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How to Use Social Media as a Vehicle for Accurate Health Information

Author headshotDr. Sekoul Krastev
Author headshotLindsey Turk
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Sep 15, 2022

Social media isn’t all bad

Social media is usually seen as the antithesis of mental health. The data backs it up: social media usage correlates with mental health concerns, anxiety, depression, stress, self-injurious behavior, and suicidality in young people.1

But, as the kids will tell you, social media has its benefits. When used strategically, it can increase feelings of connectedness and educate users about mental health.2, 3 If used mindfully (i.e. no pesky  feelings of disappointment or FOMO) it can improve mental health and social wellbeing.4

Because of its proliferation in our lives, US health experts have begun using social media as a health promotion strategy.5

Does social media have a role in our health and wellbeing if it also puts us at risk of negative emotional outcomes?

References

  1. Abi-Jaoude, E., Naylor, K. T., & Pignatiello, A. (2020). Smartphones, social media use and youth mental health. CMAJ, 192(6), E136–E141. https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.190434
  2. Sinclair, W., McLoughlin, M., & Warne, T. (2015). To Twitter to Woo: Harnessing the power of social media (SoMe) in nurse education to enhance the student’s experience. Nurse Education in Practice, 15(6), 507–511. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2015.06.002
  3. Lofters, A. K., Slater, M. B., Nicholas Angl, E., & Leung, F.-H. (2016). Facebook as a tool for communication, collaboration, and informal knowledge exchange among members of a multisite family health team. Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare, 9, 29–34. https://doi.org/10.2147/JMDH.S94676
  4. Roeder, A. (2020, January 6). Social media use can be positive for mental health and well-being. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/social-media-positive-mental-health/
  5. Stellefson, M., Paige, S. R., Chaney, B. H., & Chaney, J. D. (2020). Evolving Role of Social Media in Health Promotion: Updated Responsibilities for Health Education Specialists. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(4), 1153. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17041153
  6. Al-Zaman, M. S. (2021). Social media and COVID-19 misinformation: How ignorant Facebook users are? Heliyon, 7(5). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07144
  7. Holcombe, M. (2021, June 26). Surgeon General warns misinformation is the greatest threat to COVID-19 vaccination efforts. CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/15/politics/surgeon-general-vaccine-misinformation-advisory/index.html
  8. Berger, J., & Milkman, K. L. (2012). What Makes Online Content Viral? Journal of Marketing Research, 49(2), 192–205. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmr.10.0353
  9. Tsugawa, S., & Ohsaki, H. (2015, November 2). Negative Messages Spread Rapidly and Widely on Social Media. Proceedings of the 2015 ACM on Conference on Online Social Networks. Conference on Online Social Networks, Palo Alto California. https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/2817946.2817962
  10. Maloney, S., Moss, A., & Ilic, D. (2014). Social media in health professional education: A student perspective on user levels and prospective applications. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 19(5), 687–697. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-014-9495-7
  11. Booth, R. G. (2015). Happiness, stress, a bit of vulgarity, and lots of discursive conversation: A pilot study examining nursing students’ tweets about nursing education posted to Twitter. Nurse Education Today, 35(2), 322–327. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2014.10.012
  12. Lim, M. S. C., Molenaar, A., Brennan, L., Reid, M., & McCaffrey, T. (2022). Young Adults’ Use of Different Social Media Platforms for Health Information: Insights From Web-Based Conversations. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1), e23656. https://doi.org/10.2196/23656
  13. Auxier, B., & Anderson, M. (2021, April 7). Social Media Use in 2021. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/04/07/social-media-use-in-2021/
  14. Neely, S., Eldredge, C., & Sanders, R. (2021). Health Information Seeking Behaviors on Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among American Social Networking Site Users: Survey Study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23(6), e29802. https://doi.org/10.2196/29802
  15. Greenhalgh, T., Vijayaraghavan, S., Wherton, J., Shaw, S., Byrne, E., Campbell-Richards, D., Bhattacharya, S., Hanson, P., Ramoutar, S., Gutteridge, C., Hodkinson, I., Collard, A., & Morris, J. (2016). Virtual online consultations: Advantages and limitations (VOCAL) study. BMJ Open, 6(1), e009388. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2015-009388
  16. Zhang, M. W., Tran, B. X., Le, H. T., Nguyen, H. D., Nguyen, C. T., Tran, T. D., Latkin, C. A., & Ho, R. C. (2017). Perceptions of Health-Related Information on Facebook: Cross-Sectional Study Among Vietnamese Youths. Interactive Journal of Medical Research, 6(2), e8072. https://doi.org/10.2196/ijmr.8072
  17. Tajudeen, F. P., Jaafar, N. I., & Sulaiman, A. (2016). Role of Social Media on Information Accessibility. Pacific Asia Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 8(4). https://doi.org/10.17705/1pais.08402
  18. Newberry, C. (2021, July 22). How to Use Social Media in Healthcare: A Guide for Health Professionals. Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard. https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-health-care/
  19. Gupta, A., & Katarya, R. (2020). Social media based surveillance systems for healthcare using machine learning: A systematic review. Journal of Biomedical Informatics, 108, 103500. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2020.103500
  20. Massaad, E., & Cherfan, P. (2020). Social Media Data Analytics on Telehealth During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Cureus, 12(4). https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.7838
  21. Pennycook, G., McPhetres, J., Zhang, Y., Lu, J. G., & Rand, D. G. (2020). Fighting COVID-19 Misinformation on Social Media: Experimental Evidence for a Scalable Accuracy-Nudge Intervention. Psychological Science, 31(7), 770–780. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620939054
  22. Pennycook, G., & Rand, D. G. (2022). Nudging Social Media toward Accuracy. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 700(1), 152–164. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027162221092342
  23. Epstein, Z., Berinsky, A. J., Cole, R., Gully, A., Pennycook, G., & Rand, D. G. (2021). Developing an accuracy-prompt toolkit to reduce COVID-19 misinformation online. Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review. https://doi.org/10.37016/mr-2020-71
  24. Pennycook, G., Epstein, Z., Mosleh, M., Arechar, A. A., Eckles, D., & Rand, D. G. (2021). Shifting attention to accuracy can reduce misinformation online. Nature, 592(7855), 590–595.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03344-2

About the Authors

A smiling man stands in an office, wearing a dark blazer and black shirt, with plants and glass-walled rooms in the background.

Dr. Sekoul Krastev

Sekoul is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at The Decision Lab. He is a bestselling author of Intention - a book he wrote with Wiley on the mindful application of behavioral science in organizations. A decision scientist with a PhD in Decision Neuroscience from McGill University, Sekoul's work has been featured in peer-reviewed journals and has been presented at conferences around the world. Sekoul previously advised management on innovation and engagement strategy at The Boston Consulting Group as well as on online media strategy at Google. He has a deep interest in the applications of behavioral science to new technology and has published on these topics in places such as the Huffington Post and Strategy & Business.

Lindsey Turk's portrait

Lindsey Turk

Lindsey Turk is a Summer Content Associate at The Decision Lab. She holds a Master of Professional Studies in Applied Economics and Management from Cornell University and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Boston University. Over the last few years, she’s gained experience in customer service, consulting, research, and communications in various industries. Before The Decision Lab, Lindsey served as a consultant to the US Department of State, working with its international HIV initiative, PEPFAR. Through Cornell, she also worked with a health food company in Kenya to improve access to clean foods and cites this opportunity as what cemented her interest in using behavioral science for good.

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