Top US Professor Shares How To Identify Safe Health Advice on Social Media

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endless social media boom has made absolutely everything under the sun a bona fide internet niche, with creator-ecosystems thriving around the most niche of topics and concerns. Health and wellness as a sector, is of course not untouched by this trend, which seemingly has no end in sight.It would be wrong to deny that social media has not had a lasting impact on how we live our lives today - and on several counts at that. But when it comes to matters of the body and mind, it is important to be slightly more discerning than you would otherwise be. Especially when the advice is coming from a source whose credibility you cannot verify beyond a reasonable doubt.

Virtual Health and Wellness is Catching On

AP findings reveal a new survey by the Pew Research Center which revealed that about 4 in 10 US adults - with half of this demographic being under the age of 50 - get their health information from social media or podcasts. Researchers also surveyed the social media profiles of 6,828 health and wellness influencers, each of them with at least 100,000 followers. Of these, only about 4 in 10 creators affirm their background as a health professional. A third of the surveyed profiles list the creators in question as 'coaches', 3 in 10 describe themselves as 'entrepreneurs' and about 1 in 10 cite their own life experience as their badge of credibility.From the audience end of this spectrum, research findings estimate about half of the people who get health and wellness information from influencers describing the one-way exchange as having helped them better understand their own health. In the same breath, about a third said it hadn't made much difference. About 1 in 10 said it made them more confused.

Vet Your Source

Certified medical exercise specialist and personal trainer, Courtney Babilya, who herself has more than 400,000 followers on Instagram, identifies relatability as a a major pull factor. However, she asks those on the endless scroll to also take into account if the person across the screen is speaking from lived experience or a distant professional expertise. She says, "When we see someone who shares an experience or talks about that experience, we're drawn in. But it's so important to distinguish who is talking from personal experience versus what is your professional take on this."Practicing therapist and author, Nedra Glover Tawwab, who has a 1.8 million strong audience on Instagram, further clarifies that while consuming information is not bad, taking it to be written in stone is. The key is to hold onto that information, and always discuss it first-hand with a professional. She adds, "Use it as information, but not as the end-all be-all. I think there's something further that needs to happen after you gather that information. It shouldn't be consume, consume, consume. Especially if you have some mental health concerns that you need to work through. Consuming without processing with a professional is probably not going to long term be very helpful."

Real Pointers for Virtual Information

Right off the bat, any extreme and exclusive language, no matter how relatable the content and context may feel, should always be absorbed critically. According to Babilya, it is more or less a give away on the intent of those making the content, which tends to be more geared towards engagement rather than offering real help and solutions. She explains, "If in the first two seconds, you hear something that kind of is, you know, exaggerated or like, 'this is the one thing, this the only thing.' If someone speaks in absolutes or black and white, then that's an immediate red flag that they're prioritizing the view count, and not necessarily the information they are putting out there."On the other hand, those that begin or end their piece with a disclaimer about their take not being the holy grail, chances are, the intent is genuine. Tawwab lists, "When I see flexible language, that's good. When I've seen people say things like, 'this is not an exhaustive list,' that's good. When I seen people saying, 'consult with your therapist or talk to someone, get some support,' that's good."