Saturday, November 8, 2014

Should I blog?

This question has been haunting me since medical school started. Erm duh? what are you doing now? Yes I know, but I have been extra cautious because I am studying to become a medical doctor. By exposing myself out here, I am afraid that one day, my patient will look up my blog and I will look unprofessional, besides simply not having enough time to blog regularly. It's not that I do crazy stuffs.... oh wait I did do a crazy social experiment on people... but most of the time I am blogging about stuffs that normal people do. I am less worried about confidentiality tho, because I don't talk about my work or other people's issues unless it's life threatening and only by talking about it, I can save the person's life. But of course, this will never be the suitable medium to talk about people's life threatening issues.

However, I don't think patients would appreciate that perspective very much. With the rise of 'expert patients' always looking for information online and do a full background stalking check of their doctor, just imagine this scenario that will happen in 5 years time, 


"Doc, so you like eggs for breakfast eh? I thought you said that's high cholesterol and you advised me against having it every day?"
"erm...that was ages ago. I #eatclean now."

Protecting our public image is something my friends and I are thinking about very seriously now. We are sharing so many things on our social media account nowadays without second thoughts. Sometimes, these things might appear funny at that moment but few years down the road, the very same thing that you thought was harmless or even good, could very possibly haunt you with completely unexpected repercussions, especially when you are applying for jobs.

The thing is, I actually love blogging very much. It's not just about writing a journal or a diary, it's also sharing interesting things with people who actually care or... have unfortunately fell into this hole serendipitously found this space where a silly girl talks about the most unimportant things in the world. I have been blogging since I was 14. Yes, 14. I have another blog which recorded my life before university started in a very funny and entertaining manner. By that I mean, my English and the silly things a female adolescent who lives in a rural city did. Through my blog and Nuffnang, I have managed to meet up several big shots bloggers of those days and had fun with them. I love following blogs too, I still do now. From KennySia, to Xiaxue, to Kimberlycun and my latest craze, Vivy Yusof and Nuffnang's founder - TimothyTiah. Whenever they update, I just get the boost of dopamine shooting in my reward circuitry. 

It is a space which exposes a glimpse your private life to the public. I know, it may seem like we enjoy voyeurism perhaps we do  but we actually just love sharing our thoughts with the people who hopefully are like-minded, and resonate in return.  
Follow my instagram on @the_whitecoat for daily updates 
I know this can be done via so many other channels now; instagram, facebook, twitter etc. I am doing it too, it's just...it's not enough. There isn't enough space and flexibility for you to simply rant express your thoughts, for you to narrate your life properly. And perhaps I am just that old fashioned, I just found the passion and love in writing freely here. 

What should I do? 


2 comments:

  1. study law. then, you'll be writing so much on a daily basis that your needs to continue writing a blog would be assuaged, while at the same time learning about privacy and the laws on how to protect yourself should any such 'leaks' occur in the future.

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    1. I agree with the learning about privacy and laws part, but not with the former point. Blogging is so different from academic writing!

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