Noting patterns in behavior is one way in which we can predict future behaviors. To be able to predict future behaviors allows us to plan our reaction thereby giving us a sense of security.
I've noticed some behavioral patterns here on this website, and one of the most recent ones is congregation. Where once the most heavily trafficked forum was General Nursing, one of the most heavily trafficked areas is now Politics.
I get this data through empirical endeavors. For example, a recent thread in General Nursing where I had submitted a post sat at the most recent post position for 5 1/2 hours. Politics rarely sit without a new post being submitted for more than an hour. As example, this morning, Politics had been posted on less than 30 minutes earlier.
Why the shift in interest from Nursing to Politics on a nursing website?
If the definition of empirical knowledge is having direct observation than I would say no you do not have empirical knowledge because you only saw a very brief snippet of the entire protest/riot/insurrection ( what ever one calls it), and it was only which clips and commentary the media decided to put on their show (not direct knowledge gained through observation). There are literally thousands of hours on tape that the gov will not release. But of course we all can form our own opinion based on that TV news show.
Hang on a minute. I was off work on Jan 6th and watched the entire thing as it unfolded. And I surfed channels, so it was not “a brief snippet” cherrypicked by a specific media outlet. What I watched was, in fact, direct observation of an event in real time.
And what exactly is your point with “There are literally thousands of hours on tape that the gov will not release.”? What are you implying is hidden?
Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
On 9/5/2022 at 7:04 AM, Davey Do said:
Why the shift in interest from Nursing to Politics on a nursing website?
The shift from a majority discussing Politics from discussing nursing is evidenced by "People To Follow".
These are members who have received the most likes for their submitted posts. All of the People To Follow have submitted the majority of their posts to this Politic forum. In fact, the member who has about an equal number of posts submitted to both Nursing and Politic forums is in the last place.
Hence, there has been a shift in interest to Politics over Nursing on a website that caters to Nurses.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
12 minutes ago, Davey Do said:
The shift from a majority discussing Politics from discussing nursing is evidenced by "People To Follow".
These are members who have received the most likes for their submitted posts. All of the People To Follow have submitted the majority of their posts to this Politic forum. In fact, the member who has about an equal number of posts submitted to both Nursing and Politic forums is in the last place.
Hence, there has been a shift in interest to Politics over Nursing on a website that caters to Nurses.
The shift in the nature of American politics affects nurses. In fact, toxic politics have made life difficult for nurses the past couple years.
Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
One of the reasons for those who dislike discussing politics with those who do not know how to be involved in a polite discussion is because they react emotionally.
A polite discussion or debate has rules that go out the window when we react with our emotions instead of just utilizing the logical process. What happens is that when a premise is attacked, the individual takes it personally and feels attacked. They often counter with a personal attack.
There was one intelligent member long gone who could logically argue a premise but couldn't leave well enough alone. This member also, for example, questioned other members' grips on reality. The discussion became a trite argument focusing on personal traits and the discussed premise was lost.
This is one reason why the interest has shifted from Nursing to Politics. There's much more drama here than there is in the more logically oriented Nursing forums.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
10 minutes ago, Davey Do said:
One of the reasons for those who dislike discussing politics with those who do not know how to be involved in a polite discussion is because they react emotionally.
A polite discussion or debate has rules that go out the window when we react with our emotions instead of just utilizing the logical process. What happens is that when a premise is attacked, the individual takes it personally and feels attacked. They often counter with a personal attack.
There was one intelligent member long gone who could logically argue a premise but couldn't leave well enough alone. This member also, for example, questioned other members' grips on reality. The discussion became a trite argument focusing on personal traits and the discussed premise was lost.
This is one reason why the interest has shifted from Nursing to Politics. There's much more drama here than there is in the more logically oriented Nursing forums.
And we all love drama.
We all loved the "logically oriented" discussions which questioned covid mitigation and vaccine efficacy in the Nursing forums.
Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
Premises have been stated that the reason why the interest has shifted from Nursing to Politics is because recent political actions have affected Nurses. Therefore, this site receives more traffic than the heavily trafficked General Nursing forum of old.
In answer to that premise, the premise of the emotional aspect needs to be considered.
Point in case: Many members from the Blue Side rarely, if ever, ventured to the Yellow Side. Reasons given were that the Yellow Side members were argumentative- the Yellow Side was too emotional, too dramatic. The Blue Side was for fun and relaxation, etc.
The Blue Side closed down, some of the forums were transferred to the Yellow Side's Club Forums, and many of the vintage Blue Side members became involved in the sole Yellow Side. In fact, all the People To Follow are emigrants from the Blue Side.
Noting patterns in behavior is one way in which we can predict future behaviors. To be able to predict future behaviors allows us to plan our reaction thereby giving us a sense of security.
I've noticed some behavioral patterns here on this website, and one of the most recent ones is congregation. Where once the most heavily trafficked forum was General Nursing, one of the most heavily trafficked areas is now Politics.
I get this data through empirical endeavors. For example, a recent thread in General Nursing where I had submitted a post sat at the most recent post position for 5 1/2 hours. Politics rarely sit without a new post being submitted for more than an hour. As example, this morning, Politics had been posted on less than 30 minutes earlier.
Why the shift in interest from Nursing to Politics on a nursing website?
It’s an election year. I noticed the same uptick in activity in 2016, 2018 and in 2020. I expect we’ll see the same in 2024.
My thoughts are that which part of the forum gets the most activity depends on three things.
