The Twitter Trap: Are we outsourcing our brains to the cloud?

The Twitter Trap by Bill Keller (@NYTKeller), Executive Editor of The New York Times captures many of the thoughts I have been having lately about the impact social media and technology is having on our society. Where does it end? What will be the future? How will it change us as humans? As a society? Like Mr. Keller, I have had similar feelings as I watch the impact on my 7 and 10 year old children.

Recently I have been preparing a presentation for the AHLA Annual Meeting at the end of June on the practical ways health lawyers can and should use social media. As a result I have tried to step back from the social media explosion to examine some of these issues, including the parallels between Mark Zuckerberg and Johannes Gutenberg referenced in Mr. Keller's piece.

I love this quote from Mr. Keller's article that helps visualize the innovation/disruption/impact cycle:

"My father, who was trained in engineering at M.I.T. in the slide-rule era, often lamented the way the pocket calculator, for all its convenience, diminished my generation’s math skills. Many of us have discovered that navigating by G.P.S. has undermined our mastery of city streets and perhaps even impaired our innate sense of direction. Typing pretty much killed penmanship. Twitter and YouTube are nibbling away at our attention spans. And what little memory we had not already surrendered to Gutenberg we have relinquished to Google. Why remember what you can look up in seconds?"

I also like his explanation of Twitter as a tool, "So let me be clear that Twitter is a brilliant device — a megaphone for promotion, a seine for information, a helpful organizing tool for everything from dog-lover meet-ups to revolutions."

His question around whether these new social media instruments are genuinely social is a good one. It is hard to see the answer to this when you are sitting in the midst of the social media cloud. One question that he doesn't address is how the collection of all this "collective social media data" about you and me will be used in the future. Is Facebook just one big social experiment. It now knows more about my family and friends than I can probably remember.

Take time away from your Twitter and Facebook posts, go read the article, and then sit back and take some quiet time to reflect on his message. I will leave you with this quote from Mr. Keller's article:

"The things we may be unlearning, tweet by tweet — complexity, acuity, patience, wisdom, intimacy — are things that matter."

Thanks to Jason Keeling (@JasonKeeling) for pointing out this insightful piece that was published back in print on May 22, 2011.

Florida Judicial Ethics Advisory Opinion on Social Media: Accept or Deny? Deny

The Florida Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee issued JEAC Opinion 2009-20 on November 19, 2009, indicating that judges may not add lawyers who may appear before the judge as "friends" on a social networking site, nor may judges permit such lawyers to add the judges as their "friend".

However, the Committee did not entirely ban judges from using social media tools. Judges may post comments and other materials on their social media pages as long as the materials do not otherwise violate the Code of Judicial Ethics.

So, if you are a Florida judge using Facebook the answer to invitations to connect from lawyer colleagues must be "deny." Interesting decision that may have significant impact in the legal community as it relates to the use of social media tools by litigation lawyers.

For more analysis and thoughts on the topic check out the NYT article, For Judges on Facebook, Friendship Has Limits. Additional coverage and posts via the Mike Frisch at Legal Professional Blog, Ashby Jones of WSJ Legal Blog and Dan Macsai of Fast Company. Thanks to Denise Howell for the tweet tip about the recently issued opinion.

This is not the first look by judicial ethics committees at the evolving role of social media relationships between lawyers and judges. As reported by the ABA Journal back in June, a North Carolina judge was publicly reprimanded by the North Carolina Judicial Standards Committee for "friending" a lawyer in a pending case.

Following are the specific questions/answers the Florida Committee addressed in the Opinion.

Q: Whether a judge may post comments and other material on the judge's page on a social networking site, if the publication of such material does not otherwise violate the Code of Judicial Conduct. ANSWER: Yes.
Whether a judge may add lawyers who may appear before the judge as "friends" on a social networking site, and permit such lawyers to add the judge as their "friend." ANSWER: No.
Q: Whether a committee of responsible persons, which is conducting an election campaign on behalf of a judge's candidacy, may post material on the committee's page on a social networking site, if the publication of the material does not otherwise violate the Code of Judicial Conduct. ANSWER: Yes.
Q: Whether a committee of responsible persons, which is conducting an election campaign on behalf of a judge's candidacy, may establish a social networking page which has an option for persons, including lawyers who may appear before the judge, to list themselves as "fans" or supporters of the judge's candidacy, so long as the judge or committee does not control who is permitted to list himself or herself as a supporter. ANSWER: Yes.

UPDATE (12/14/09): Over the weekend Ernie Swenson tweeted (via @LALegalEthics) about a South Carolina Advisory Opinion (Opinion No. 17-2009) issued in October 2009 looking at the propriety of a magistrate judge being a member of a social networking site such as Facebook.

