This post first appeared in the Royal College of Paediatrics & Child Health Trainee Bulletin 

When the big news of the day is President Trump’s latest tweet you can understand why there are mixed feelings on the ubiquitous nature of Social Media. There appears to be little middle ground, you are either heavily immersed and don’t understand why you wouldn’t use it, or the thought of wading through posts for your portfolio makes you feel sick. But in fact these binary debates are probably exacerbated by social media itself and represent its worst, most divisive, aspect.

Social Media is everywhere. It is not just Twitter and Facebook but any medium, and some would say modality, whereby information is digitally accessed and communities spontaneously form. I have seen members of Doctors.net.uk (A UK online network of Doctors) wax lyrical about how dreadful Social Media is; not realising that Doctors.net.uk is a social media platform itself.

As a moderate-to-heavy user of social media I believe the benefits outweigh the challenges, less so than they used to, but I am a better informed and engaged clinician because of it. I am not an evangelist however and recognise that considerable harm, has, and will continue to be caused by Social Media. This is both at an individual level where its addictive quality can be distracting and its apparent lack of boundaries can cause considerable emotional distress. But also at a societal level where information exchanges can be unfettered and reckless. Social media appears to have developed quicker than its participants’ capacity to use it, a fundamental challenge being the lack of insight into the nature of communication in a digital space. Firstly, your computer screen separates you from those you are communicating with – tone, intonation, gestures are all missing from conversations we previously would only dare to have had face-to- face (we’ll call this the dialogue effect). Secondly all participants can have a voice, but those voices aren’t always equal and not all heard in a balanced fashion. The flattening of hierarchy is to be welcomed – patients, clinicians, managers, the public – can all simultaneously share and debate information. However, it is possible to only hear the voices you chose to listen to. Mis- information travels fast in polarised networks containing unbalanced opinion and it is easy to feel everyone shares a view which might only be voiced by a minority. While this is easy to recognise on Twitter, it exists on Facebook and a multitude of other discussion forums and blogs where ‘bubbles’ exist of similar individuals.

This is relevant to the doctor developing their paediatric knowledge. Online paediatric communities such as #FOAMped, #FOAMneo, #meded provide up up-to-date information on the latest literature (just Google them to follow streams, you don’t need a social media account per se) and also access to challenging but engaging discussions on clinical and non-clinical grey areas or practice. They may help you develop a personal learning network (a group of unofficial mentors at different stages of their career) or potential outlets for academic and quality improvement activity. However, without understanding the context of social media, problems may emerge from inadvertent angst caused by a misplaced comment (the dialogue effect) or potentially even worse the application of practice that is not evidence based (the bubble effect). Both problems are probably much less frequent than those outside social media believe but dismissing them I think is equally naive.

Those invested in communities of practice, who understand that information exchange on social media has the same risks and benefits as other pedagogies but is more convenient and accessible, continue to engage and learn because they feel the tangible benefits. In an increasingly populist and reactive society it is important that these ‘communities’ continue to grow. Social Media provides applicability (you can access education in formats and styles you prefer such as podcasts, blogs or infographics), connectivity (the immersion in a community of practice aligned to your specialty, profession or theme of work) and scalability (the reach of knowledge transfer crosses regional, national and international boundaries) [1].

Utilising Social Media for learning is less of an active choice than you may think but it should be an informed one. The opportunities are enormous but there is no ‘free meal’ when it comes to learning and education and the benefits must be balanced with the risks.

1. Roland D. Social Media and the Digital Health Arena. Future Healthcare Journal 2017 Vol 4, No 3: 184–8

Further reading

Top 10 ways to reconcile social media and ‘traditional’ education in emergency care

Evidence-based medicine in the era of social media: Scholarly engagement through participation and online interaction