Google the Flu?

Who would have guessed that you could use Google search to detect specific flu outbreaks in your area. I came across an article today when looking for things to write about for my blog and this headline off of Cnn.com jumped right out at me, “Google tool uses search terms to detect flu outbreaks.” I of course had to read the article because I wondered how Google could help someone figure out if their symptoms were in fact flu symptoms, and how they could know if the flu was being spread around in the places in which they lived. According to the article, “Google’s new public health initiative, Google Flu Trends, looks at the relative popularity of a slew of flu-related search terms to determine where in the U.S. flu outbreaks may be occurring.” This to me is a really interesting concept because it gives anyone the ability to find out if their symptoms are flu symptoms and if there is an outbreak of it in their area. What’s really interesting is that it lets anyone find this information out, not just doctors, but moms with sick children too.

Dr. Joseph Bresee who is the chief of the epidemiology and prevention branch in the Centers for Disease Control influenza divisions said, “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collaborated with Google on the project, helping validate and refine the model, and has provided flu tracking data over a five-year period.” It’s really interesting to think about how much computer mediated communication is relevant in today’s world and how much of an impact it has had on the technologies of today. There are so many more resources available to the everyday person because of the extreme advancement of all these technologies. Dr. Bresee says, "We really are excited about the future of using different technologies, including technology like this, in trying to figure out if there's better ways to do surveillance for outbreaks of influenza or any other diseases in the United States, In theory at least, this idea can be used for any disease and any health problem." Dr. Randall Stafford of Stanford University commented that this technology could be useful to detecting these flu outbreaks in a faster amount of time than using influenza surveillance systems.

I know I’ve said in previous blogs about how with every positive thing that comes from all these technologies also comes negatives, but I think this new tool that Google is offering can be very useful to all people. The flu virus can be very dangerous and it is important that people, especially elderly people, take the necessary precautions to protect themselves from being exposed to an outbreak. This new technology is going to help people in detecting outbreaks and from the flu virus being spread amongst people and that is very important.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/11/11/google.flu.trends/index.html

Barack Obama

So as you all know, as of Tuesday night we now have a new President of the United States of America, Barack Obama.  I personally could not be more thrilled about Obama becoming our new commander in chief.  With all the excitement about the election, I’ve been doing a lot of research on Obama over the past few days and I came across an article from the Los Angeles Times about how news of Obama’s victory spread like wildfire through Facebook and text messaging the night of the election. (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2008/11/lebanon-news-of.html).  The article mainly focuses on the reactions of the people from other countries and how excited they are to find out that Barack is our new leader.  One man from Lebanon even said that he was jealous that their country couldn’t have a peaceful leader like Obama. "When I heard the news, frankly, I shivered," said Jamal, who said he congratulated his friends on Facebook after Obama's victory.”  Another girl, Amer Ghandour was lying in bed when her phone started going off with calls and text messages about the fact that Obama had won.  "I was shocked to learn that Obama has made it, I think his charismatic, wise and rational personality will lead to the promised change and not anything else."

 I think it is so amazing that with computer mediated communication its possible to find out anything you want in the blink of an eye.  Some people see this as a negative thing for our society but I think it is a really good thing.  I of course think it’s wonderful that all these countries are already embracing Obama as our new president.  That’s a very important thing for our country’s foreign relations. 

 Unfortunately, I’ve also seen how people have been using Facebook over the past few days for complete and total criticism of Obama and the Democratic Party.  I can’t believe the negative comments that I have read on Facebook about Obama.  They’re already judging the man when they haven’t even given him a chance to show them what he can do for our country.  It’s everywhere; it is on blogs, on people’s status updates and wall postings.  The things that are being said are so vulgar.  It’s definitely an instance where people are using these technologies for negativity.  What really frustrates me the most is that people are so judgmental of other people’s opinions.  This is America and under the First Amendment we all have freedom of speech so it’s tough to see people bashing other people via Facebook for supporting our new president.  I’ve actually been trying to avoid Facebook these past few days because reading these people’s negative thoughts are really frustrating to me.  But all in all I think that it is really cool how people used Facebook throughout this campaign to support both candidates Obama and McCain.  Facebook really got the word out to the youth how important it is to vote and the election last night showed that it worked with Obama taking two thirds of the youth vote.