scholarly journals Implications of Age on Social Media Utilization in Healthcare Practice Development: A Focused Study of Healthcare Faculty and Students (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harrison Marsh ◽  
Hasan Almekdash ◽  
Stephen Rossettie ◽  
Albin John ◽  
Kassie Pelham ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Social media has revolutionized the way that people interact with each other and with businesses. Medical practices have yet to take full advantage of the reach of social media. This research study looked at data collected using an anonymous survey that was further supported by published literature in order to shed greater light on both the possible opportunities for social media usage in medical practices as well as the challenges of implementing it appropriately. The survey collected data from a diverse population of healthcare professional students, faculty, and physicians affiliated with Texas Tech University Health Science Center (TTUHSC). The data revealed social media usage across age groups, education levels, and occupations. Results from age group data was further examined in order to develop recommendations for burgeoning practices. Within this focus, the survey explored whether respondents, many of whom work within the health care system, would be open to social media utilization to improve healthcare delivery. Therefore, this study demonstrated the benefits, challenges, and opportunities of social media utilization when growing a medical practice. OBJECTIVE This cross-sectional survey design, exploratory, descriptive investigation, was performed to better understand the benefits and challenges of current social media use in medicine and to explore further innovations in the utilization of these tools to bring further success for a medical practice. METHODS The possible benefits and challenges of the utilization of social media were measured through data gathered from an anonymous, peer validated, Qualtrics survey created by the corresponding authors based on recommendations from a panel of experts made up of TTUHSC faculty and staff. The survey used a variety of question styles to measure differences between social media platforms including frequency of use, current and future implications in medicine, and comfort in a healthcare setting. The sample population included students, interns, faculty, and physicians all affiliated with the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Centers located throughout West Texas. By analyzing the data gathered from the survey, with support from already published literature, this research provides insights on efficient strategies of utilizations and the demand for social media in the medical field. RESULTS The anonymous survey gathered data from a sample size of 679 individuals spread out among different age groups predetermined at the beginning of the study. The data includes 153 respondents between the ages of 18-25, 174 between the ages of 26-35, 134 between the ages of 36-45, 106 between the ages of 46-55, and 112 between the ages of 56-89. In addition to the wide distribution of ages, the sample population also has a wide variety of educational achievements. The respondents were grouped based upon the highest level of education attained and this included 23% of respondents that earned a high school diploma, 42% that earned a bachelor’s degree, 17% of respondents that earned a master’s degree and an additional 17% that earned some form of doctorate degree. This sample population with a wide distribution of age and education provided significant and actionable data that could be utilized to more efficiently implement a social media strategy focused on age to help develop a medical practice. CONCLUSIONS As social media continues to grow, efficient utilization of the available platforms can help a medical practice reach out to a broader population and deliver personalized care. While the data collected in this study demonstrated an overwhelming interest in using social media in the medical field across all age groups, adoption willingness appears to be higher in younger respondents than with older respondents. Facebook is the most broadly accepted social media platform for healthcare applications. However, other social media platforms, such as Instagram, may be better tools for targeting younger generations. Medical practices should use social media pages to present content that is timely, relevant, and written in clear language familiar to the target audience.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaoyu Ye ◽  
Kevin K.W. Ho ◽  
Andre Zerbe

Purpose This study aims to clarify the effects of different patterns of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram usage on user loneliness and well-being in Japan. Design/methodology/approach Based on responses to a self-report questionnaire in Japan, 155 university students were separated into 4 groups: users of Twitter only, users of Twitter and Facebook, users of Twitter and Instagram and users of all three social media. The effects of social media usage on loneliness and well-being for each group were analysed. Findings No social media usage effects on loneliness or well-being were detected for those who used only Twitter or both Twitter and Instagram. For those using both Twitter and Facebook, loneliness was reduced when users accessed Twitter and Facebook more frequently but was increased when they posted more tweets. Users of all three social media were lonelier and had lower levels of well-being when they accessed Facebook via PC longer; whereas their their access time of Facebook via smartphones helped them decrease loneliness and improve their levels of well-being. Originality/value The findings reported here provide possible explanations for the conflicting results reported in previous research by exploring why users choose different social media platforms to communicate with different groups of friends or acquaintances and different usage patterns that affect their loneliness and well-being.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Werner Krings

The thesis aims to explore and explain how Social Media impacts the B2B-Business Development process in a global software environment. Mixed-methods uncover the leading media platforms applied in the Business Development process cycle. The thesis produced a model, illustrating two dimensions of Social Media Business Usage, four critical Business Development process phases, and their impact on Performance mediated by Social Capital. To extend generalizability, future research may focus on testing the model for New Business Development exclusively. Significant contributions are classifying relevant Social Media platforms, distilling the process phases with the greatest impact on performance. The creation of new indices advances the performance discussion, and the typology of Business Developers capitalises on optimising the process sequence.


