Social Media Is A Double Edged Sword

It is no secret as to how fast social media has grown over the past decade between helping connect with long lost friends and family on Facebook, getting your resume out to others through LinkedIn, sharing a video on YouTube, or even just letting off some steam on Twitter, hard to believe that so much of this we see in our day to day lives can be creating such a controversy within the Health Care System. Most of these sites listed are made into little convenient applications on majority of the populations smart phones that can be helpful as well as distracting (Gill, Kamath, & Gill, 2012).

In conclusion, social media could be helpful in some ways and awful in other ways. Over the past 10 years’ social media use has increased tremendously, mostly by teens. As well as the long term effects on your health, there are many pros and cons associated with social media use.

Nevertheless, there are also risks involved with using social media. There could easily be faulty information on the internet along with a breach in privacy if the wrong site is used. Individuals have gone from enjoying the ease of online health care to being fearful of the dangers of the internet.

There is too much information shared online that risk the privacy of others. Users also visit the internet and leave information that may damage their reputation in future. Fleck and Johnson-Migalski (2015) explain that social media may lead to unprofessional medical information reaching people. They also argue that social media may lead to sharing of client information violating the doctor-patient relationships. In addition, social media may also lead to loss of credibility when medical professionals share information that is contrary to advice they give to a patient. For instance, a doctor prescribes no alcohol to a patient then post pictures enjoying

Communication has been permanently changed by social media. A wide conceptual definition of social media, as cited in Ressler & Glazer (2010), is “The online and mobile accessible services that enable individuals to connect, collaborate, and share with others in real time.” Social media has an obvious influence on informal communication style and represents both possibility and liability for healthcare institutions. As cited in Bernhardt, Alber, & Gold (2014), “Social media provide healthcare professionals with tools to share information, to debate health care policy and practice issues, to promote health behaviors, to engage with the public, and to educate and interact with patients, caregivers, students, and colleagues.” It also presents challenges, including risks to information accuracy, organizational reputation, and individual privacy. Social media can be a very helpful in communicating among nurses and other healthcare providers while creating professional connections, and sharing experiences, but guidelines for appropriate use by healthcare providers are essential. Whether or not certain healthcare organization decides to use social media as a communications tool - social media policy still need to be implemented. Policies help establish an organization 's rules and expectations around social media.

While using social media can be valuable to doctors and nurses, inappropriate use of these tools can be devastating to a health professional career. Here are some examples

McNab, C. (2009). What social media offers to health professionals and citizens. Bulletin of the World Health Organization. Retrieved from http://Bulletin of the World Health Organization

In our day and age, social media has become a huge platform for the sharing of information. The downside to this is the fact that the information

Social Media and the internet play as both an enemy and an ally in combating new diseases. In the article Fear, Misinformation, and Social Media Complicate Ebola Fight, it states that “If a piece of information is highly surprising or comes from a trusted source, experts say people are more likely to spread it.” Whether or not a piece of information is true or false, it is likely to be spread by people. According to the article, “[In reference to Ebola] mentions of the virus on Twitter leapt from about 100 per minute to more than 6,000...” Consequently, sharing the information on new diseases could be advantageous or detrimental, it just depends on what information is being spread.

Nevertheless, the use of social networks, forums, and blogs, as platforms for USHI has continued to thrive in the healthcare sphere [18]. As a consequence, the health risks that the consumption of inaccurate health information portends, is a source of concern to stakeholders in the healthcare industry [1, 2, 19, 20]. Sometimes these inaccurate health information are ensconced in content to deliberately mislead people [1, 3], however, many a times they are not (at least not deliberately)

First and foremost, social media can be great health surveillance to the public since it often complement the information gathered by the professionals that provides a better understanding on healthcare and diseases. As what Gary W. Lawson mentions in his article, "social media plays a vital role during a health crisis because people are in search of the cure, the signs of symptoms, management, and all other information that they can learn to be better informed about a specific disease”. This set of online communication helps in not only encouraging healthy lifestyle, but it also function as a medium in providing information in the risk of a particular disease and steps of prevention. Data page from the official organization websites or news

At all times, health professionals must be aware that their actions must be used in a professional manner for when the public gains access to social media.

In particular, the Web enables users to share their ideas and thoughts about politics through social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. These users can post their opinions about general politics, share articles with their followers, and write their own opinion articles. Public social networking sites cannot fact check everything their users write and cannot restrict the content their user's post. This creates a chain reaction where users continue the cycle of “see it, like it, repost it.” As a result, this lack of regulations often leads to false or misreported information to be spread and read by other people.  A majority of these readers will repost anything they read that agree with their opinions. Thus, the cycle is continued. These readers are either too gullible and believe anything they read or are simply too lazy to acquire their information from credible sources and repost whatever they see.

Social media is any website that allows social interaction. Social media is growing rapidly throughout the world. More adults and teenagers are joining sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter to interact with friends, family, and strangers. The introduction of social media has changed the world in many ways. It affects each individual in different ways. Today it can be used as a very helpful tool in changing a person’s life, but at the same time cause such conflicts which can negatively impact a person. While there are some negatives associated with social media, the positives in communication all around, has made the world stronger and a better place to live in.

Social media is one of the most common ways for people to communicate anywhere and at any time in modern society. Some people think that it is beneficial to have in society. Although, many people are starting to see negative effects arise from the use of social media as well. These negative effects are increasing and becoming more problematic every day. The disadvantages of social media far outweigh the advantages. Social media effects everyone in society, especially teenagers by negatively impacting their lives, face-to-face interactions, and mental health.