Social Media and the Work Environment (LJ7)

 Khalil Taylor

I must say that these readings were very informative about how social media affects the work place in many areas such as: journalism, public relations, advertising and marketing, and lastly healthcare. I say this because we live in a digital/ media driven society that relies on the internet and social media. Social media is a key factor in our society because it allows the government, entertainment industries/ outlets, media (news), business/ corporate organizations, and civilians to stay connected and update one another about certain events, news and etc (whether it’s positive or negative). After reading through the chapters and articles, I’d say that social media in healthcare would be my point of focus or the section that resonated with me the most. For example, according to the Forbes article “while millennials are highly focused on healthy living, 93% of them aren’t scheduling doctors appointments with doctors for preventative healthcare. Instead, they are making use of urgent care when they become ill… They’re also seeking on demand healthcare advice and support”.  This resonated with me a lot because I don’t feel the need to set up a doctors appointment unless its something urgent or may be something that I can’t fix without serious medical attention. Whenever I’m feeling under the weather I normally just google it or I might watch a informational video on YouTube by a health professional to remedy the situation/ illness. Another point that resonated with me was according to the science direct article “Due to popularity of social media, patients are increasingly using social media for the social support exchange to improve health outcomes… three areas- social media affordance, online social support, and health behaviors and outcomes- with the goal of developing propositions on how social media can help patients improve self-management of chronic diseases”. My takeaway after reading this is that social media already plays a big role in our lives for many reasons with health being a big industry in present time. But most people would rather save their money and play “doctor” and do a self diagnostic rather than going to a doctor and paying a copay through their insurance or cold hard cash if they can’t afford it. There is a lot of help and resources out there that people can utilize and I’m all for it… this will benefit society as healthcare and technology continue to evolve in the near future.

Citations:

Arnold, A. (2018). Can social media have a positive impact on global healthcare. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewarnold/2018/06/05/can-social-media-have-a-positive-impact-on-global-healthcare/#4e70093218a0

Lin, X., & Kishore, R. (2021). Social media-enabled healthcare: A conceptual model of social media affordances, online social support, and health behaviors and outcomes. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 166, 120574. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120574