What is healthy? Where does social media impact on behaviours for young Indigenous Australians?
By Troy Walker
Exploring what health means to young Indigenous adults online is complex business, with countless factors to consider and so many ways to share health information online. In our recent qualitative study, we explored how health is shaped and how the internet, particularly social media, plays a role in influencing health behaviours in 17-24-year-olds. Our findings highlighted that family, community, physical activity, mental health and social media influencers were key drivers in the health behaviours of young Indigenous People.
Nah, I reckon’ that’s gammon. This fella doesn’t know what he’s talkin’ about. Just cause’ he’s got abs doesn’t mean he knows what to tell us what to eat... Probably using that filter feature on the phone that s’posed to make you look deadly anyways…
When we think about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young adults, what does it mean to the mob to be healthy? And how does social media influence these health behaviours? Our recent publication in the Health Promotion Journal of Australia aimed to explore this idea. I had the opportunity to interview our young adult mob based mostly in my hometown and it was an incredibly rich and meaningful experience.
We shared many deep thoughts, insights and often just had a good laugh at some of the ways and workings of social media and how it can influence health behaviours. We also decided to do the same thing two ways, where we conducted interviews in person as well as in a private group discussion on Facebook over three weeks. The rationale behind it being that maybe we would get different perspectives on the same set of questions if they were delivered in a different format; and also based on the idea that our mob - while digitally savvy - do love having a yarn and a cuppa with each other face to face. This gave participants the option to choose what they would prefer to do rather than be pre-determined into a particular interview method. Having the self-determination to make your own choice is part of why we are so emphatic about community control.
What’s deadly?
Our findings showed that immediate and extended family were paramount in how our young adult mob shaped many of their health behaviours and what health means to them. This often came from parents, uncles, aunties and Elders, both in-person and online. Health was seen as a multi-faceted interplay and balance between many aspects of their lives. While each person was at a different stage in their life and health, many had aspirations of living a healthy life and taking up or maintaining healthy behaviours. Influence on health behaviours also came from other Indigenous peers and champions, especially when it related to mental health and community support. It wasn’t always other Indigenous people with a large social media following that were influential. Many online influencers came from all parts of the world and so long as they promoted a healthy and balanced message that resonated with them and their interests as individuals, it was often well received.
Other Indigenous peers were a positive influence on physical activity, with many of the young adults describing working out together and pushing each other to get involved in exercise. There were similar mentions of using social media to enjoy food together, but exercise was more often cited as a reason to catch up in person. Social media helped these young adults stay connected with their peers and something as small as an instant message could get them together and involved in different activities including exercise and enjoying a meal. Social media also helped them connect with the community and was a useful way to promote community events and encourage others to attend.
What’s not so deadly...
When it came to some of the reported negative effects of social media and influences on health behaviour, there was notable distrust associated with health information released by government websites. Many participants also described themselves as having varying levels of readiness for making behavioural changes related to healthy shifts in their diet and/or physical activity. Some went on to add that while they felt that they had a good sense of self-efficacy regarding their health decisions, the surrounding food environment made eating healthy increasingly difficult, particularly as more convenience food stores and fast-food outlets became readily available in regional areas.
Participants also made mention of social media portraying a sense of a false reality and they noted that it can give a warped perception of what the real-world looks like. Examples included difficulty in attaining standards of beauty, excessive positivity which appeared deceptive and contrived and people using their platform and fanbase for their own self-interest and financial gain rather than for the promotion of sound scientific health information.
Where do we go from here?
Our research looking into Indigenous young adults’ perceptions and influences of health on social media has left us with more questions. The author is especially curious to explore ideas more specifically around where Indigenous young adults see themselves on a five stages of change model as it relates to self-care and health literacy, particularly in the nutrition and physical activity domains. Additionally, it would be incredibly interesting to investigate the action steps - not just what’s talked about - that our young mob take as they age and how they make choices and enact behaviours to live-out healthy lifestyles.
It would also be very rewarding to see the results of future research that prioritises more time with the young Indigenous mob personally. Especially, how they respond to increasingly difficult situations that focuses on resilience and other strength-based approaches to an expanding - and contextually unfavourable - food environment.
Our study gave us useful information about things we can focus on in the future. While we were able to explore individual agency and the positive influence of family, community and cultural connectedness on social media, we also observed that both government efforts towards transparency and environmental changes are needed to help support - rather than obstruct - these influences on young adults’ health behaviours.
Dr Troy Walker is a Yorta Yorta man, son, husband, brother and works in both clinical practice as an AHPRA registered Chiropractor (ACA member) at his local Aboriginal organisation and family business in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing support. He is active in Indigenous health research at Monash University through NHMRC-funded Communicating Health project (GNT1115496) and Deakin University through VicHealth funding particularly as it relates to nutrition, physical activity and cultural safety. He is also a member of the Nutrition Society of Australia (NSA) and a task force member of the Australia and New Zealand Society for Sarcopenia and Frailty Research (ANZSSFR) with a special interest in age-related muscle loss. You can find Troy online and most active on LinkedIn.
Associate Professor Claire Palermo is a Fellow of Dietitians Australia and Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Her career has been focussed on developing future nutrition and dietetics workforces to improve the health of the population with a focus on the social determinants of health. She is currently chair of the Australian Dietetics Council, Head of Education and Education Research in the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food and Director of the Monash Centre for Scholarship in Health Education at Monash University.
Publication Information
Walker T, Molenaar A, Palermo C. A qualitative study exploring what it means to be healthy for young Indigenous Australians and the role of social media in influencing health behaviour. Health Promotion Journal of Australia. 2020 Jul 29. Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hpja.391
