The pitfalls of our online health activism

I had just finished attending my Zoom graduation for my master’s in public health, when I was called to my childhood friend’s home for dinner later that evening. Before much discourse began, the dinner table filled with comments of anti-vaccines and the notion that “all lives matter.” I sat there biting my tongue, but before long I erupted in anger. I spewed data from lofty academic journals to combat the assault on vaccines and delivered a chastising historical account of the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement. All this to no avail as my words fell on deaf ears and only caused this family to further withdraw from the perspective I was attempting to share.

In reality, my ineffective response to this situation is nothing more than a product of social media and the rhetoric it has adapted me towards. When I scroll through my social media feed, I am bombarded with posts concerning public health awareness, racial and social advocacy, and an abundance of anti-Trump news. A combination of those whom I follow on social media, the news agencies I choose to read, and Facebook’s algorithms all but ensure that my point of view as an individual and a public health practitioner is vehemently fed back to me.

This in no manner is unique to me; within the field of health and advocacy it is not uncommon to use social media as a medium for encouraging activism and informing others. While this use of social media has been paramount in raising awareness on the social injustices our nation faces, it creates a dangerous echo chamber where we are led to believe that everyone feels, thinks and responds like us. This in turn leaves us severely illprepared to properly connect and communicate with those who do not share the same perspective. In many ways, these are the pitfalls of our online activism and are ones which we as a society need to confront in order to better fight for social and political change.

The irony is that in public health school we are taught to educate and inform others in a manner which is both palpable and approachable. Yet social media conditions us to do just the opposite. Health experts often share articles with convoluted methods and p-values and are quick to mock those who hold different points of views. As tempting as it is to simply ridicule individuals who do not listen to facts and health experts, the act of doing so only helps fuel a divisive notion of us vs. them. It is this reality which only serves to further alienate the very same individuals which public health experts are so desperately trying to reach in the midst of this pandemic. For whatever the reason, myself and my peers have miscarried one of the most important jobs which we were bestowed with as public health advocates: to educate the wider public on health.

If we as individuals, advocates and public health practitioners ever want to move beyond our own echo chambers, we must learn to move past social media to really connect with those who think differently. Each and every one of us is a product of our own echo chamber. We are the culmination of our Facebook feeds, the YouTube videos we watch and the news outlets which we choose to subscribe to. It is this realization which invests us with a deep responsibility to move beyond our own dualistic paradigms to understand one another in a more holistic and compassionate manner. We must listen to others with respect and deep intent, we must stop bashing others as ignorant, and most importantly as public health experts, we must create a bridge between our scientific knowledge and the everyday lives of Americans.

Sacha Hauc completed his Master in Public Health in Health Policy and Global Health from the Yale School of Public Health. He is currently a medical student at the Yale School of Medicine involved in global health and health activism.