In the Eye of the Beholder

By: Dharini Jasti

In a world revolving around technology, social media has infiltrated our phones and our thoughts. People nowadays, especially adolescents, are more influenced by what they see on Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and Facebook than by their own parents or friends. Therefore, it’s not surprising to see that societal beauty standards are largely shaped by these platforms, especially in the United States. Pairing this with poorly regulated social media comments results in a recipe for disaster. 

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Anti-Vax Around the World, and the Role of Social Media

By: Jessica Schueler

This week I dove into vaccine discourse on Twitter and Facebook. My class assignment required me to choose a health topic to research through two social media platforms, and I looked into vaccine opinions and information on Twitter and Facebook. Initially, I searched for tweets about vaccines when I logged into my Twitter account. I was surprised that among the hundreds of posts, I found almost exclusively expressed pro-vaccine views. I opened a private browsing window and logged out, and suddenly my search was flooded with vaccine hesitancy and misinformation about the dangers of the COVID vaccine.

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Science, Communication, and Science Communication

By Anonyomous

Scientific information is technical and difficult to understand. Exhibit A, the title of a scientific paper published recently by Zhu X., et.al: “Micro-environment and Intracellular Metabolism Modulation of Adipose Tissue Macrophage Polarization in Relation to Chronic Inflammatory Diseases”.^[1](Whew, that is a mouthful). To anyone in the scientific community, those words may make sense. However, for the vast majority of the general public, these words will go through one ear and out the other. Scientific research is often dense with technical terms and complicated pathways/mechanisms/experiments only those trained in that subject area would understand. And yet its results are so crucial in improving the overall health and wellbeing of the world.

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Train a Grandmother, Change the World!

By Kimi Sharma
As it was every Sunday morning, my e-mail inbox had been inundated with TED talks that my father thought would explore the untarnished brilliance of individuals in society and help incite my dormant passion to bring about change. I was expecting the usual group of talks by respected and inspiring doctors through which my father hinted at his burning desire for me to attend medical school despite my fervent rejection of the idea. So on that Sunday I watched a TED talk that largely reinstated my faith in an individual’s undying determination to aid others (https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6qqqVwM6bMM).

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“Train a Grandmother, Change the World!”

by Kimi Sharma

As it was every Sunday morning, my e-mail inbox had been inundated with TED talks that my father thought would explore the untarnished brilliance of individuals in society and help incite my dormant passion to bring about change. I was expecting the usual group of talks by respected and inspiring doctors through which my father hinted at his burning desire for me to attend medical school despite my fervent rejection of the idea. So on that Sunday I watched a TED talk that largely reinstated my faith in an individual’s undying determination to aid others.

Sanjit “Bunker” Roy founded The Barefoot College on the grounds of self-sufficiency of a population now and into the future no matter what the background and abilities of the individual. While Roy came from a wealthy and well-educated background, he sought to create a place where those without the credentials, degrees or certificates could take part in the learning process to provide for themselves in the long run. Per request of those that the Barefoot College was to serve, Roy describes it as “a place of learning and unlearning: where the teacher is the learner and the learner is the teacher.” He highlights the absence of anyone outside the community with a qualification or degree and praises the outstanding achievements of the communities where most are illiterate.

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I think, therefore I am fat. You think, therefore I am fat.- By Moses Tran

What if you are fat because your friends are fat?  Similarly, what if your friends are fat because you are fat?  According to Nicholas Christakis (2010), an individual’s social network influences ones behavior and therefore, their health outcome.  Looking at obesity, he found that being friends with someone who is obese made that individual’s chance of becoming obese 45% higher.  Likewise, if your friend’s friend is obese, then the chance is 25% higher.  Only when you get to your friend’s friend’s friend’s friend is there no relation between the friend’s body size and that your own. 

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Social Media- Could it End a Monumental Famine? – By Holly Bednarz

“What do you want for lunch?” my Mom asked me, “There are tons of leftovers in the fridge.” As I looked on the various shelves of the refrigerator, all I saw was a sea of Tupperware. I decided on my favorite- Pizza Chicken. As I put my portion of food onto my plate my Mom said, “Don’t put what you don’t want back in the fridge. I’ll probably throw it out.” This made me think of a video I had seen a few days prior on ABC World News. Here’s my family, with a surplus of food so large that we have to throw much of it away because we can’t eat it all before it goes bad, while there are about 400,000 people in Africa starving to death as the worst famine in generations takes its toll on the people of Somali.

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Social Networks: The Key to Early Detection of Epidemics? By Emily Snack

With sites like facebook, twitter, and myspace growing in popularity, social networking has been a topic at the forefront of pop culture within the last few years. It is undeniable that social networks play an enormous role in nearly every aspect of society, but only recently have health professionals begun looking at social networks, primarily face-face, as a tool in early detection of epidemics.

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