Our Therapeutic Internet

In America we have brothers, sisters, parents, children, friends, and other family that suffer from eating disorders, anxiety, or maybe are just in need of a good therapy session to talk out current problems and issues.  Amy Hanson-Akins is one of those selfless people who gives her time to help all sorts of people with any issues that can’t always be solved or worked through alone.  She is a Psychotherapist who specializes in treating eating disorders and anxiety for all age groups for both men and women.  She has written countless eating disorder and anxiety presentations and seminars in and around the Toledo-land area in Ohio. She is also someone who networks heavily with the help of facebook and twitter so she can spread her knowledge, gain knowledge from others in her profession or similar professions, and reach out to countless individuals, which would otherwise be impossible without the help of social media sites. 

The second you access either of her profiles, it’s obvious she is someone who cares about making life a meaningful experience where we are happy with who we are and are able to focus on the positives in life.  Granted her profiles are only limited to those who already follow her or are her “friends,” or those who willing go out of there way to find her profile.  But just having the huge number of connections she has between both websites, anything she posts, reposts, or tweets about is sent out to everyone she is connected with.  And hopefully there will be at least several people who will be affected enough by the positive messages she puts out there about anxiety and eating disorders will be reposted and resent through her contacts to people she probably doesn’t even know.  I could continue on about the internet is like a pool of water, and anything that is posted on the internet is like the ripples created from dropping stuff into the pool (posting on the internet), and how those ripples continue to expand and reach further and further towards the edges of the pool, but this analogy alone seems to serve my point. We all know that knowledge has never had the capability before to travel as fast as a simply click of a computer mouse, but now since it does, it redefines the traditional notion of “literary culture,” by making it less formal and able to expand upon itself exponentially.

I suppose it could be debated that simply networking over the internet isn’t really “literary work.” But remember she has written and led numerous presentations and seminars about the issues her profession deals with.  And also any sort of networking and spreading ideas over the internet during a period of time, and trying to make the world a better place (however that is defined for an individual), is similar to writing a series of short anecdotes and ideas. Honestly, I’ve always thought literature and literary works’ main purpose to be a catalyst for new thoughts and ideas that are presented in a way in which readers can still interpret many aspects of the text freely, but a core ideology or criticism is still evident and apparent.  And that’s exactly what using facebook and twitter to spread knowledge and awareness about issues that are import to us is all about.  So while Amy Hanson-Akins may not always be posting original thoughts but reposting ideas and extensions of ideologies she already believes in, she has been able to become an exceptional therapist and enhance her seminars by exploiting the possibilities social media sites have been able to offer.  And honestly, what author has ever has an idea or plot in their story that was 100% original? We use literature to expand upon our core ideals, just as Amy Hanson-Akins has, which is why she is one of the many public “literary” figures that exist on the internet today.

Questions:

1)  How far do you extend your definition of a “literary” figure? Can we define it as general as someone who has been able to write about an issue intelligently and bring awareness to any criticisms they have about society?  Or perhaps should we really leave it at that someone who published some fiction/nonfiction story that has been published by a well-known publishing company?

2)  In today’s society we can find literary works in digital form and download with the click of a button instead of needing to go to a library or bookstore to purchase what we need. So how has the internet changed literary works?