It’s complicated – the social lives of networked teens (in America and at home)

It’s complicated – the social lives of networked teens (in America and at home)

by | Aug 31, 2014 | social media | 2 comments

How complicated is it for teens and adults to navigate an increasingly networked world?, I have been riveted by Danah Boyd’s research on this topic, and it has shed light on many of the issues I spend my time contemplating and occasionally fretting about as a parent. It’s complicated: the social lives of networked teens (2014) is the result of years of ethnographic research into social media use by American teenagers. Boyd explores themes of identity, privacy, addiction, danger, bullying, inequality and literacy. She illuminates teen behaviours online and challenges common myths and assumptions held by many adults. According to Boyd, rather than being addicted to social media, most teens are simply addicted to their friendships.  Social media provide a means for teens to engage with friends in online public spaces at a time when their offline worlds are increasingly controlled and limited by adults. After- school activities, and fear of dangers lurking on every street corner, constrain the extent to which teens are able occupy public spaces. I hate to admit it, but this is comparatively the case for my teens when I think about the relative freedom I had as a child. As a mother of a 15 year and a 12 year old almost-teen (my 10 year old too young to be interested in social media) this book helped me reflect on what I know of their online behaviours and also to think back to my experiences at a similar age. I recall being attached to my landline by an invisible thread, waiting for phone calls to make arrangements or plans; if I went out then...
Do you search for your patients online? And is it the right thing to do?

Do you search for your patients online? And is it the right thing to do?

by | Aug 23, 2014 | NHS stuff, social media | 2 comments

Have you ever searched for your patients online? And is it the right thing to do? Guidelines about use of social media in health tend to relate to the public and shareable aspects of online networks, with associated issues of identity and professionalism. But what about hidden practices online, such as seeking out information about a patient? Is this an acceptable practice? And is it a common one? How would you feel if you found out your clinical practitioner had been checking out your web presence and social media profiles? In this New York Times article Warraich suggests that searching for patients is commonplace amongst doctors. This sort of surprises me, given how much pressure busy clinicians are under, but I also can imagine that it does happen. Earlier this year I spoke at a UK Clinical Ethics Network conference on the topic of social media and ethics. I gave an example of an inpatient whose mobile phone was confiscated, apparently as a result of clinicians finding out they had a blog. I asked the question ‘is this ethical practice?’ and it excited a lot of conversation – views ranged from believing that anything in the public domain is fair game through to those believing that searching out patients online is highly unprincipled. My thoughts have come back to this topic whilst reading the fascinating It’s Complicated: the social lives of networked teens (Boyd, D. 2014) in which the author considers issues of privacy in relation to teens and social networks. Whilst on the surface a very different topic, I noticed similarities with a healthcare context – as with...
Curating mental health content online – what do you think?

Curating mental health content online – what do you think?

by | Aug 9, 2014 | activism, mental health, social media | 5 comments

Last night I took part in a conversation with @markoneinfour @psycle_doc @MHnurselecturer and @PsychorBust about curating mental health content online. You can find a storify of our conversation here. It came about as a result of Mark posting a blog about the demise of One in Four magazine with reflections on what had worked and what hadn’t. You can read his post here. My PhD research has primarily focused on the now sadly departed The World of Mentalists (TWOM) blog which curated blogs and tweets from around the madosphere on a weekly basis – the nearest thing I’ve found to regular curation of personal/unofficial conversations about mental health. TWOM ran its course and is testament to the ephemeral nature of content online – things come and go, work for a while, and then no longer work. What I loved about TWOM was the fact that it was curated in a highly participatory way (guest curators each week), with many different perspectives, and shared fascinating blogs that I probably wouldn’t have come across any other way. It was also outside the boundaries or official or institutional conversations. There are all sorts of different types of mental health content online, from blogs through to historical websites through to Wikipedia pages and Twitter chats. And no doubt lots more. Is it desirable to find a way of curating this content and, if so, what would be the best way of doing it? Lots of questions to which I don’t have the answers but I’d be very interested in extending the conversation further and knowing what other people...