Use of new media technologies to improve adolescent health
Presentation part 2
1. Objectives
2. Describe how healthcare organizations are
using new media technologies to better serve
adolescents
3. Review use of new media technologies to
improve immunization rates
4. Consider incorporating new media
technologies into your work with youth
1
2. New media and health
1. Can deliver health interventions to large
communities of adolescents
2. Web sites
3. Social networking sites
4. Video sharing
5. Text messaging
6. Apps
7. Combined strategies
8. Need to ensure mobile access
9. Youth must drive use
2
Notas del editor
The objectives for my presentation are as followsDefine new media technologies and their use by adolescentsDescribe how healthcare organizations are using new media technologies to better serve adolescents (as I do this I will speak about some work with new technologies I am involved with)Review use of new media technologies to improve immunization ratesConsider incorporating new media technologies into your work with youthThroughout this presentation, I will reference examples of various new media that you may want to use with adolescents or just learn more about the organizations behind them.
Because of this wide use of new media by youth, two adolescent researchers, Hyden and Cohall advise that “Youth-serving programs need to stay familiar with these changes and consider what roles new tools can play in conjunction with their traditional approaches while learning lessons and applying them toward upcoming generations of new technology.” In essence, one needs to be willing to adapt as new technologies become popular. Additionally, these researchers suggest that new digital technologies could have a pivotal role in addressing health disparities for a number of reasons, including that minority populations are receptive to social media.So, new media technologies can help deliver health interventions to large communities of adolescents. The tools that can be used include web sites, social networking sites, text messaging, and video sharing. However, the strategies that work tend to be combined strategies that reach teens a number of different ways. It is also important to ensure mobile access because of the ubiquity of cell phone use by teens.Finally, youth must drive the use of the technology.
So, adolescents are “super-users” of new media technologies, especially social media. For this reason, many youth-serving organizations are effectively using these tools--they know that young people can be reached this way. Here are 2 funny and effective videos from bedsider.org, an online birth control support network for women 18-29 operated by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.
Many youth-serving health organizations are using various forms of new media technologies to address a variety of topics, particularly sexual health. Perhaps this is because new media technologies allow youth easy access to confidential sexual health information. Sex,etc is from Answer, a national organization out of Rutgers that provides comprehensive sexuality education for young people. I first heard of them from their newsletter-very old media, which is in fact still quite popular. I direct a lot of teens to the sex, etc. website which contains many things, including forums that allow teens to post questions and discuss various sexual health topics. Here is a screen shot of the forums recently. As you can see there are many interesting topics for youth to weigh in on, to participate in.
New media technologies are being used to address obesity, for example my department has a program Taking Steps Together that works with individual overweight and obese youth and their family on wellness by engaging them in nutrition and exercise programing. TST uses new media technologies in a number of ways, including having a recipe blog that contains healthful recipes. Here’s a recipe posted in August.
A very powerful use of new media has been It Gets Better. This site allows users to post videos in support of LGBTQ youth. It Gets Better is a response to the bullying and harassment LGBTQ youth face. More than 50,000 videos have been posted and viewed more than 50 million times. I enjoy watching Project Runway and one of the hosts Tim Gunn posted this moving video on It Gets Better.
