Epidemiologists, Disease Detecting, and Media Literacy
From time to time a small outbreak of an uncommon disease occurs — often in an unexpected location. Sometimes it’s publicized and we hear about it, but at other times the outbreak is small enough that most people only hear after the fact. Either way, many of our elderly parents, and many of us, find out about these outbreaks while watching television, and the news reports are often hyped and scary. All of us need to develop the skill to seek more information and figure out what is left out of a news report.
Click here to learn about a career in epidemiology.
Rarely do such short television news stories explain the extraordinary successes of disease detection and disease detectives — how they collect facts, put them together, and puzzle out possible answers. The people in charge of this process are epidemiologists, scientists, sometimes but not always physicians, who explore the way a disease moves from place to place and how it might be controlled.
Legionella bacteria from the National Library of Medicine image gallery.
In January, many of us heard, mostly on TV and radio but also via print and Internet sources, how a small outbreak (eight cases) of Legionnaires’ disease occurred at a hospital in Wisconsin within a short period of time. We heard about this outbreak, which occurred in 2010, because of a journal article, An Outbreak of Legionnaires Disease Associated with a Decorative Water Wall Fountain in a Hospital published in the February 2012 issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. Read more »
iPad for Dad, #21: An Easy-to-Use Speaker
My dad loves to listen to music, mostly classical, but other musical genres as well. Mostly he fires up his stereo, a boom-box, or the local classical music radio station.
Now, he has a third option — listening with his iPad.
For Christmas we gave Dad the iHome rechargeable portable speaker for iPad. The iPad itself simply sits in the doc, the same way it sits on Dad’s keyboard dock. While the iHome sound isn’t quite at the quality of his stereo speakers, it’s good.
We downloaded the TuneIn RadioPro app which streams all types of music and programming from hundreds of radio stations. I preset seven or eight classical and jazz music stations as well as a baseball channel and a few talk shows. All dad has to do it touch the preset buttons.
If he wants to do more with TuneInRadio, and I expect he will, we can do more instruction later.
If you like this post, check out the others in the iPad for Dad series. iPad for Dad, #1, iPad for Dad, #2, iPad for Dad, #3, iPad for Dad, #4, iPad for Dad, #5, iPad for Dad, #6, iPad for Dad, #7, iPad for Dad, #8, iPad for Dad, #9, iPad for Dad, #10, iPad for Dad, #11, iPad for Dad, #12, iPad for Dad, #13, iPad for Dad, #14, iPad for Dad, #15, iPad for Dad, #16, iPad for Dad, #17 , iPad for Dad, #18, iPad for Dad, #19, and iPad for Dad, #20.
4 Lessons My Mom Taught Me
Mom, Dad, and me on their 60th anniversary.
It seems to be in vogue to be rude.
From media and shouting television personalities, to drivers, to people’s online behavior, to members of the House of Representatives, rudeness seems to be a part of our daily life. Some people seem to be proud of it. Trouble is, the behavior is mean, nasty, and downright disrespectful. Not something to be proud of…
I’m grateful, during these days of behavior confusion, that years ago my mom insisted that I understand that it’s NOT all right to act this way. It’s OK to be assertive and sure of your point of view, and it’s even OK to ardently disagree (and even irritated), but it’s not OK to be mean and rude. Now age 84, my mom continues to follow these rules.
Four Lessons Mom Insisted that I Learn
More on Kids, Tech, Social Media, and Grandparents!
Read about my daughter and her grandmother!
Great article in the Wall Street Journal about kids and grandparents and the ways they are communicating with one another. In her May 9, 2001 article, OMG! My Grandparents R My BFF!, reporter Molly Baker takes readers on a “magical mystery tour” highlighting the ways generations are interacting (and sometimes leaving out the generation in the middle). You can also read Jamie Carracher’s thoughts on the article over at his Aging Online blog.
I wrote about this digital family experience in Yes! Grandma is on Facebook. Below is an excerpt of a post about my daughter and her grandmother from last August.
Join Facebook? For three years I avoided the site. I knew that some of my friends from work, church, and other activities were joining, but I just did not feel like it was a fit. My daughter, then in graduate school, used the social networking site, and she occasionally suggested I get started with Facebook. Still I refrained.
