scholarly journals Looking for Medical Advice in Everyday Digital Spaces: A Qualitative Study of Indians Connecting with Physicians on Facebook

2021 ◽  
pp. 025609092110231
Author(s):  
Smeeta Mishra
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Health Promotion ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Medical Advice ◽  
Medical Council ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
Neoliberal Governmentality ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Digital Spaces

In a world afflicted by COVID-19, many people consult doctors through a digital interface or over the phone, as face-to-face consultations are almost impossible during a lockdown. The Medical Council of India and the NITI Aayog, a policy think tank, formulated new guidelines to empower medical practitioners to practice telemedicine in India in March 2020. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the world and made digital consultations a necessity in specific cases, academic studies located within a health promotion framework in Western contexts indicated that patients have been very much interested in using social media tools to communicate with their physicians. Previous studies have also highlighted the advantages of information and communication technologies for patient–doctor interaction. Since changes introduced by digital health technologies have primarily been analysed from such health promotion perspectives that often adopt a ‘techno-utopian’ lens ( Lupton, 2013 ), it becomes imperative to critically interrogate how such changes construct specific subjectivities and shape our understandings of health and normative healthcare practices. Specifically, scholars have highlighted how social media platforms and apps act as ‘performative devices’ ( Johnson, 2014 ) that influence ‘everyday management of illness and health’ and help create the ideal of the ‘digitally engaged patient’ ( Lupton, 2013 ). In the Indian context, media reports highlight a growing trend in the use of social media platforms and apps by physicians and patients. However, academic research on such emerging phenomena in this country is still scarce. This exploratory study examines why some Indians connect with physicians on a social media platform such as Facebook, the nature of communication between them and their understandings of health. It uses in-depth interviews and draws upon neoliberal governmentality as a theoretical anchor. The findings show how the internalization of neoliberal values and assumptions are associated with participants’ search for lifestyle and medical advice in everyday digital spaces such as Facebook. This study strives to extend the concept of neoliberal governmentality to performances in everyday digital spaces such as Facebook. In terms of practical implications, the results of the study highlight the critical need for policies that regulate the medical content available in social media spaces. Most importantly, some of the issues highlighted by the participants in this study can help policymakers take adequate precautions while formulating guidelines on digital consultations, especially during pandemics and their aftermath when there is tremendous pressure to promote telemedicine.

scholarly journals Young People’s Use of Digital Health Technologies in the Global North: Narrative Review (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Lupton
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Young People ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Opportunities To Learn ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Global North ◽  
Health Support

BACKGROUND A diverse array of digital technologies are available to children and young people living in the Global North to monitor, manage, and promote their health and well-being. OBJECTIVE This article provides a narrative literature review of the growing number of social research studies published over the past decade that investigate the types of digital technologies used by children and young people in the Global North, in addition to investigating which of these technologies they find most useful or not useful. Key findings as well as major gaps and directions for future research are identified and discussed. METHODS A comprehensive search of relevant publications listed in Google Scholar was conducted, supported by following citation trails of these publications. The findings are listed under type of digital technology used for health: cross-media, internet, social media, apps and wearable devices, sexual health support and information, and mental health support and information. RESULTS Many young people in the Global North are active users of digital health technologies. However, it is notable that they still rely on older technologies, such as websites and search engines, to find information. Apps and platforms that may not have been specifically developed for young people as digital health resources often better suit their needs. Young people appreciate the ready availability of information online, the opportunities to learn more about their bodies and health states, and the opportunities to learn how to improve their health and physical fitness. They enjoy being able to connect with peers, and they find emotional support and relief from distress by using social media platforms, YouTube, and online forums. Young people can find the vast reams of information available to them difficult to navigate. They often look to trusted adults to help them make sense of the information they find online and to provide alternative sources of information and support. Face-to-face interactions with these trusted providers remain important to young people. Risks and harms that young people report from digital health use include becoming overly obsessed with their bodies’ shape and size when using self-tracking technologies and comparing their bodies with the social media influencers they follow. CONCLUSIONS Further details on how young people are using social media platforms and YouTube as health support resources and for peer-to-peer sharing of information, including attention paid to the content of these resources and the role played by young social media influencers and microcelebrities, would contribute important insights to this body of literature. The role played by visual media, such as GIFs (Graphics Interchange Format) and memes, and social media platforms that have recently become very popular with young people (eg, Snapchat and TikTok) in health-related content creation and sharing requires more attention by social researchers seeking to better understand young people’s use of digital devices and software for health and fitness.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Duncan B. Hollis ◽  
Jens David Ohlin
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Regulatory Frameworks ◽  
International Perspectives ◽  
National Priority ◽  
Broad Array ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Information And Communication

