If there’s one thing the pandemic taught us, it’s that we can use technology for a lot more than we realized. While it’s not ideal to avoid face-to-face interaction with people most of the time, the availability of technology, particularly when it pertains to social media, can be hugely impactful on health literacy.
More and more people are leaning on social media to seek out and share health information. With this, social media allows individuals greater access to various tools, education, resources, and valuable connections. Social media is often utilized as a platform to inform and empower individuals in their health journey which can lead to healthier lifestyles, such as TLC’s YouTube LiveStream every Tuesday evening at 6 pm PST where TLC’s Dr. Rita Ellithorpe answers questions from the public.
While social media has its pitfalls, it can provide some silver linings when it comes to understanding healthcare and how it pertains to individuals and their specific health needs. Both social media and health literacy are constantly changing with the environment and its use may be pivotal in helping people be more aware of their healthcare needs and options.
For example, social media can help to share information through various multimedia channels instead of plain text. This can help individuals with low literacy to better understand health information and have it broken down in front of them.
Social media can also be used as a platform for promoting health literacy and health advocacy, providing resources and connections with individuals or entities that can help provide additional support that wouldn’t otherwise be readily available or easily accessible.
Additionally, health information and tools that were previously only available to healthcare providers are now available to information seekers through social media. Not to mention that many who use social media share their personal experiences and knowledge on various health-related subjects which can help to empower and foster healthy behaviors [1].