#and how younger generations have a lot worse internet literacy

[worrywrite]

You know what. I'm gonna be old for a second.

Android smart phones used to come built in with this app called Google Play Music.

It let you curate your own library if you had CDs or EPs you wanted to upload to your account, and it would host your music library (for free, using your Google storage). It also had a built in radio type listening side to it, it was basically Spotify.

And that app, despite the Google branding, was spectacular. I could listen to my music no matter what device I used, no ads, and it would even use temporary storage on your device to load a couple songs you listened to a lot from your library or a short playlist or whatever songs you listened to last.

But then, a couple years ago, they changed the app to YouTube Music. And let me tell you. Worst app I've ever touched. No more personal music library unless you already had one already, you had to jump through hoops and micro transactions to get back normal features you would expect and that you used to have for free (like shuffle, or offline listening, or playing in the background--ugh, hell I miss playing music in the background on my phone and not needing to have it loaded to my phone), and the most heinous thing ever, if you wanted to listen to your own songs--songs that you chose and wanted to listen to--you had to listen to ads in between (even if they were songs you had bought) and on top of that there was a random chance (and a high chance at that) that the song after the one you wanted to listen to from your personal library was some other random songs that the record label or artists had paid to promote and you didn't buy. Didn't matter what genre it was, if you were listing to ambient rock or jazz, there was a chance the next thing to pop into your ears was some loud and obtuse hip hop song about having sex and getting money (I'm not digging on hip hop and rap as a genre or having sex or getting money--most of that is fine, it's just that there's also a lot of low effort music by posers in the hip hop genre).

Anyway.

I haven't really just listened to music since. I haven't had a good way to. I could buy an mp3 player, but it was so nice to have it on my phone. I had a perfect system.

A good app died because it wasn't monetized to hell and back. I died because it wasn't tracking user data and selling it to anyone that would buy. It died because it didn't have ads in it.

I would pay, granted I would prefer a single payment, for an app that did everything or even just most of the things that Google Play Music did. I miss listening to music.

[radioactive-earthshine]

I'm really into the fanon Vs comic reader poll but putting aside the current results. I'm so perplexed by the amount of people using '.... But comics are expensive' as an excuse. Do they not know about the massive free online archives? There are thousands of comics you can only read because they're in there

It gets sort of hairy with this one because accessibility is a genuine wall for some people, and that wall sometimes really rooted in being illiterate with technology.

Comic hosting sites like [redacted] are generally unusable without an ad-blocker and there is population of people that simply don't know how to implement one - either on a computer, laptop, tablet or a phone. They just don't know how.

Some people genuinely cannot get these ad-blockers on their device because it might be school equipment or are their parents/partners or even an abusers and as such even if they wanted to put one on, they can't.

Some people cannot READ comics on a small screen like a phone, but they do not have any other device for which to read comics - this is one of the bigger prevailing things stopping a lot of people from seeking comic archives out. They cannot access the site on their phone easily either without said ad-blocker which these two in combination just makes it too complicated.

Yes, some people might not even be AWARE of comic sites at all and just feel uncomfortable using them when they find out.

Not knowing what resources are out there and how to get them is a real issue that a lot of people struggle with and it is only getting worse as tech literacy and internet navigation skills dwindle.

If you are reading this now - I really do implore you to get more familiar with using the internet - not apps, and learn how to use a computer if you only ever used tablets and phones growing up.

If I have to teach someone who is only 5 years younger than me how to make a new folder on the computer and how to rename a file, I am going to lose my mind. Some of you guys are at the same level that 70 year olds were back when I was in highschool and we ran a free computer class to teach them computer basics, and it's not your fault.

[spacelazarwolf]

when the legend of korra was put on netflix a few years ago there were a bunch of teens crying and pissing and shitting online about people hc'ing korra and asami as lesbians because "they're bisexuals in canon!!" lol it's so absurd but it's definitely a thing among younger fandom-goers

i remember hearing abt that but i wasn't in that fandom so i didn't get to see it in real time but like. i think it genuinely is a problem among younger fandom folks bc a lot of them kind of showed up on the internet into an already established world and then didn't do the work to learn about the culture before engaging. which is how you get nuclear level freak outs about headcanons not matching canon when a headcanon is quite literally definitionally something that doesn't have to be canon. i don't think it's solely a young people think, but there is most definitely a generational divide, and i think young people have also had worse education around media literacy and critical reading and thinking which probably does not help.

[taylorwhelan-finalproject]

Research

Bottom Line

Health information on the Internet is endless. Some of this information is pretty scary, especially if you don’t understand everything that’s being described. For example, one differential diagnosis for headache is a stroke, but the chances that any particular incidence of headache is stroke-related are slim—especially if you’re young and healthy.

Information gathered from the Internet can be wonderfully helpful as is the case with patients with chronic health conditions who want to learn more about their care. However, it can also be detrimental, as in the case of a person who needlessly frets over a self-diagnosis, or worse, a person who self-treats a self-diagnosis, which could result in bodily harm. Remember that your physician can help put the information that you gleaned from the Internet in context.