Election interference is one of the most widely discussed international phenomena of the last five years. Russian covert interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election elevated the topic into a national priority, but that experience was far from an isolated one. Evidence of election interference by foreign states or their proxies has become a regular feature of national elections, and election interference is likely to get worse in the near future. Information and communication technologies afford those who would interfere with new tools that can operate in ways previously unimaginable: Twitter bots, Facebook advertisements, closed social media platforms, algorithms that prioritize extreme views, disinformation, misinformation, and malware that steals secret campaign communications. Defending Democracies: Combating Foreign Election Interference in a Digital Age tackles the problem through an interdisciplinary lens and focuses on: (1) defining the problem of foreign election interference; (2) exploring the solutions that international law might bring to bear; and (3) considering alternative regulatory frameworks for understanding and addressing the problem. The result is a deeply urgent examination of an old problem on social media steroids, one that implicates the most central institution of liberal democracy—elections. This volume seeks to bring domestic and international perspectives on elections and election law into conversation with other disciplinary frameworks, escaping the typical biases of lawyers—preferring international legal solutions for issues of international relations. Taken together, the chapters in this volume represent a more faithful representation of the broad array of solutions that might be deployed, including international and domestic, legal and extralegal, ambitious and cautious.

scholarly journals A retrospective analysis of NIH-funded digital health research using social media platforms

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 205520761990108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camille Nebeker ◽  
Sarah E. Dunseath ◽  
Rubi Linares-Orozco
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Retrospective Analysis ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Social Media Platforms

scholarly journals Determinants of Infodemics During Disease Outbreaks: A Systematic Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier Alvarez-Galvez ◽  
Victor Suarez-Lledo ◽  
Antonio Rojas-Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Health Promotion ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Cochrane Library ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Healthy Habits ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Use Of Social Media

Background: The widespread use of social media represents an unprecedented opportunity for health promotion. We have more information and evidence-based health related knowledge, for instance about healthy habits or possible risk behaviors. However, these tools also carry some disadvantages since they also open the door to new social and health risks, in particular during health emergencies. This systematic review aims to study the determinants of infodemics during disease outbreaks, drawing on both quantitative and qualitative methods.Methods: We searched research articles in PubMed, Scopus, Medline, Embase, CINAHL, Sociological abstracts, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science. Additional research works were included by searching bibliographies of electronically retrieved review articles.Results: Finally, 42 studies were included in the review. Five determinants of infodemics were identified: (1) information sources; (2) online communities' structure and consensus; (3) communication channels (i.e., mass media, social media, forums, and websites); (4) messages content (i.e., quality of information, sensationalism, etc.,); and (5) context (e.g., social consensus, health emergencies, public opinion, etc.). Studied selected in this systematic review identified different measures to combat misinformation during outbreaks.Conclusion: The clarity of the health promotion messages has been proven essential to prevent the spread of a particular disease and to avoid potential risks, but it is also fundamental to understand the network structure of social media platforms and the emergency context where misinformation might dynamically evolve. Therefore, in order to prevent future infodemics, special attention will need to be paid both to increase the visibility of evidence-based knowledge generated by health organizations and academia, and to detect the possible sources of mis/disinformation.

scholarly journals A Review of the Role of Social Media for the Cultural Heritage Sustainability

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoxu Liang ◽  
Yanjun Lu ◽  
John Martin
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Heritage Management ◽  
Heritage Conservation ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Comprehensive Picture ◽  
Social Media Platforms

During the last 20 years, with the development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), an emerging interest has appeared in Digital Community Engagement (DCE) in the process of cultural heritage management. Due to a growing need to involve a broader community in the Historic Urban Landscape approach, social media are considered one of the most important platforms to promote the public participation process of urban heritage conservation in the context of rapid urbanization. Despite the growing literature on DCE, which has delivered a general overview of different digital technologies and platforms to enhance heritage conservation, little research has been done on taking stock of the utilization of social media in this process. This study aims to fill the research gap by providing a more comprehensive picture of the functionalities of social media platforms and impacts on sustainable urban development through a systematic literature review. As a result, 19 out of 248 DCE relevant articles are selected as objects to illustrate the contribution of social media. The study identified the characteristics of these applied social media tools, explores their roles and influences in cases. The article concludes with directions for further research.

scholarly journals Digital Health Communication Common Agenda 2.0: An Updated Consensus for the Public and Private Sectors to Advance Public Health

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (2_suppl) ◽  
pp. 124S-128S ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert S. Gold ◽  
M. Elaine Auld ◽  
Lorien C. Abroms ◽  
Joseph Smyser ◽  
Elad Yom-Tov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Use Of The Internet ◽  
Legal Frameworks ◽  
Common Agenda

