#5ThoughtsFriday
01/12/2018The
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#5ThoughtsFriday is Powered By
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ONLINE REGISTRATION IS LIVE!
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Here are the 5 things we thought were
worth sharing with you this week:
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As the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang approach, U.S. Olympic Bobsledding star Elana Meyers Taylor is showing her support for the Concussion Legacy Foundation and raising awareness about concussions. Meyers Taylor is sporting a Concussion Legacy Foundation logo on her helmet during the 2017-18 IBSF Bobsleigh World Cup leading up to the 2018 Winter Olympics. Her aim is to encourage other athletes to educate themselves about the risks of concussions and to avoid a mistake that almost cost Meyers Taylor her career.
A world-champion athlete who started competing for the USA Bobsled team in 2007, Meyers Taylor medaled in the last two Olympics—bronze in Vancouver in 2010 and silver in Sochi in 2014. But her bobsledding career was derailed by a concussion in 2015.
At the fourth World Cup race of the 2014-15 season in Koenigssee, Germany, Meyers Taylor and brakewoman Cherrelle Garrett
crashed during their second run
. They finished the race, but the impact left Meyers Taylor with a
concussion
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THE INTERNET AND SOCIAL MEDIA are dominant forces in our lives in this Age of Information. Time spent on the Internet continues to grow steadily in the United States and worldwide, with mobile technology and social media driving much of the expansion.
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Social media tools, including social networking sites (SNSs) (eg, Facebook), blogs (eg, Tumblr), online content communities (eg, YouTube), and online forums (eg, Google Hangouts), encourage multidimensional communication where users can exchange information, connect to resources, and create social networks based on common interests.
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Such platforms can facilitate opportunities that would otherwise be limited by various barriers. Not only have the Internet and social media transformed the ways that we seek and gather information but they also appear to be changing the perception of communication and of what constitutes social support. For example, among college students, large and seemingly impersonal networks of Facebook friends are associated with greater perceived social support than smaller ones and expressing one's feelings to such large networks may serve important needs for an evolving type of intimacy.
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People with disabilities may encounter obstacles to keeping up with these social trends and enjoying their advantages. A Pew survey
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in 2011 revealed that Americans with disabilities are less likely to use the Internet than their able-bodied counterparts (54% vs 81%). This remained true even after controlling for factors such as lower income, lower education, and older age. Moreover, people with disabilities were less likely to use online access methods such as broadband service and mobile devices, both of which are advantageous for seeking work, finding health information, and communicating remotely with others. Lack of experience with these technologies creates a vicious cycle, as less experience predicts less favorable outcome in studies using Web-based platforms to help mitigate the effects of disability.
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All of these trends are unfortunate, considering that the Internet and social media may be seen as electronic curb cuts
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—resources to help offset the reduced mobility and social isolation that affect many people with disabilities.
This study interviewed a large cohort of people at least 1 year after moderate or severe TBI to examine the current level of online activity among these individuals. The aims were (1) to examine various aspects of Internet use among adults with TBI, particularly focusing on activities involving communication and social participation through social media platforms; and (2) to compare certain online activities, as well as demographic and socioeconomic factors associated with Internet use, between those with and without TBI, the latter based on published surveys of the general population.
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It was only a matter of time until The Bachelor (senior producer: Lindsay Liles) had Arie, a former race car driver, take the contestants on his season on a group date that involved cars. Fifteen women followed Arie to a pit to play a grown-up version of bumper cars (aka a demolition derby) in which they commandeered old jalopies to win cash and prizes. Well, OK, not that last part. It was just for fun. But it wasn’t all fun and games for one of the contestants —
what happened to Brittany T. on The Bachelor?
She had a little too much fun on the date and suffered a head injury because of it.
The whole point of a demolition derby is to smash your old, almost-broken-down car into other old, almost-broken-down cars in order to render them useless. If you’re the last car running, you win! This is a perfect date for Arie, the driver, and a perfect date to see which woman can jump in with both feet. The woman got to decorate their cars, too, which is a nice touch. I would have gone with a full leopard-print motif if I had the time. In any case, Brittany took the goal of the race to heart, and She. Was. On Fire. She was crashing into cars left and right, taking down competitors and crushing spirits. A woman after my own heart, really.
She didn’t win the competition — that honor went to Seinne — but Brittany went down fighting. Later, though, Brittany was complaining that she didn’t feel well, and it turns out that she suffered a concussion during the group date. According to the Mayo Clinic,
symptoms of a concussion
include headache, loss of consciousness, confusion, amnesia, dizziness, seeing stars, nausea, ringing in the years, vomiting, and fatigue — it’s not clear what symptoms Brittany was experiencing, but it was enough for her to get checked out by a medical professional and miss the party that followed the date! Bummer.
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2) What We Are Reading That You Might Enjoy...
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Neuroscientists once believed your brain was essentially "locked down" by adulthood. No new cells. No major changes. If you grew up depressed, angry, sad, aggressive, or nasty, you'd be that way for life. And, as you grew older, there'd be nowhere to go but down, as disease, age, or injury wiped out precious, irreplaceable brain cells. But over the past five, ten, twenty years, all that's changed. Using fMRI and PET scanning technology, neuroscientists can now look deep inside the human brain and they've discovered that it's amazingly flexible, resilient, and plastic.
Pictures of the Mind: What the New Neuroscience Tells Us About Who We Are shows you what they've discovered and what it means to all of us. Through author Miriam Boleyn-Fitzgerald’s masterfully written narrative and use stunning imagery, you'll watch human brains healing, growing, and adapting to challenges. You'll gain powerful new insights into the interplay between environment and genetics, begin understanding how people can influence their own intellectual abilities and emotional makeup, and understand the latest stunning discoveries about coma and "locked-in" syndrome. Boleyn-Fitzgerald shows how these discoveries are transforming our very understanding of the "self", from an essentially static entity to one that can learn and change throughout life and even master the art of happiness.
For The Book,
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1) Quote We Are Contemplating...
“
You can't change who you are, but you can change what you have in your head, you can refresh what you're thinking about, you can put some fresh air in your brain."
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Thank you for your support.
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HEADWAY: BIAMD's eNewsletter is Online!
We are very excited to provide you an update on all that's been going on at the Brain Injury Association of Maryland and events happening in the near future!
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Did you enjoy #5ThoughtsFriday? If so, please forward this email to a friend!
Want to find a story from a past #5ThoughtsFriday blog posts, visit the archive by clicking
HERE
.
Please let us know your requests and suggestions by emailing us at
info@biamd.org
or contacting us on Twitter.
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@biamd1
and put
#5ThoughtsFriday
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Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful weekend.
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