Troubling expertise: social media and young people’s sexual health

Abstract

Social media are integral to young people’s everyday lives, and sexual health promotion strategies seek to capitalise on this. Drawing from recent health promotion research and digital media ethnographies, this article considers research discourses of social media use by young people and health professionals. While health promotion commonly engages with social media as a ‘setting’ for the dissemination of static information, this neglects the participatory aspects of social media and overlooks young people’s digital media competencies. Focus groups with young people further highlight these competencies, the centrality of friendship in social media, and the stigma of sharing formal sexual health information. Considering these literature and data, this article draws from post-structural theories of knowledge to consider how formal ‘expertise’ is leveraged through the subjugation of young people’s knowledge, and how this is problematic for sexual health promotion seeking to engage with young people through social media.

Keywords:

• social media
• young people
• health promotion
• sexual health
• friendship
• health communication

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Erratum

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the young people who took part in the focus groups, journal reviewers and editors for their feedback and support, and Kath Albury, Clif Evers, and Kate Crawford, as members of the research team.

Notes

1. These were undertaken within my role as Research Assistant on a project with The Journalism and Media Research Centre, UNSW, with Chief Investigators Kath Albury, Clifton Evers and Kate Crawford. The project was granted approval by University of New South Wales Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC10232).

2. This research was commissioned by the New South Wales Sexually Transmitted Infections Programs Unit.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the New South Wales Sexually Transmitted Infections Programs Unit.

Notes on contributors

Paul Byron

Paul Byron, PhD, is a research assistant in the School of the Arts and Media, University of New South Wales. His research interests include sexual ethics, friendship intimacies, sexual health and safety, and young people’s digital media cultures.