Despite widespread use of the Internet and social media platforms by the public, there has been little organized exchange of information among the academic, government, and technology sectors about how digital communication technologies can be maximized to improve public health. The second Digital Health Promotion Executive Leadership Summit convened some of the world’s leading thinkers from across these sectors to revisit how communication technology and the evolving social media platforms can be utilized to improve both individual and population health. The Summit focused on digital intelligence, the spread of misinformation, online patient communities, censorship in social media, and emerging global legal frameworks. In addition, Summit participants had an opportunity to review the original “Common Agenda” that emerged and was published after the inaugural Summit and recommend updates regarding the uses of digital technology for advancing the goals of public health. This article reports the outcomes of the Summit discussions and presents the updates that were recommended by Summit participants as the Digital Health Communication Common Agenda 2.0. Several of the assertions underlying the original Common Agenda have been modified, and several new assertions have been added to reflect the recommendations. In addition, a corresponding set of principles and related actions—including a recommendation that an interagency panel of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services be established to focus on digital health communication, with particular attention to social media—have been modified or supplemented.

Charging Fandom in the Digital Age

2018 ◽  
pp. 147-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuojia Guo
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Digital Age ◽  
Dynamic Interaction ◽  
Fan Culture ◽  
Fan Communities ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Information And Communication

In the digital age, the proliferation of fan-generated content on social media platforms is making the fan culture transitioning from the “static” online consumption to “dynamic” interaction. This is not only a result of the advancement of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), but also a cultural phenomenon driving by participatory fandom in cyberspace. The rise of social media has dramatically altered the dynamics of fan practices and spectatorship hence increased vocality and visibility within the fan community as well as the formation and facilitation of fan roles. In this chapter, we will explore why social media have such a profound impact upon fandom. In particular, what is new with these fan communities that social media has done so much to enable. Why there is a blurring in the lines between fandom producers and consumers in the participatory fandom. Given the new forms of cultural production, how fan culture enabled by social media is more powerful than it was ever before.

Digitized Health Promotion

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Lupton
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Promotion ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Social Epidemiology ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Personal Responsibility ◽  
Good Health ◽  
Health Technologies

This chapter explores the use of digital health technologies in health promotion endeavors. This “digitized health promotion” is the latest stage in the trajectory of health promotion ideology and practice over the past four decades in wealthy Anglophone nations. Lupton argues that over this period the individualistic approach to good health commonly espoused in medicine and public health was challenged by advocates arguing for a greater focus on social justice and social epidemiology. The individualistic approach to health promotion never disappeared, however, and has gathered momentum in the current economic, political, and technological climate. While many health promotion workers still champion the ideals of “health for all,” public health policy in the context of digitized health promotion has begun to return to emphasizing personal responsibility for health.

scholarly journals Young People’s Perspectives on and Experiences of Health-Related Social Media, Apps, and Wearable Health Devices

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria A. Goodyear ◽  
Kathleen M. Armour
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Young People ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Wearable Devices ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Shape Influence

: It has been reported from numerous international and socio-economic contexts that young people are becoming increasingly interested in and/or using social media, apps, and wearable devices for their health. Yet, there are few robust empirical accounts on the types of health-related information young people find, select, and use, the reasons for their choices, and how young people use these technologies in a way that influences their health-related knowledge and behaviors. This paper synthesizes findings from three separate projects that investigated over 1600 young people’s (age 13–19) perspectives on and experiences of health-related social media, apps, and wearable health devices. The findings show that young people are both critical and vulnerable users and generators of digital health technologies. Many young people experience a range of positive benefits for their physical activity, diet/nutritional, and body image related behaviors. Yet there are a number of risks, and young people report on the power of digital health technologies to shape, influence, and change their health-related behaviors. The paper concludes by providing new and evidence-based direction and guidance on how relevant adults (including teachers, parents/guardians, health professionals/practitioners, policy-makers, and researchers) can better understand and support young people’s engagement with digital health technologies.

scholarly journals A Review of the Role of Social Media for the Cultural Heritage Sustainability

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1055 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoxu Liang ◽  
Yanjun Lu ◽  
John Martin
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Heritage Management ◽  
Heritage Conservation ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Cultural Heritage Management ◽  
Social Media Platforms

During the last 20 years, with the development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), an emerging interest has appeared in Digital Community Engagement (DCE) in the process of cultural heritage management. Due to a growing need to involve a broader community in the Historic Urban Landscape approach, social media are considered one of the most important platforms to promote the public participation process of urban heritage conservation in the context of rapid urbanization. Despite the growing literature on DCE, which has delivered a general overview of different digital technologies and platforms to enhance heritage conservation, little research has been done on taking stock of the utilization of social media in this process. This study aims to fill the research gap by providing a more comprehensive picture of the functionalities of social media platforms and their impacts on sustainable urban development through a systematic literature review. As a result, 19 out of 248 DCE relevant articles are selected as objects to illustrate the contribution of social media. The study identified the characteristics of these applied social media tools, explores their roles and influences in cases. The article concludes that social media offers a platform for a wider range of stakeholders to have a voice in the decision process of cultural heritage management, and it should be widely applied to encourage citizens from all over the world.

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