How is health understood by young people through social media?: an exploratory study

BackgroundDigital platforms provide appealing solutions in the promotion of healthy lifestyle behaviours (Rich and Miah, 2014). International evidence also suggests that social media is an important source of health... [ view full abstract ]

Background

Digital platforms provide appealing solutions in the promotion of healthy lifestyle behaviours (Rich and Miah, 2014). International evidence also suggests that social media is an important source of health information for young people (Swist et al., 2015). Yet, there are few robust accounts of what young people understand from the health information they access from social media (Haussman, 2017). Instead, there is a tendency in adults to make assumptions about risk, and assume that uses of social media will lead to negative impacts (Goodyear & Armour, 2018).

Purpose

This exploratory study examines how health-related information is understood and used in social media by young people, from their perspective.

Methods

Data was generated from in-depth elicitation interviews using social media images/videos with focus groups of young people (n=30; age 13-15) in Ireland. The data was analysed using a Salutogenic framework (McCuaig & Quennerstedt, 2016), with the intent of moving away from risk narratives.

Results

Social media is a valuable and important health resource to young people that helps them to generate new understandings about what it means to be healthy. Young people understand health-related social media in different ways - this is dependent on their differing skills and knowledge of health.

Conclusion

The data suggests social media has vast educational potential for supporting the development of young people’s health-related knowledge. The data provides physical educators with new understandings about what and how young people learn about health outside of formal educational settings that, as Casey et al., (2017) argued, should inform teachers’ pedagogies to ensure that teachers can extend young people’s health-related learning, and have maximum and positive impact on promoting their healthy lifestyle behaviours. The original contribution is an appreciation of the value of health-related social media in young people’s lives, that moves beyond the dominance of risk narratives.