HOW AND WHY THE
INTERNET PATIENT
COMMUNITY
CRACKS THE WHIP
Dylan J. Chadwick
Physicians Office Resource
Staff Writer
N
To give a glimpse into the world of internet
communities, I'm going to take you down a
sordid path into one of the most vocal and
aggressive fan communities in the entire
existence of the internet: the Internet Wrestling
Community. As the name suggests, this is a
community of online users that identify as part
of said-group strictly on the basis of a love and
interest in professional wrestling. These fans
range in age and vocation, some nerds and
scholars and others just casual fans, many of
whom have no formal connection to the
wrestling business. They watch the weekly
television shows, and critique the seasonal
(monthly) pay-per-view events. They critique
the show's artistic direction, the presentation,
the production quality and of course, the
actual wrestling itself.
They're an interest group worthy of
folkloric dissection in and of themselves, selfappointed art critics and wrestling coaches
casting in their two cent opinions over one of
TV's longest-running episodic serials. And
why? What makes wrestling fans happy? A
good show. Something they can get giddy
about, lighting up the wrestling message
boards, sub-reddits and Tumblr articles. They
praise it's many nuances, its attention to
detail, the lighting, and rank it in terms of said
praise. "Best episode this year!" or "most
exhilarating PPV since '98."
When it's bad though. Oh brother. That
stink is felt the world over. Internet wrestling
fans begin grinding their axes on every
internet platform they can procure. The
Reddit threads get long, the Twitter feeds
more aggressive and swear-ridden and the
o doubt, practicing physicians
see a variety of personality
types when dealing with
patients in their office. Some are
pleasant and demure, while
others can be downright feisty. It's part of the
(often thankless) job though, administering
healthcare to those who need it, even those
unruly and unappreciative. Nowadays,
physicians have an even larger patient
community than that which exists in their
regional practice district...or at least,
nowadays they're more aware of it. The online
patient community exists in a few different
incarnations, sometimes literal support
groups for those dealing with a health
condition and other times being a sort of
"medical consumer reports" for would-be
patients. They're all connected through the
internet mainly through social media sites
and web-forums, and at some level, exist to
help out one another.
Internet Communities
The online patient communities can be
quite puzzling to physicians. In some more
cynical respects, it plays off like an online
repository of people, many of whom have no
medical training to speak of, dispensing false
health information to others. Disgruntled
patients can also use the internet to slag on a
physician they didn't agree with or had a bad
experience with, warning others to stay well
away from physicians with "rude wait staff" or
"arrogant demeanors." And these comments
are hurtful in a variety of ways.
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