Use of Social Media for Health Information Seeking Among Young Adults: A Uses and Gratification Approach

Abstract

Due to an emerging popularity of social media among the young adults of Pakistan where everyone is expected to be online and connected to the internet, as social media sites are being used by young adults, it has been observed that a great number of them is utilizing it for accessing information regarding their health concerns. This research was carried out to uncover the usage of social media sites that were being used by young adults for seeking health information by the young adults and to study the extent. At the same time, it intended to uncover the motivation behind the usage of young adults to utilize social media for their health concerns. This is hypothesized that there is likely to be the significant associations between the usage of social media networking sites and socio demographic variables. Data was entered into the SPSS-25 in order to carry out statistical analysis. Independent sample t-test, one way ANOV A and correlation method were applied to test the hypotheses. It was observed that the young adults are readily using social media for health information as they find it to be rewarding and satisfying, fulfilling and providing for their health concerns. It was also seen that an extended amount of exposure leads to an increment in the health seeking behavior of the young adults as they learn to handle the overwhelming amount of information while finding their relevant Concerns without much frustration.