Toys of the twenty-first century

Blogamania has spread ’round the world. Pretty soon, blogging 101 will be a required college course. Seems everyone has something to say about everything, including MOI, and blogging allows us to say it.

I went briefly to a conference in New York earlier today called BlogHer, which attracts thousands of women bloggers who appear to be in their twenties and thirties. Didn’t see too many FOFs. The blogging generation isn’t just blogging for the sake of it. It’s trying to turn blogs into business.

Many young women call themselves “mommy bloggers.”  They become instant “experts” the minute they push the baby out…experts on raising children, dressing them, educating them, and playing with them.  They’re also experts on cooking, talking to mothers-in-law and gardening. And companies like P&G, Johnson & Johnson and Stride Rite want to get the attention of these mommy specialists.

It’s a simple strategy. If a blogger has a loyal audience of readers to whom she recommends products, then the big brands want to get in the act. Why not? It cost a lot less to hook up with a community of bloggers than to buy ads on TV and in magazines.

There are bloggers on fashion, beauty, interior design, cooking, French women, medicine, travel, and a gazillion other subjects. If everyone is such a connoisseur, I’m wondering where all the amateurs went.

Does anyone still trust Dr. Spock?

0 Responses to “Toys of the twenty-first century”

  1. Geri says:

    Hi Pinar,

    Love your response to your patients. YOU ARE the one who has to know, and if they trust you, they’re wise to listen to you. If they don’t, they should find another doc or go to medical school.

    Where are you from?

    Geri

    REPLY
    • pinar says:

      thank you Geri .. I know it is not the most sympathetic thing to say to a patient .. but this is just what you mentioned that I mean.. I or another MD but a professional must “know”..
      I live in Turkiye in Istanbul.. but this must be a global problem.. because I have scene a very similar scene at the american serial House where a young mother had googled the symptoms she had seen at her daughter and made a diagnose.. and was trying to discuss with the doctor..
      there fore maybe .. we must conclude. information without background is not information..
      As health has always been the most important thing medical profession is interesting .. for example there is an arabic saying which I believe doesn’t exist in english nor in my language.. tabib means doctor.. mutatabbib is the one who acts as a doctor.. a “two syllabic” difference but a huge one..
      so maybe we might need some new vacabulary new word derivatives .. in the future ..

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  2. pinar says:

    we have a saying in my country ” if you don’t have the knownledge.. you can’t have an opinion”

    but we are in the era of opinions ..
    everyone has something to say about everything..

    over the last years when I try to treat and propose a treatment model to them.. or when they tell me about a treatment they have heard and that I try to explain why I don’t recommend them this specific treatment.. some of my patients answer me.. ” I don’t know.. ”
    I tell them ” well.. I’m the one who has to know.. and I know”..

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  3. Preppy 101 says:

    You just said what I’ve been thinking now for quite a while. Hmmmm. Wonder how this will work out for them . . . xoxo

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  4. Toby Wollin says:

    Nah, I think it’s T. Barry Brazelton, now.

    REPLY

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