Keeping Up With Modern Life

My daughter says, "Dad, just Google it! Or just Facebook me!"

I must admit that trying to keep up with Generation X, or is it Y, or is it something else now? ... really keeps me on my toes.

So much has changed since I had my eye surgery training at Harvard. Back then we read the newspaper, used the Yellow Pages, made our own coffee, went to the library, and actually wrote or typed letters. We "dialed" from our house phone and watched one of our three TV channels.

Now we have automated machines that take your blood pressure, check your vision, calculate your glasses, spit out money, and even a new, portable, painless, 90-second skin scanner that can tell you your health index and give you a prognosis for developing blindness or cancer in your lifetime. All in 90 seconds!!

They tell me that the "advantage" of this fast-paced, modern day life is that things have become easier and less frustrating. I must admit that everything has become faster and we spend less time doing the mundane drudgery. As an eye surgeon, I can tell you that from a patient's standpoint, more information has become more available in less time to both the patient and the doctor.

Hopefully, this means that the doctor can spend more time on answering questions or discussing preventive treatment or diet or exercise programs. And maybe the patient will listen and heed our advice, like the good old days. Where is Dr. Welby when I need him?

We can now practice better preventive medicine and that gives us more peace of mind, especially to help my patients save money and decrease our chance of debilitating diseases, blindness, or cancers, now and in the future.
 
I am all for this "Google it" stuff and "Facebook me generation!"