Importantly, diagnosis can’t be based on Internet health information alone. Diagnosis is an entailed process best practiced by a professional. A physician relies on clinical acumen and a wealth of medical information—some of which can be found on the web—to diagnose a patient. Specifically, based on medical history and physical exam findings, the physician deduces a differential diagnosis or prioritized list of likely diagnoses. Results from diagnostic tests confirm the diagnosis.

If you find information on the Internet that you would like your physician to review and explain, it’s a good idea to drop off this information with your physician and ask her to take a look at it when she has time. Alternatively, you can schedule a separate appointment just to discuss your concerns.

IN ALL, 80 percent of Internet users, or about 93 million Americans, have searched for a health-related topic online, according to a study released Wednesday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. That’s up from 62 percent of Internet users who said they went online to research health topics in 2001, the Washington research firm found.

The Pew researchers asked participants if they had used the Internet to search for at least one of 16 major health topics online, ranging from mental health, immunizations to sexual health information. Most frequently people went online to look up information about a specific disease or medical problem (63 percent) or a particular medical treatment or procedure (47 percent). They were also interested in diet, nutrition and vitamins (44 percent) and exercise or fitness information (36 percent).

Other popular health topics include: prescription or over-the-counter drugs (34 percent); alternative treatments (28 percent); health insurance (25 percent); depression, anxiety or stress (21 percent) and a particular doctor or hospital (21 percent).

The new study indicates that looking for health or medical information is one of the most popular activities online. Only e-mail, which is used by 93 percent of the Internet population, and researching a product or service before purchase, 83 percent of users, top it.

“We wanted to get at the diversity of the topics being researched,” says Susannah Fox, Pew’s director of research. “It tells us that people are turning to the Internet to make better decisions in their lives, whether buying a book or making a health decision.”

Pew conducted telephone and online surveys of over 3,000 adults late last year for the report.

The research firm also found that more than half of people who had conducted a health-related search recently did it for someone else, either a spouse, child, friend or loved one.

Pew’s study only tracked already wired Americans, but another study by Solucient, a health care business firm, released Tuesday found that 45 percent of all adults nationwide are using the Internet for health-related purposes.

For the health care industry, the two studies provide significant support for increased spending online to reach consumers. Technology firm Jupiter Research predicted that health care companies will spend $1 billion online within the next five years.

For consumers, the latest research comes as federal policymakers and health professionals are trying to get Americans to become more knowledgeable about the quality and costs of their health care. Last week the Bush administration announced an initiative to post report cards on hospitals’ performance on the Internet. The move is part of the government’s plan to improve hospital care by paying a bonus to hospitals that provide superior treatment.

BROADBAND AND BETTER CARE?

The Pew study found women are more likely to seek health information online than men (85 percent compared to 75 percent) and younger consumers are more likely to research health topics online than senior citizens. The Solucient study asserts that married couples, 25-34 years of age, were nearly 80 percent more likely to use the Web for health information than adults over 65. Households earning more than $100,000 were nearly 60 percent more likely to do Internet health searches than households earning less than $50,000.

Only 22 percent of Americans over 65 have Internet access, according to Pew. Of those, 70 percent have searched for health topics. But, in general, senior citizens are much less likely to have searched for health topics, with the exception of Medicare/Medicaid, says Pew’s Fox.

People with high-speed Internet connections do a lot of health-related searches, Pew finds, mirroring other research that finds that broadband subscribers are online 40 percent more often.

In light of a recent medical article stating that nearly one in three doctors said they withheld medical treatment from patients if the services weren’t covered by health insurance, the Pew study finds a consumer who uses the Internet as a resource for health education “stands a better chance of getting better treatment.”

About 1 in 4 Americans, mostly older and living in rural areas, don’t use the Internet, says Fox. “These are the folks who are really excluded from Internet health resources,” she says. “They don’t have access to the middle-of-the-night information that a lot of people are finding. They can’t get to the information that’s really vital to them.”

Lee Hargraves, senior researcher with the Center for Studying Health System Change, a non-partisan think tank in Washington, D.C., agrees with Fox.

“The Internet is skewed toward a more educated population,” he says. “There is still a hurdle for people thinking about using the Internet so if you want to get health information to everyone, there are a lot who will be left behind.”

FINDING WHAT THEY NEED

The challenge remains to close the gap between people with Internet health access and those without, but improvements are also needed in helping people find relevant information once they are online.

Search engines are the first stop for 8 out of 10 people seeking health information, but often people are not able to locate the most current or accurate Web sites, says Fox.

“A lot of people aren’t finding what they need,” says Fox. “That points to the need for better health literacy and search engines paying attention to health as (an in-depth) topic.”

The Pew study backs up other research that has found a significant problem with the quality of health-related search results. There are a number of high quality sites like the National Library of Medicine’s MEDLINEplus, but there’s a lot of junk, too, researchers note.

URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission, a 20-year-old nonprofit that helps set standards for health care companies, is working with health providers, researchers, consumers organizations and search engines, including Google, Yahoo! and AOL, on a project intended to improve results for consumer health searches online, says vice president Liza Greenberg.

The project, funded with a small grant by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, hopes to help search engines develop algorithms that could prioritize health sites based on the most relevant or credible information available.

“What is the role of search engines to steer users to quality results?” she asks. “What are the ways to help search engines hone in on the highest quality Web sites?”

A report and recommendations on how to define and tag sites is expected to be released by the end of summer, says Greenberg.