Understanding the Impact of Social Media Information and Misinformation Producers on Health Information Seeking. Comment on “Health Information Seeking Behaviors on Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among American Social Networking Site Users: Survey Study” (Preprint)

Abstract

UNSTRUCTURED Our team's article serves as a response to Neely and colleagues' recent paper: Health Information Seeking Behaviors on Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among American Social Networking Site Users: Survey Study, wherein we provide additional information, challenge certain viewpoints, and provide future insight on the topic of how social media is influencing COVID-19 vaccination rates. While the original article suggests that social media serves as a determinant to COVID-19 vaccination rates in some respects, we provide novel perspective that suggests that the opposite outcome may be occurring. Additionally, our team proposes that the question at hand needs to be addressed by an alternative methodology to more accurately capture the magnitude of social media and its members, rather than a survey type model. Our team congratulates Neely and associates' work and addition to the ever-growing topic of social media in medicine, and we seek to provide additional viewpoints and suggestions in an effort to better understand the current COVID-19 landscape.

Authors’ Reply: Understanding the Impact of Social Media Information and Misinformation Producers on Health Information Seeking. Comment on “Health Information Seeking Behaviors on Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among American Social Networking Site Users: Survey Study” (Preprint)

“…We understand and affirm the underlying spirit of Boudreau et al's [1] recommendation, and building on that, we would endorse an "all of the above" approach to the study of social media moving forward. A comprehensive research agenda-drawing on a diverse range of perspectives and methodological techniques-will be needed in order to understand and keep pace with social media's growing and evolving role in health information seeking.…”

“…As they point out, we surveyed a representative sample of American adults (N=1003) and found that most SNS users had not fact-checked COVID-19-related information with a medical professional, and those who had opted to follow credible, scientific sources on social media were significantly more likely to undergo vaccination [2]. In reply, Boudreau and colleagues noted that our study-and others like it-has focused primarily on consumers rather than the producers and publishers of medical content on social media [1]. They propose that researchers should shift their focus "from the consumers to the producers of this information," and, in particular, they emphasize the possibility of developing tools to assess and classify health-related posts on social media in order to help consumers distinguish medically valid guidance from potential misinformation.…”

“…We appreciate Boudreau and colleagues' [1] thoughtful consideration of our recent survey study [2], which examined American people's use of social networking sites (SNS) to learn and stay informed about the COVID-19 pandemic. As they point out, we surveyed a representative sample of American adults (N=1003) and found that most SNS users had not fact-checked COVID-19-related information with a medical professional, and those who had opted to follow credible, scientific sources on social media were significantly more likely to undergo vaccination [2].…”