Author(s):  
Norsiah Abdul Hamid ◽  
Mohd Sobhi Ishak ◽  
Syamsul Anuar Ismail ◽  
Siti Syamsul Nurin Mohmad Yazam

Social media are playing an increasing role in today’s living. The social media platforms allow users to search, create, share, collaborate, and organise contents among them, and at the same time provide virtual self-presentation and self-disclosure of oneself. Social media were also claimed to give implications to human beings with regards to personality, yet these variables have not much been emphasised in previous studies. Thus, it is important to highlight the implications of social media on users’ personality. Given the issues and challenges faced by the country in profiling the adoption of social media and its implications in view of the perspective of personality, it is timely and significantly important to undertake this research in Malaysia. The objective of this chapter is to discuss a research conducted recently to determine the relationships between social media and personality traits. The specific objectives of this study are to identify the profile of social media adoption among students in Malaysia, including duration, frequency of use, purpose, and person/s that introduced the social media, and to determine the relationships between social media and personality traits.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-59
Author(s):  
Abdullah J. Sultan

The main objective of this research is to investigate usage behaviors of different age groups across popular social-media platforms and show what usage behavior is mostly utilized in each social media platform. A sample of 2,883 social media users was used to run a series of t-tests to support the research hypotheses. The findings show that young users (compared with old users) are more likely to use social media platforms for social and personal needs. In addition, across platform analyses indicate that users of WhatsApp (compared with Snapchat and Instagram) are more likely to use the platform for socially integrative needs (e.g., connecting with friends and family and talking), while Instagram and Snapchat users are more likely to use the platforms for affective needs (e.g., entertaining), personally integrative needs (e.g., enhancing self-expression and getting to know new people), tension release (e.g., escaping from boredom), and cognitive needs (e.g., seeking information). A more detailed analysis of age groups across the platforms are further discussed.


Information ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flora Poecze ◽  
Christine Strauss

The introduction of the Web 2.0 era and the associated emergence of social media platforms opened an interdisciplinary research domain, wherein a growing number of studies are focusing on the interrelationship of social media usage and perceived individual social capital. The primary aim of the present study is to introduce the existing measurement techniques of social capital in this domain, explore trends, and offer promising directions and implications for future research. Applying the method of a scoping review, a set of 80 systematically identified scientific publications were analyzed, categorized, grouped and discussed. Focus was placed on the employed viewpoints and measurement techniques necessary to tap into the possible consistencies and/or heterogeneity in this domain in terms of operationalization. The results reveal that multiple views and measurement techniques are present in this research area, which might raise a challenge in future synthesis approaches, especially in the case of future meta-analytical contributions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charity Hove ◽  
Oluyinka O Osunkunle

Water scarcity is increasing in South Africa and communities need to be educated about water conservation practices. This article investigated the perceptions of Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality’s residents concerning the use of social media for water conservation education in their community. Through a quantitative methodology, a sample of 383 respondents answered a questionnaire and the main findings were that 75 per cent of respondents did not know about the municipality’s social media platforms. This article recommends that the municipality creates awareness about its social media platforms, increases social media usage and employs persuasive strategies for participation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilaria Cataldo ◽  
Bruno Lepri ◽  
Michelle Jin Yee Neoh ◽  
Gianluca Esposito

Social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, are now part of almost everyone's social life, especially for the newer generations. Children and teenagers grew up together with these Internet-based services, which have become an integral part of their personal and social life. However, as reported in various studies, psychological and psychiatric problems are sometimes associated with problematic usage of social media. The primary purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the cognitive, psychological, and social outcomes correlated with a problematic use of social media sites during the developmental stages, from age 10 to 19 years. With a specific focus on depression, anxiety, eating, and neurodevelopmental disorders, the review also discusses evidence related to genetic and neurobiological issues, together with the implications in clinical work and future directions under a multidisciplinary perspective. While the scientific community has made significant progress in enhancing our understanding of the impact of social media on teenagers' lives, more research integrating biological and environmental factors is required to fully elucidate the development of these disorders.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-113
Author(s):  
Jan Žufan ◽  
Mehmet Civelek ◽  
Iveta Hamarneh ◽  
Ľubomír Kmeco

