In 2000, we physicians dictated our notes onto recording machines, which then had to be transcribed by an outside agency at significant expense and error. The administrator at the hospital where I worked decided he could save money by investing in a computer dictation system. At the time, these systems did not have a high level of sophistication, resulting in frequent errors, such as, “Cancer of the breath,” “The patient is to take her medication with her foot,” and “The patient was prepped and raped in a sterile fashion.” After we found that the time spent on corrections slowed our patient flow by half, we refused to use the system. The administrator lost a bundle.
Now dictation systems work seamlessly, an example of technology’s incredible advancements. The first social media site I joined was MySpace. Anyone remember that website? Basically, a site for narcissism, you could post about yourself. It failed because it hadn’t a mechanism for other people to interact with your site. I only kept up with my space on MySpace for a few months.
In the social media course I’m taking this year, we’re studying how different sites like MySpace flourished and withered. This week we studied one called Orkut, set up by Google, which became very popular in Brazil. Launched in 2004, by 2012 it had 30 million users. By 2014 it shut down. Wow. Talk about flame out!
Orkut had a lot of great features. Its easy-to-use site offered users the opportunity to rate other users on their sexiness, among other features. The site soared in popularity with tech workers and students. Its demise came as “The next big thing” allowed for a wider capacity of friends and for more easily transmittable photos and videos.
I’m an aging doctor who likes to write books. Last Wednesday I gave a reading of two of my children’s books to a dozen preschoolers at the Long Beach Library. We had a glorious time. On my way out, I stopped to browse the huge stacks of giveaway books the library presented by the front door. All these books… all these wonderful tomes that the authors had spent years lovingly putting together, and now nobody wanted them. I picked out four, one a how-to carpentry book for my woodworking daughter-in-law, one an environmental book for my tree-hugging daughter, one a Western book for my cowboy-enthralled French Girlfriend, and finally a sci-fi book for myself.
Just like MySpace and Orkut, I wonder if books have seen their day? Facebook replaced Myspace. Twitter replaced Orkut. Kindle is replacing printed paper. My grandchildren will replace me. It’s the cycle of life.
It’s been a year since I was aged out of the emergency room. For now, I’m still working the clinics, still using my medical skills and helping people. This won’t last forever. Nothing does. And just like MySpace and Orkut, I’ll be a footnote in history. But that’s okay. They’ll always be something or someone new to replace the old and used. Right?
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