London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
University of Washington Bothell, Bothell, WA, USA.
Health Promot Pract. 2023 May;24(3):571-574. doi: 10.1177/15248399211064640. Epub 2021 Dec 29.
Mounting evidence suggests that problematic adolescent social media use is associated with poor mental health. To respond to increased adolescent mental health concerns, health promoters increasingly rely on social media initiatives to promote their resources, programs, and services. This creates a paradoxical situation where social-media-linked adverse mental health outcomes are addressed using the same tools and platforms that can contribute to the development of such issues. It also highlights several areas of needed critical assessment in health promotion usage of social media platform features and products, such as addictive platform design, targeted marketing tools, data collection practices, impacts on underserved groups, and conflicts of interest. To advance subsequent action on these tensions, we offer three recommendations for health promoters that build upon existing scholarship and initiatives, including adapting ethical guidelines for health promoters using social media, adopting conflicts of interest policies, and promoting interdisciplinary scholarship.
越来越多的证据表明，青少年社交媒体使用问题与心理健康状况不佳有关。为了应对青少年心理健康问题的增加，健康促进者越来越依赖社交媒体举措来推广他们的资源、项目和服务。这就形成了一种自相矛盾的局面，即利用社交媒体来解决与社交媒体相关的不良心理健康后果的问题，而这些社交媒体本身也可能导致这些问题的产生。这也凸显了健康促进者在使用社交媒体平台功能和产品方面需要进行批判性评估的几个领域，例如上瘾的平台设计、有针对性的营销工具、数据收集实践、对服务不足群体的影响以及利益冲突。为了推进后续解决这些紧张局势的行动，我们为健康促进者提供了三项建议，这些建议建立在现有学术和倡议的基础上，包括为使用社交媒体的健康促进者制定道德准则、采用利益冲突政策以及促进跨学科学术研究。
