From online social networks to codesign in digital health
I set this blog up just over four years ago in January 2012 both to record my online ethnographic PhD research and with the hope of having conversations that would help inform my thinking and enable me to share my learning along the way. After four years of working full time, compressing five days into four and doing research on the extra day I’d squeezed out of the week, I finally had my viva on Friday. I passed the assessors’ grilling with four minor corrections and am basking in a profound sense of relief and delight in equal measure. My research was about online social networks and mental health with a heavy focus on the now departed The World of Mentalists blog and ecosystem around it. I have many people to be grateful to for in helping me think about this topic over the last four years. In particular I’d like to thank all my interviewees for sharing their time and expertise (you know who you are) and to everyone who welcomed me into the madosphere. I’d also like to thank Phil, Mark, Sue, James and Kat for many a Skype, phone call, meet up and often conference podium where we shared our thinking about mental health and online social networks with various audiences. During those four years my interests have developed beyond online social networks to digital technologies in health, with a particular focus on co-design and ethics. I’ve clocked up 133 posts on this blog and recently changed its title to reflect those broader interests. A few years ago I set up mHabitat which comprises an ever...
We do not communicate well with our younger generations #TheProfileProject #10
@FakeThom tells the story behind his Twitter profile picture: “My profile picture is a cartoon graphic representation of me to primarily accompany my YouTube channel, matching the channel’s artwork and house style. It was created by a friend William Leeks and kindly donated to my channel to help get it off the ground. The image depicts me in a white coat with a yellow stethoscope and blue hair, representing my real-life job as a children’s doctor in Scotland. Although I do not wear a white coat day-to-day, it helps add to the identity in the cartoon version of myself. “As a children’s doctor, I’m concerned we do not communicate well with our younger generations, who are light years ahead of us with how they access and consume information online. My vlog channel aims to deliver health education to the YouTube generation in an entertaining and informative way, with teenagers being the target audience. Currently my videos look mainly at mental health, but also include topics such as sleep. Future videos will expand into sex education and other health-related content that commonly affects adolescents. “A side project of the channel also uses Minecraft to deliver information to a younger audience. My profile picture will sometimes change to a blocky Minecraft version to promote this side of my output. The cartoon version of me you see in the profile picture will occasionally have changes in hair colour if I have recently dyed my hair, or will have a background colour change to hold interest. The bold and outlined nature of the Saved By The Bell-style drawing is eye-catching at thumbnail size so works well...
Me, myself, I #TheProfileProject #9
Anne Cooper tells the story behind her Twitter profile: “Even when I first started my Twitter journey my profile picture was one of me….. me, myself, I. (I just love this song by Joan Armatrading and the words are fab.) “I believe that on social media presenting oneself as a real person works best. I get such a tremendous response to those blogs and posts that are about more than my ‘professional self’; I think people identify more with the whole view of me. So decided that it was a real me they should see. “However, I do chose the best ones. Not photographs I hate but those that I think are flattering too. Ha! You caught me – I am vain too. Perhaps a slightly varnished presentation of me! “When it was the year of my 50th birthday I did do a little experiment – I aged myself via my profile picture. I started with the picture of me at my youngest and aged myself gradually over the year, ending with one of me at 50. I loved doing it and it did create some interesting conversations but I think some people found it confusing – shape shifting. I realised that a clear picture that was identifiable might be important so I have changed less frequently and have tried to maintain a real and realistic (if flattering) picture since then. I want to be identifiable and real to people I talk to. “Me, myself, I – that’s it for me.” You can find out more about #TheProfileProject here and connect on Twitter...
Is digital technology a technical or adaptive problem in health?
Around three years ago I was invited to speak at a consultant psychiatrists committee meeting about social media and digital technology. I was mid way through my PhD and steeped in online ethnographic research about how people accessing mental health services and practitioners were making use of social networks. I had an inkling that I would have a mixed audience and I knew that not everyone would share my (then*) enthusiasm. As such I spent time preparing a range of compelling examples of digital technologies and social media practices, determined as I was to win over any detractors. I arrived a little early and so listened in to the tail end of an exasperated discussion about the various grinding limitations, obstacles and shortcomings of the in-house electronic patient record (EPR). If my audience’s primary experience of technology in health was such a bad one, then this did not bode well for my presentation – I quickly realised I was going to have to recalibrate. How could I be so naive as to think a conversation about the future potential of digital technologies would be welcomed, when the basics of reliable and effective electronic patient records seemed like a pipe dream? This experience came back to me whilst reading The Digital Doctor – Hope, Hype, and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine’s Computer Age (Wachter, 2015) which is dominated by an expansive analysis of the shortcomings of contemporary electronic patient records. Wachter argues that EPRs have brought many a physician ‘to their knees’ with their clunky, confusing and complex systems (73). It is salutary to note that three years on...about.me
Victoria Betton
victoria betton
director mHabitat | NHS | social media & mental health doctorate | interested in digital inclusion | parma violets fiend | http://codesigndigitalhealth.co.uk