Comparing to larger businesses, SMEs face more barriers in their marketing operations since they have a lower amount of financial resources and assets. But the emergence of social media platforms has provided many chances for them to overcome these barriers by enabling them to do marketing and promotion activities. Although these social media channels are easy to access by each of their users, awareness, perceptions, capabilities of SMEs might differ when using these platforms. In this regard, this research aims to analyze and find out whether social media usage differs among SMEs regarding their age and size.  In parallel with this purpose, the researchers used an online questionnaire to collect data from 454 Czech SMEs. These SMEs were selected by applying a random sampling method and then an online questionnaire was directed to the respondents who were owners and managers of these enterprises. To analyze the data, the researchers performed an Independent T-test in SPSS statistical program. According to the results, social media usage does not differ between smaller-larger and younger-older SMEs. The reasons for these similarities among SMEs might stem from the industry that they operate, the cost of social media usage, and the age of younger firms’ executives. Nonexistence of the differences among analyzed Czech SMEs makes this paper differ from other studies. Some policy implementations are also offered by the researchers to increase awareness, skills, and usage of social media platforms by SMEs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-49
Author(s):  
Kehinde Kadijat Kadiri ◽  
Adetola Kehinde ◽  
Adeyinka Tella ◽  
Raji Khalid

There is a growing interest in the ways non-governmental organisations (NGOs) can ensure that electorates have access to information that could improve comprehension of the electoral process and reinforce tranquil relations between the electorates and political stakeholders. This study examined the usage of social media for 2019 electoral peace campaign by NGOs in Kwara State, Nigeria. The study adopted a qualitative research method and multistage sampling technique was adopted as sampling technique. The study focused mainly on four LGAs i.e. Asa, Ilorin South, Ilorin West and Ilorin East Local Government Areas. In these four LGAs, 15 NGOs with vested interest in electoral peace campaigns were purposively selected. Unstructured interview was used to collect data from the social media handlers of theses NGOs. The data collected were recorded and transcribed. The gathered data were arranged in themes following the approach of manual thematic analysis. Findings from this study showed that NGOs in Kwara State used social media for electoral peace campaign during 2019 general elections. Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn were the most used social media platforms among NGOs in Kwara State during 2019 general elections; however, there level of usage is average. The motivation for social media usage among NGOs in Kwara State during 2019 general elections can be attributed to the wider coverage and reach of social media. Lastly, during 2019 general elections, NGOs in Kwara State embarked on peace campaigns before elections, some do it during and few do it post electoral peace campaign. Among several recommendations, the study recommended that the electoral umpire in Nigeria, Independent National Electoral Commission should include training of officers in their electoral briefings on the viability of social media use during elections by officers.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sadie Saltzman

Does the number of social media platforms that an adolescent uses have an effect on the quality of their social relationships? As social media continues to grow and evolve, sociologists have begun to explore its effect on an individual’s everyday life. I propose that the more social media platforms that an adolescent uses, the more they will experience negative effects on their social relationships. Using survey data from 786 respondents living in the United States, ages 13 to 17 and collected by the Pew Research Center in 2014 and 2015, regression analyses were conducted to determine the relationship between social media usage and its effect on quality of adolescent social relationships, controlling for sex and age. The bivariate results show a statistically significant, positive but weak association between number of social media platforms used and the social relationship experience scale. In the multivariate results, this association was still statistically significant. Additionally, the multivariate results show that the control variables, sex and age, have no significant effect on one’s social relationship experience. Therefore, these results show that the more social media platforms used, the more negative a social relationship experience an adolescent will have. The results support the hypothesis and indicate that adolescents who interact with a higher number of social media platforms will experience an increased negative effect on their social relationships. In future studies, researchers should investigate how specific social media platforms influence social relationships. Additionally, this type of research should not only continue, but should refine its methods as social media continues to quickly grow and evolve.


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