Blog #10 - Brittney McLaughlin

There are good aspects of the internet, and there are awful aspects of the internet. It has undoubtedly led to an increase of bad things happening in our world, but I think one could argue that an equal amount of good comes from the internet. An example of both in accessibility to research articles - it's much easier for us to access them now, as we can type in a few words and receive thousands of results, but also absolutely terrible, because now professors expect us to find and cite 10x as many.

I think it's fairly easy to really go in and attack the internet, name all of the awful things are caused ALL BECAUSE OF THE INTERNET!!! The 3rd letter in "internet" is "t". Unironically, the 3rd letter of "Satan"...ALSO "T". But I'll put up a fight for the good in the internet. And, naturally, I'm super selfish, so - how has the internet bettered me, specifically?

I'm a type 1 diabetic, and this can be really difficult at times. I don't know any other diabetics here at the U - I'm sure there's hundreds, but it's not something that's super easy to identify. So, being far from home and diabetic-friendless, I can feel really alone sometimes. The internet has served as a really great reminder that I'm not alone as a diabetic, that there are tons of people dealing with this disease as well. Even when I'm not specifically looking for this, I can be watching a random YouTube video and someone will pass by in the background with an insulin pump clipped to their hip and I'll get really excited. It may sound silly, but these are things I'm not used to seeing in my everyday life, and the internet has made it much easier for me to do so. A much larger way that the internet has benefited me and my diabetes, though, is simply by giving me access to education on my disease. My insulin pump requires me to insert a small tube into my body via a needle every few days, and my doctor told me that I needed to start doing this on the back of my arm, rather than just my stomach and thighs. She gave me a demonstration, but I was so scared of the pain that I couldn't really pay attention. YouTube and Google not only provided me with information on exactly where and how to do this, but many stories with happy endings to help ease my anxiety. Without the internet, my life would be harder in this situation. It has truly helped me to handle not only my diabetes, but my anxiety, better than any one person or medical textbook could.