While social media is a powerful tool in healthcare, it is everyone’s responsibility to do background research to check for the legitimacy of what social media is placing in front of them and to see how their specific health can potentially be affected.
Not everyone on social media has the credentials to give health advice. There are many celebrities or other influences that promote lifestyles that are not backed by credentials, research or other evidence.
There has been a new craze for FitTea, which is a drink that claims to help consumers lose weight and cleanse the body. It has built an empire on social media, but according to CNN, “medical experts say consumers should be encouraged to seek out additional information before purchasing any product with purported health benefits.”
“The FDA does not regulate these substances,” Halegoua-De Marzio, an assistant professor of medicine at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University told CNN. “Really, they can put anything they want in these teas. They can make any claim that they want, and it doesn’t have to be supported by any evidence.”
Some products or regimens are not fit for everyone. Each individual has their own unique health history such as allergies, vitamin deficiencies, physical irregularities or genetic disorders. These needs are not always taken into consideration when social media influences promote diets, exercise routines or lifestyles.
Health hazards of social media are not limited to internal consequences. Aksha Sohail, a senior nursing student, explained that “people our age are super critical of their appearance … I can’t even imagine what younger kids must think of themselves when they compare their appearance to someone who has a tiny waist, larger chest, is muscular or has plumper lips.”
Dina Borzekowski, a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health said in a study that, “social media may have a stronger impact on children’s body image than traditional media. Messages and images are more targeted: if the message comes from a friend it is perceived as more meaningful and credible.”
The Park Nicollet Melrose Center confirms that a “residential eating disorder treatment center found that 30-50 percent of their patients are actively using social networking sites to support their eating disorders” and advises for people to “focus less on weight, instead focus on behaviors and overall health.”
Social media can have a negative impact on one’s health. This includes the development of illness due to conforming to lifestyles that are unfit for everyone and to developing negative views towards one’s own body.
“There are male and female accounts [on social media] where the guy is super ripped and the girls are super skinny or have plastic surgery,” said Deep Patel, a senior software engineering major. “All of this creates doubt in mind about yourself. Just be happy with who you are, there’s nothing wrong with you.”
Social media should be checked for legitimacy and positive health promotion, and users should research further into what they’re reading in order to combat these negative consequences of false information.