The first is what’s currently happening in the ”outside world”. The second is where the posters who are most active/productive choose to post. And the third, and this is a big one, is where new (often very focused and time-limited participation and often inflammatory content) accounts choose to post. These three factors work together in a symbiotic way and mega threads are generated.
As I already mentioned, in election years the political forum gets a lot of traffic. At the start of the pandemic lots of nurses congregated to the pandemic forum looking to share experiences and seek information. A whole lot of new posters joined whose main purpose seemed to be to spread disinformation. And when the vaccines came we saw a new massive wave of the same.
Several years ago (seven, eight?) we had about a dozen new accounts posting about ”male modesty”. Implying that nurses are extremely interested in their male patients’ private parts and are generally disrespectful to male patients. Hundreds of replies from long-time posters assuring them that we aren’t the least bit interested in their memberes. Back then the nurses and patients relations subforum was positively hopping ?
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
27 minutes ago, Davey Do said:
Premises have been stated that the reason why the interest has shifted from Nursing to Politics is because recent political actions have affected Nurses. Therefore, this site receives more traffic than the heavily trafficked General Nursing forum of old.
In answer to that premise, the premise of the emotional aspect needs to be considered.
Point in case: Many members from the Blue Side rarely, if ever, ventured to the Yellow Side. Reasons given were that the Yellow Side members were argumentative- the Yellow Side was too emotional, too dramatic. The Blue Side was for fun and relaxation, etc.
The Blue Side closed down, some of the forums were transferred to the Yellow Side's Club Forums, and many of the vintage Blue Side members became involved in the sole Yellow Side. In fact, all the People To Follow are emigrants from the Blue Side.
Long term members dominate the political discussions and always have. New members come and go quickly in those forums because, like you said, too many personalize general statements. I would suggest that is because their media choices have made politics a topic of high emotions target than of logic, facts or evidence.
Besides, as mentioned before, most of us retirees understand that our ancient experience and opinions aren't necessarily relevant in current clinical threads where we read more than we comment. We do have much more time to read about and pay attention to the details of our political discourse.
If the definition of empirical knowledge is having direct observation than I would say no you do not have empirical knowledge because you only saw a very brief snippet of the entire protest/riot/insurrection ( what ever one calls it), and it was only which clips and commentary the media decided to put on their show (not direct knowledge gained through observation). There are literally thousands of hours on tape that the gov will not release. But of course we all can form our own opinion based on that TV news show.
I asked the question of Davey since it’s his thread and I assume that he thought the point he made about empirical knowledge in politics vs hearsay he said/she said was an important one to make. He hasn’t provided any further clarification on the topic but since you’ve responded I’ll reply to your post.
Like emtb2rn I didn’t watch ”snippets”. I’ve watched hours upon hours from many different media outlets. I have all the information I need to be able to say that this wasn’t the normal transfer of power that takes place every four years.
I would definitely not call it a ”protest”. I used the word insurrection because that is what it was. People stormed the Capitol as they were about to certify the vote. Police officers guarding the building were physically harmed. Outside a gallows complete with a noose was erected. I heard people chanting ”hang Mike Pence”. This wasn’t a ”protest”. This was people who didn’t accept the outcome of a legitimate election and willing to use force.
If empirical knowledge about politics translates into being physically present for every single vote, then I don’t think that empirical knowledge is necessary to be able to express opinions about policy/politics. I also don’t think you needed to be physically present at the Capitol on January 6 to be able to form an opinion of what happened there. If anything a person physically present, probably has a more limited understanding of what transpired as a human being can only be in one place at a time and can’t see through walls or through a crowd that’s blocking ones field of vision. So watching an incident from many different angles and locations (different cameras on TV) probably offers a more complete picture.
Finally, I also wonder what you are implying when you say that the government is hiding thousands of hours of tapes? What information is it that you think they are attempting to keep from the public?
Thousands of hours? Are you talking about the hours during January 6 leading up to the attack on the Capitol and the attack itself? Should we call that about five hours? If thousands of hours is 2,000.. then you think that there are 400 different tapes that all filmed the entire incident.. and they’re all hidden from us? Who actually filmed this? It sounds like a conspiracy theory to me and they often lack logic. Just like this one does.
The shift from a majority discussing Politics from discussing nursing is evidenced by "People To Follow".
These are members who have received the most likes for their submitted posts. All of the People To Follow have submitted the majority of their posts to this Politic forum. In fact, the member who has about an equal number of posts submitted to both Nursing and Politic forums is in the last place.
Hence, there has been a shift in interest to Politics over Nursing on a website that caters to Nurses.
I noticed when I took a break from politics my standing as "People to Follow" dropped me off the list and since I've been back I've moved back up.
But there have always been long and lively discussions of politics on AN and I've been participating in them for many years going back to when Gore lost the election to Bush. I was even the moderator for a bit. When they opened up the alternative site for off topic discussions, the now read only "Breakroom" the shift focused over there. My "The President Trump Thread" ended with 9,600 replies. Many topics there have over 1,000 replies. There are 87 pages of topics going back to 2008. When that site closed down is when you might have noticed an increase in traffic here.
I will say, I agree that a nursing site that has an off topic forum for nurses to discuss politics, is indeed interesting, and it's interesting that that is more popular than some of the nursing forums. That much is true. But I disagree with your statement "hence there's been a shift". The popularity of political discussions, which really are only a handful of us, has been around for a long time. There were some good one's when Obama was elected and we talked about Obamacare.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
There was a book written a few years back that examined how emotion rather than critical thought increasingly drives political discussion and behavior.
Davey Do
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