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medgremlin @midwest.social

I'm looking for medical misinformation on the internet. Where should I be looking for it?

I'm a 3rd year medical student and I've already been caught off-guard a few times by the WILD medical misinformation my patients talk about, and figured that I should probably get ahead of it so that I can have some kind of response prepared. (Or know what the hell they've OD'd on or taken that is interfering with their actual medications)

I'm setting up a dummy tablet with a new account that isn't tied to me in any reasonable way to collect medical misinformation from. I'm looking at adding tik tok, instagram, twitter, reddit, and facebook accounts to train the algorithms to show medical misinformation. Are there any other social media apps or websites I should add to scrape for medical misinformation?

Also, any pointers on which accounts to look for on those apps to get started? I have an instagram account for my artwork and one for sharing accurate medical information, but I've trained my personal algorithm to not show me all the complete bullshit for the sake of my blood pressure. (And I have never used tik tok before, so I have no goddamn clue how that app works)

41 comments

  • That covers some things, but the algorithm feeds people such nonsense at such a high rate that it’s hard to keep up with.

    I think your idea is laudable. Normally I'm not one to dissuade someone from fighting a good fight in the age of disinformation, but I worry that you're coming at this problem from the wrong direction, and you alone will never be able to fight misinformation at its source.

    Have you ever been able to change someone's mind on an insane belief, just because you knew exactly where it came from? Or because you were aware of the idea before they were?

    We're talking about a hydra's infinite rectum here. No matter what you -ectomy, more stool samples are coming than you will ever be able to process and analyze.

    More often than not, a person does not rationalize their way into believing misinformation. It is not a logical process of collecting and analyzing facts. It is an emotional process of consuming content that elicits a level of fear, pride, or hate.

    They fear what they do not understand.

    They are proud to be a part of a group that does "understand".

    They hate feeling like they're being told what to do and what to think. They feel a vulnerability within themselves - a gap in their knowledge - and rather than address it as an internality, they externalize it. They don't understand because you don't want them to understand.

    To their mind, the answer can't be complex. They have arrived at the belief that knowledgeable, professional, and underpaid experts are all wrong or outright greedy and dishonest, and that comprehending truth doesn't require significant education and research.

    Really, they believe the answer should be simple. If it isn't, that must mean the "true" answer - the easily digestible TIL TLDR of the entire field of healthcare that they could actually understand without much effort - well, that answer must be hidden from them.

    Note that this is not intended to describe a particular group or flavor of ideology or conspiracy, but rather the experience of believing in ideas that contradict observable reality, verifiable fact, and leigitimate sources of information.

    You can't just come at them with logic, evidence, or rationality. These things are necessary but insufficient. You need to approach it with emotion and empathy. Bedside manner is crucial.

    Don't waste your time trying to master the lies - spend time mastering the truth. Present your knowledge as clearly and simply as possible. Address your patients holistically. Use their language. Teach them without condescending to them. Don't try to tear apart individual pieces of information they regurgitate, but understand the underlying themes and emotions that you can actually help them with.

    Lastly, please don't burn yourself out. It's brave to want to immerse yourself in the rabid chaos of digital misinformation for the sake of your patients, but it's a soul-crushing exercise that should be undertaken with extreme caution.

    There are plenty of patients who really just need a good doctor more than anything else. And some of them will be more likely to believe in scientific truth when they already believe in the knowledge and good faith of a scientific expert.

  • I got you.

    Any pyramid scheme that has anything to do with food or health. Their books are troves of made-up shit. Sometimes they’ll say true things (i.e. highly processed foods are less nutritious than whole foods), but then tell you to eat highly processed food five times a day.

    They’ll have several hour-long meetings where they talk about how the magic crystals, protein bar, or energy shake is changing their life.

    Their websites are fucking whack-a-doodle. There’s usually one quack with an MD rubber-stamping, fabricating, and/or misrepresenting evidence.

  • Look for any common condition using any search engine and discover just how misinformed the global population really is.

    I am an ICT professional with over 40 years experience and in my own field it's often obvious how a technical response sounds right but is in reality absolute bollocks.

    I know from lived medical experience that the same is true for medicine. However, being outside my own field it's much harder to detect, even with quotes and citations.

41 comments