17 July 2005
life in the so-called blogosphere
When information about people is publicly available it changes the dynamic of communication between people.
Not to say that the whole internet thing didn't change the communication dynamic, but that's rather a bit obvious and yet uninteresting to discuss.
Anyway, this leads me to a question: if somebody you know is hospitalized, and somebody else is faithfully posting updates on his condition, should you still call to see how he's doing? I'm sure the gesture would be appreciated, but does the fact that I even ask this preclude a time later when even such a thing would be considered redundant or pointless? Probably not.
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my $.02, for what it's worth...
The point of calling someone who is hospitalized is not so much to get updates on their condition, but as an expression of your concern for them. In fact, depending on their condition, you'd probably be better off just visiting them rather than calling.
My observation of similar situations suggests that usually one person becomes the contact point who disseminates pertinent information about the person's condition, visiting hours at the hospital, etc. Calling the patient is generally unnecessary, unless you're doing it to help relieve the interminable boredom of being stuck in the hospital. If the person's condition permits it, visiting seems to be preferred over phone calls.
But that's just my take on it.