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Social media
Social Media and its Impact on Mental Health, Health Literacy and Access, and Human Trafficking
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By Nicole Redden (BSPS), Frank Zahariadis (BSPS), Tianqi Zhao (BSPS) Spring 2021
Social media got its start in 1997 and has now, as of 2021, grown to over 4.2 billion users worldwide.2 Nearly 70% of adults and a little over 80% of teens use social media, according to the Pew Research Center. With over half of the world's population using social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, there is bound to be an impact to our global health. Social media is slowly consuming our lives to the point where we are losing about a day a week. The positive and negative impact of social media is affecting the mental health of all of its users. A novel strategy to promote health literacy and provide access to health care involves utilizing social media. Social media as a new tool has been used to recruit victims by traffickers. However, it is also a powerful platform to reduce human trafficking.
