Postcards from the Funny Farm

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I wonder if, since the dawn of the internet, less people go to the actual doctor. There are so many sites out there full of information one can access to diagnose her/his symptoms. For example, I had some symptoms two days ago: headache, very runny nose, sinus pressure and pain in face and my upper teeth ached. I hate to miss work, but last night I decided teaching would be far too aggravating on the symptoms so I stayed home today and recuperated.

I used my symptoms as search words and found out I probably had hay fever.

The symptoms fit me to a T. I was already doing the things I usually do for my allergies, but it was nice to get some validation on what I had. I’ve never had hay fever before, wow it’s not fun. Since I stayed home I’ve been taking Claritin (generic of course) aspirin, Ibuprofen, and some Benadryl last night and this morning. I’m feeling much better this afternoon.

I’m glad I took the day off and that I have the luxury I to do so when I’m sick. We don’t make much of a living as teachers, but we do get those sick days.

Searching lately on Yahoo! (I’m weaning off it in favor of Google), De.licio.us, and some of the seo sites, I have wondered to myself how searching will improve with technology. The search engines are constantly putting processes in place to keep junk out of searches. This is done many ways, not the least of which is through user determined page rankings and such.

Searches of sites are based not only on content but more so on keywords. My wife always has me search topics for her when she’s doing college research because I know how to analyze the subject and think like a search engine (through an almost embarrasingly high amount of practice). It is an art more than a science. Here’s just 4 of some very simple lessons (for the beginner) I’ve learned to help me get the best seraches:

1. Start with an anchor word and some descriptor words. For example: If one was writing a paper on science in childhood education, one could type: education primary (or try elementary) science. If those didn’t yield the results I needed I would alter my keywords.
2. Don’t ask questions in the search, this greatly limits your results.
3. If need be go to an online thesaurus and put your keywords in to see what comes up. Sometimes similies of your term will yield excellent results.
4. Question the authority of the sites in your search. For example: check the copyright (usually at the bottom). If it is not the current year, be skeptical and if the site is geared to sell a product, be very skeptical (I am not talking about ads, because they have to pay the bills. I am referring to when that site is a merchant selling their drug, herb, or other substance as the sole purpose of the site.)

We tend to forget that the internet is just a robot that processes words. Without intelligence and observation of how the robot does that, we are more or less victim to what it spits out at us. As one searches more and practices choosing keywords, one will get more proficient at it.

I was glad to read I had hay fever today, because it had felt like something worse, and I was thinking of braving the doc’s office. My immune system got a chnace to build itself up today and I didn’t have to fight the urgent care battle after all. I know the next time I am sick, I’ll be hitting the search engines again as my first line of defense. It’s great when these sites steer you in the right direction, even when that guidance may be to go straight to the doctor.

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