Why We Will Pay for the Digital NY Times
Posts on As Our Parent Age sometimes recommend or feature links to New York Times articles. For complicated topics, articles from the Times as well as other newspapers may provide background or additional information, adding texture to a post (as do other newspaper stories).
It’s been many years since we’ve had a paper edition of the New York Times delivered to our house. However, we are always reading the paper. I bet we check the digital editions every few hours during the day. During crises in the world, we may even check it late at night or first thing in the morning. Like many people who have gone digital, we view the newspaper on our computers, Blackberry, iPhone, and recently using our iPad. Moreover, for much of the past 15 years, give or take the few times when the paper has tried to tweak its access in one way or another, we’ve had free access.
The New York Times, and a fair number of the other newspapers and news organizations, provide exceptional coverage of the world near and far. Unfortunately, in our “something-for-nothing world” we have somehow convinced ourselves that everything should be cheaper, if not free. Read more »
Media Literacy and Seniors: Repetitive Ads Construct Reality
Many people say they pay no attention to advertisements. However, television watchers, especially seniors, are continuously exposed to questionable advertising selling medications, insurance, political issues, and doubt about Medicare. Content grows more and more familiar as ads repeat over and over each day — first creating questions, then worry or doubt. Though viewers feel like they are not paying attention, the repetitive content seeps into consciousness — just what advertisers want to happen. Gradually the content generates a different feel — the claims feel as if they are real, and it grows harder to distinguish old ideas from new — and a different reality is constructed. (Read my recent post, Seniors and Media Literacy: Fear, Voting, and Manipulation.)
It’s critical for aging adults to understand the techniques advertisers use to manipulate and bring people around to a desired point of view. Learning how to distinguish television generated fear from real fear is also an important skill, one that can significantly improve the quality of life.
Advertising: Do Seniors Need Media Literacy Training??
Most advertising that sells things to seniors frustrates me.
An article, from the Tucson Citizen, gives but one example of just how much target people who are older, in this case by the AARP. AARP Advertising to Seniors, posted about a year ago in October 2009 by the newspaper’s MedicareBlogger, tells the story of an 80-year-old woman who happened to purchase and pay monthly for two types of Medicare plans, both sold by one of AARP’s insurance programs. Unfortunately, only one could cover any services for her. The other plan was useless.
iPad for Dad, #1 – Getting the iPad Ready for Dad
If you like this post, read some of the other descriptions of our Father/Daughter iPad adventure. iPad for Dad, #1, iPad for Dad, #2, iPad for Dad, #3, iPad for Dad, #4, iPad for Dad, #5, iPad for Dad, #6, iPad for Dad, #7, iPad for Dad, #8, iPad for Dad, #9, iPad for Dad, #10, iPad for Dad, #11, iPad for Dad, #12, iPad for Dad, #13, iPad for Dad, #14, iPad for Dad, #15, iPad for Dad, #16, iPad for Dad, #17, iPad for Dad, #18, iPad for Dad, #19, and iPad for Dad, #20.
Today I purchased an iPad for my dad’s 87th birthday. I’ve played around and learned how to use it (very easy), and will deliver it to him tomorrow morning. I’ll report as soon as possible on how tomorrow’s first iPad lesson goes. Stay posted.
Applications that I downloaded:
- The New York Times
- WBGH Classical Music
- The Christian Science Monitor
- A newspapers app that allows my dad to choose newspapers by state
- An app called Free Books (lots of books out of copyright)
Books that I added: Read more »
Becoming A Grown-up Child
One day in April 2007 my husband and I were the adult kids in our families — we are the only adult children
— and the next day we became what we laughingly call “real grown-ups,” helping first one, then two, and increasingly all three of our parents. It’s time to give back, and we do so willingly and happily. However the process is not easy, and it is not free from anxiety and tension. Check out the As Our Parents Age About page to learn more about the mission of this blog.
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As Our Parents Age by Marti Weston is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on work at AsOurParentsAge.wordpress.com and AsOurParentsAge.net
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