Opinionated News

There’s so much negativity in the press about social networking and how insecure some systems are, or how someone can get hold of your ID if you’re not careful about spotting phishes, or how you have to be careful because the person you are IMing may not be the person you think they are, but in today’s news I saw an item that shows how great a resource the Internet is.

As with many other pregnant women, or new moms, the English mother in the news report found an American Internet penfriend after the birth of her baby.  The two women haven’t met, but through the power of the Internet and the social networking possibilities that it has created, this woman in the UK was able to point out a possible health issue with her new friend’s child.  Apparently she’d read an article about Retinoblastoma and thought she saw similarities to the images in the article in the photograph of her friends little girl. 

Half a world away, her friend took her child to the doctor who later diagnosed that her child did indeed have Retinoblastoma.   The early diagnosis has meant that even though the little girl may still lose her eye, she has a good chance of survival that she may not have had if the diagnoses hadn’t been so fast. 

This is social networking at its very best:  people on opposite sides of the world being able to communicate and save a child’s life.  Those with knowledge sharing this with people who need to know.  When it’s used like this, what a powerful tool the Internet can be in making positive change on a global scale.

Check out the full story at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/manchester/7583219.stm