The social media has played an imperative role in the promotion of health by changing the behavior of the target behavior. Currently, it is estimated that close to 2.1 billion people have access to the social media (Abdul, 2015). Additionally, about 45% of the global population is an active user of the social media, especially the Facebook and Twitter (Abdul, 2015). While the social media is known to enhance the interaction among the users, it is now cited to be a major platform that improves healthy behavior.
The social media has a lot of information on various health matters, especially on how to manage stress, hot to lose weight, and generally how to live a happy life (Luke, 2007). A majority of the health care institutions and health experts are using the social media to provide valuable information to their target market. The health experts offer advice by posting vital information on health.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
According to the social influence theory, one of the main ways of enhancing healthy behavior is through the change of attitudes, beliefs, and norms. The social media is a platform that promotes positive healthy behavior change through information (McKenna, 2000). The social media is excellent for the dissemination of information when it is used in the right way. However, the main setback is that a significant number of the people who post health information are not health care experts (Centola, 2010). They are quacks who masquerade as public health officers, nurses, and other medical practitioners. As a result, people tend to make wrong decisions that have adverse consequences on their health. Nevertheless, the importance of social media in enhancing positive health behavior change is evident.
References
Abdul, L. (2015). The Impact of Social Media in the Revolution of Health Behavioral Science. International Journal of Technical Research and Applications e-ISSN: 2320-8163, Special Issue 27 (2015), PP. 1-4
Centola, D. (2010). The spread of behavior in an online social network experiment . Science, pp. 329:1194–1197.
Luke DA, H. J. (2007). Network analysis in public health: history, methods, and applications. Annual Review Public Health, pp.28:69–93.
McKenna, K. (2000). The implications of the Internet for personality and social psychology. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 4, 57-75. .
