Social media influencers and teen health

DR ASHA PEMBERTON

teenhealth.tt@gmail.com

With the rapid and ongoing use of the internet and social media platforms, young people around the world are more connected than ever before. It is estimated that more than half of the world’s youth engage in online activity, and in some territories the penetration approaches 100 per cent. Of these, about two billion would be from lower and middle income countries, including least the developed nations. Further, a large percentage of global internet users are adolescents and young adults, most of whom have constant access through hand-held mobile devices. Social media and networking sites and apps remain the most popular among global youth and their use has led to the emergence of a new phenomenon in marketing, promotion and entrepreneurship; the social media influencer.

By general definition, a social media influencer is a user who has established credibility in a specific industry, has created and maintained a large following and has the persuasive skills to have others act based on their recommendations. This credibility does not necessarily arise from a particular qualification or expertise, yet seemingly has the power to affect the interests, actions and decisions of young people today. Included are the hair and beauty bloggers, gaming vloggers, product review experts and more recently health, recipe and fitness gurus. The current majority are older adolescents and young adults. Influencers, either through frequent generation of videos, posts or articles have the motivational skills and authenticity to attract viewers consistently and thus encourage others to continually expand their social reach. In general, influencers are individuals who develop their popularity through their social media activity, as compared to known celebrities, who are already famous through the more traditional channels of sport, music or popular entertainment culture. Potentially, it the very fact that influencers promote themselves as every-day citizens that makes them more of an authentic voice to their followers. The power of this following has spawned the industry of influencer marketing through which product developers and major brands are increasingly entering into paid partnership agreements with influencers, whose only marketing capacity are their influencers.

Although there is not yet a large literature on the topic it is worthwhile consideration to explore the role of influencers from a health promotion context, and their potential impact on the health behaviour of the youth of the world. The connectivity of young people to the internet is significant, and to date, it appears that the level of involvement with influencer content is high. Young people follow influencers for the entertainment value, but also for information and advice. Their reviews and recommendations impact everything from skin-care routines to gaming technology sales to nutritional plans. Is this an emerging opportunity to reach global youth and provide information that can positively impact their choices, behaviour and health? It is possible that such messages may be more readily accepted and implemented based on the source?

With the almost ubiquitous accessibility of global youth to the internet and social media platforms, the reach and potential impact of influencers is unparalleled. The current persuasive power of social media influencers, has not yet been significantly directed to adolescent preventive health-related content. It certainly has the potential to emerge as a mechanism to positively impact the understanding and behaviour of youth around their self-care and health. We are in era in which anyone can be a healthcare influencer, which itself is complicated by the challenge of content accuracy and guidance. As we witness the rapid evolution of this phenomenon, an opportunity exists for further exploration and research into the reasons why, or how influencers continue to attract and maintain youth attention, and ways in which appropriate and accurate content can be disseminated towards additional positive impacts on their health and development.