Is Camaraderie Among Radiologists Non-Existent on Social Media?

One of several reasons why I was a less than competitive med school applicant was my decision to join a fraternity. It turned out to be way more socially engaging than an environment of I was prepared for when it came to balancing it against things like studying and the proper attendance of classes.

Lest you conjure up visions of Animal House, our frat was far from stereotypical. It was originally termed a “literary society,” and didn’t much deviate from that spirit (although we did know how to have fun hence my non-stellar GPA). We treated our pledges very nicely, all in the spirit of making them feel wanted and welcomed. “Trust your brothers” was something they often heard, and we did everything we could to live up to that.

Of course, people are people, and personalities don’t always mesh well. Throw a few dozen college kids into a house together, and perfect harmony doesn’t magically ensue.

Still, if you put any one of us in a group of frat brothers (our own chapter or one at another school), things would resonate a lot more reliably than if you substituted a randomized control group of other students. That didn’t end with graduation. If I met somebody tomorrow who turned out to be from my fraternity, we would be that much more likely to hit it off. Shared experiences are like that.

That only goes so far of course. If my newly encountered frat bro turned out to be the salesman at a car dealership, I wouldn’t wind up with a fully-loaded vehicle at cost on account of us sharing a secret handshake. A mutual background of Greek letters also wouldn’t make me appreciate a next-door neighbor any better if he routinely behaved like a jerk.

I have had occasion to think about how nice it would be if radiologists took a page out of that book. This is not necessarily blindly trusting and supporting one another without question but at least nudging our default attitudes toward fellow rads a step in that general direction, sort of like a very loosely knit modern day guild.

The thought comes up most frequently when I am prowling social media. If you have read many of my blogs, you have probably seen me sound off about what it has done to people’s baseline civility or lack thereof. I won’t rehash the whys and wherefores here.

Looking over social media groups for rads, or indeed health care as a whole, you might get the impression that a lot of us hate each other. Folks post things they find interesting or humorous and want to share. Sometimes they are looking for advice, or others’ perspectives on situations in which they find themselves.

One generally doesn’t have to get too deep into the replies to find peers taking a swipe at the poster of the thread. The thing they have shared wasn’t interesting or funny. The question they asked was stupid. They are unprofessional or a bad person for having posted it at all.

I recall, for instance, an inquiring rad who was fairly early in his career and trying to get a feel for the job market: Was $X a competitive number for compensation? The third reply accused him of being all about money, and a lousy physician as a result.

Today, I saw someone on a site where rads discuss job opportunities without involvement of recruiters. He politely expressed frustration with the phenom of job seekers posting their wants/needs, only to have a series of folks reach out with offers that specifically do not measure up. A few comments in, someone poked at him with a sarcastic “You sound easy to work with.”

I believe that only a small minority of these grinches actually intend to be trolls. Most seemingly consider themselves to be the wise, mature adults in the room. They think they are doing everyone else a favor by discouraging or otherwise correcting what they believe to be bad behavior. In their eyes, other rads need either to rise to their standards or be pilloried into non-existence.

For such individuals with hearts that are in the right place, there is hope for course correction. If they come to understand that one catches more bees with honey than the vinegar they have offered, they might just change their tone. Not only would they stand a better chance of winning friends and influencing people, the overall tone of discourse would be improved. Maybe other rads who have kept silent for fear of remonstration would speak up in the more welcoming environment.

Not all of this attitude adjustment has to come from the surlier rads recognizing their own flaws. I think it more easily flows when others see the negativity and call it out. The ugly social media comments I mentioned above often get responses from others to the effect of “Hey, lighten up.” A confronted rad grouch will sometimes fire back (and trolls especially will), especially if the other commenters come across too aggressively.

If, however, there is a friendlier “We’re all in this together” tone, chances of improvement increase. Even if the alpha-grump himself doesn’t immediately see the error of his ways and soften, he will at least remember that his harshness caused others to rally against him and onlookers may be a little less likely to imitate his behavior in the future.

Your radiological siblings have been through a lot of the same things you have and face many of the challenges you do today. If anybody has got a decent chance of understanding your professional life, it is them and that is a two-way street.

Echoing my old fraternity’s watchwords, trust them or at least give them the benefit of the doubt. When they say or do something that you can interpret in a positive or negative light, give the needle a nudge in the former direction.

Sure, some of them will prove undeserving and it only makes sense to remember individual instances of misbehavior. By and large, however, choosing to see the good in your colleagues has great potential to make your professional life more pleasant, opening doors instead of slamming them shut.