With the development of technology, individuals have recently preferred getting advice for medical issues online to directly asking doctors. This essay will first outline the underlying causes of this phenomenon before arguing it is more of a detrimental trend.
The prevalence of online asking in terms of health problems can be the result of its the convenience. Instead of spending an enormous amount of time to go to hospitals or private clinics, online access is of greater regarding time-saving aspects. Just by a mouse-click, the public can be fully informed about health crises that they struggle with, which is clearly more convenient than offline advice from doctors. Furthermore, online advice is also significantly superior in terms of medical cost. Take a fever as an example. If a person, catching a fever, is examined by doctors, he would undergo a complicated process, including a variety of unnecessary tests before being simply suggested to relax regularly and drink more oresol to hydrate adequately. Meanwhile, such advice can easily be found on the Internet, being totally free. Considering these reasons, this tendency seems perfectly beneficial.
However, the prevalence of online advice regarding health issues has several adverse far-reaching repercussions. One of the most significant drawbacks is that the information uploaded on the Internet is commonly invalid or inaccurate. As most of these advices are not verified by professionals, the data easily leads to personal subjectivity in terms of medical treatment. This problem can exacerbate patients’ illness, resulting in severe repercussions and even jeopardizing individual overall well-being and lives. For instance, petechial fever is an infected disease which can not be cured without professional expertise and medical equipment. That being the case when following online data potentially puts patients on the brink of death by making people mislead the illness’s nature and treatment.
To summarize, the reasons behind online medical advice stem from its convenience and cost efficiency. I believe the detrimental risks it poses to individual overall well-being and even lives make this trend largely a negative.
