials enrollment. With the help of social media, people and volunteers can be easily found. I believe there will be more clinical trials and with more clinical trials we will be able to find more cures for sicknesses and diseases.

            There are definitely pros and cons to each of these aspects I have mentioned. Changes will happen. It is part of life. What changes do you think will take place in the future in regards to healthcare? Comment below.

Stand-alone mobile app versus Internet Browser apps

By Mikala Lindhardt

            I’m going to be honest here and say I didn’t even know this could be a debate. Before research, I didn’t even know there was a huge difference in stand-alone mobile apps versus internet browser apps. Doesn’t it provide and offer the same things? Well not necessarily.

            A blog post written by Rand Fishkin really helped me understand the difference.  I hope you will find it just as useful as I did. As you can see from the photo below, there are pros and cons to both the mobile apps and mobile internet browsers. Mobile internet browsers are getting a lot of traffic but mobile apps are ultimately taking over the world.

Perhaps a direct quote can help you understand what I mean when I say internet browsers are getting a lot of traffic. Fishkin said, “there's a lot less time spent in the mobile web, meaning on mobile websites on a mobile device, than there is in the world of apps — far, far less time spent. But weirdly, and this is very strange but confirmed by several different sources, there's more traffic overall, meaning more unique people making more different visits, which makes a little bit of sense when you think about how those things are done.”

I’m not saying one is better than the other, but mobile apps now have the capability to enter data or do work without being online the whole time. Now, keep in mind applications need to be downloaded, but there is some work that can be done offline. This is a great option if you are not going to be connected to wifi some of the time and still have work to do.

An article written by computer world in December said, “a great way for technology pundits to attract attention is to predict the death of a popular technology.” It is hard to predict what will be the next big thing or what consumers will want a lot of the time, but one thing is for sure and that is consumes want mobile access. That is apparent with the mobile age we are currently living in. You can see that with shopping apps for people with Wish, HOME, Amazon, Etsy, Flipp, etc. Mobile apps are set up to remember passwords and ‘likes’ so they are user friendly and accessible.

Or do we even care if it’s an app or a mobile web? As Chartbeat CEO Tony Haile wrote, “we enter social apps for discovery and then access the mobile Web while still in-app. It is a mistake to conflate time spent on the mobile Web with time spent in a traditional browser.”

There you go. Here are your pros and cons of each and why one would be better than another. Now make your own predictions with what is going to happen. What do you prefer? Does it depend? Feel free to comment below. I would love to know your thoughts.