The facts presented to the Advisory Committed on Standards of Judicial Conduct by the magistrate judge were:

A magistrate judge has inquired as to the propriety of being a member of Facebook, a social networking site. The Magistrate is friends with several law enforcement officers and employees of the Magistrate’s office. The Magistrate is concerned about the possibility of an appearance of impropriety since the list of Facebook subscribers is vast.

The South Carolina Advisory Committee reached a less restrictive conclusion than the Florida Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee discussed above. The Committee reasoned that a judge "shall act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary." The Committee continued by stating that "complete separation of a judge from extra-judicial activities is neither possible nor wise" and that a judge should nto become isolated from the community. The Committee found that allowing a magistrate to be a member of a social networking site allows the community to see how the judge commicates and gives the community a better understanding of the judge.

The Committee's conclusion was the following:
A judge may be a member of Facebook and be friends with law enforcement officers and employees of the Magistrate as long as they do not discuss anything related to the judge’s position as magistrate.

Bob Ambrogi at Legal Blog Watch provides additional analysis and comparison of the South Carolina and Florida opinions. Bob points out a distinction between the two rulings in that one deals with the friending of "attorneys" by judges while the other deals with friending of "non-lawyers" (law enforcement officials and courtroom employees) by judges. He concludes by making this point:

The key difference between the two opinions is in who a judge may friend without calling into question the judge's impartiality and integrity. A judge who friends courtroom employees provides no cause for concern, South Carolina says, but a judge who friends courtroom advocates does, Florida finds.

Hospitals: The State of Social Media Use

Ed Bennett at Found In Cache does a wonderful job of giving us a statistical glimpse of the increasing (skyrocketing) use of social media tools (YouTube, Facebook and Twitter) by hospitals across the country.

His post, "Hospital Socia Media Stats," gives some interesting statistics into the adoption and growth of social media. To the right is a chart that he includes in the post. Check out the link for more interesting information.

For those of you who might not already know - a few months ago Ed started a tracking chart showing the adoption of social media by hospitals.

Health Affairs: Take Two Aspirin and Tweet Me . . .

The March/April 2009 Issue of Health Affairs concentrates on the topic of Stimulating Health Information Technology. Although I am not a subscriber to Health Affairs the issue looks to have some great articles on health information technology and the current changes in the field.

Included in the issues is a report from the field article by Carleen Hawn titled, Take Two Aspirin And Tweet Me In The Morning: How Twitter, Facebook, And Other Social Media Are Reshaping Health Care (pdf version). I had the opportunity to talk with Carleen about some of the interesting legal issues that are starting to appear as a result of the intersection of social media and health care. I was pleasantly surprised to see that she used some of our discussion in the article.

The article focuses on a number of health professionals who are on the cutting edge of integrating social media and health 2.0 type concepts into their health care practice and thinking about how social media can have a positive impact on traditional health care industry models.

Like others, I found it ironic when Health Affairs first issued the article online that they only made it available behind the firewall (subscription based). An article on social media, openness, transparency, etc. and yet hid it in an old world way. Well, it appears that the editor of Health Affairs does listen to the wisdom of the health crowd because a note is now listed below the article stating "EDITOR'S CHOICE - FREE ACCESS." Thanks to the Health Affairs staff for recognizing the value of providing free access to the article.

If you are interested in the article you might find interesting what others are saying about the article -- including e-Patient Dave, Jay Parkinson, MD, Ted Eytan, MD and others.

U.S. Hospitals: Using Facebook, YouTube and Twitter

Great post listing the U.S. Hospitals using social networking tools like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Check out the complete list of 150 hospitals and a related FAQ about the Hospital Social Networking List at Found In Cache: Notes from a Hospital Web Manager authored by Ed Bennett.

Thanks to @schwen for pointing out the list.

The Facebooking of Medical Records

Bob Wachter on the Facebooking of medical records over at The Health Care Blog. Great thought provoking read for those in the health care world and who understand the powers of online social networking tools for communication.

Recently I just completed co-authoring with Jud DeLoss the feature article for the next AHLA Health Lawyers News on PHRs where we discuss what may be a major shift in health information gathering from provider-centric to patient-centric. Basically the rise of the PHR and what may be on the horizon for health lawyers with such change. Bob's example and analogy of the Facebook culture is a valuable one as we look at the pros/cons of such a shift. His thoughts on leveraging the value of collaborative social networking tools to reinvent the medical record system are valuable and should be considered as we look at ways to improve the bedrock of good medical care -- the patient history and record of care.

I'd take the ideas a bit further and provide another analogy. Think about the use of Twitter (or recently discussed and TC50 winner Yammer - Twitter for businesses) like solutions to allow access to a real time updates of the patient's condition in timeline fashion among those caregivers providing care to the patient. The providers would be the followers. If able, the patient could also participate in this stream of information. Sounds a bit like Dr. Wachter's synopsis program.

Just some Friday morning thoughts. Would be interested to hear from others in the comments.