Navigating Personal and Professional Development Through Social Media in Ophthalmology

Figures & data

Table 1 Participant Demographics. Various Demographic Characteristics of Survey Participants (n = 149)

Characteristics	Survey Participants n (%)
Country
Canada	6 (4.0)
USA	111 (74.5)
Other	32 (21.5)
Gender
Men	48 (32.2)
Women	100 (67.1)
Nonbinary	1 (0.7)
Age
Under 25	3 (2.0)
25–35	84 (56.4)
36–45	35 (23.5)
46–55	13 (8.7)
56–65	12 (8.1)
66+	2 (1.3)
Ethnicity
White	78 (52.4)
Black/African American	1 (0.7)
American Indian or Alaska Native	0 (0.0)
Asian	48 (32.2)
Non-white Hispanic/Latino	7 (4.7)
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander	0 (0.0)
Other	15 (10.1)
Career stage
Resident	37 (24.8)
Fellow	16 (10.7)
0–5 years in practice	38 (25.5)
6–10 years in practice	20 (13.4)
11–20 years in practice	19 (12.8)
20+ years in practice	19 (12.8)
Type of practice
Academic	34 (22.8)
Private solo	10 (6.7)
Private group	53 (35.6)
Hospital based	9 (6.0)
Large HMO based	3 (2.0)
Not applicable	35 (23.5)
Other	5 (3.4)
Subspecialty
In training	38 (25.5)
Comprehensive	17 (11.4)
Anterior segment, cornea, and refractive	38 (25.5)
Glaucoma	15 (10.1)
Low vision rehabilitation	1 (0.7)
Neuro-ophthalmology	2 (1.3)
Ocular oncology	0 (0.0)
Oculoplastics	13 (8.7)
Pediatric ophthalmology	6 (4.0)
Retina/uveitis	19 (12.8)
Marital status
Married	103 (69.1)
Divorced	6 (4.0)
Never married	40 (26.9)
Widowed	0 (0.0)
Number of children
Zero	20 (51.0)
One	30 (13.4)
Two	15 (20.1)
Three	7 (10.0)
Four	1 (4.7)
Five	1 (0.7)
Professional social media platforms*
Instagram	86 (25.2)
LinkedIn	77 (22.6)
Facebook	67 (19.6)
Twitter	53 (15.5)
YouTube	32 (9.4)
Other	5 (1.5)
None	21 (6.2)
Time spent on social media
Less than 1 hour per week	6 (4.0)
Less than 1 hour per day	48 (32.2)
1–2 hours daily	66 (44.3)
3–4 hours daily	23 (15.4)
4+ hours daily	6 (4.0)

Note: *Total exceeds 149 as respondents were directed to select all that apply; data reflects tallied responses.

Figure 1 Reasons for social media use among respondents.

Table 2 Reported Challenges in Professional and Personal Domains and Perceived Utility of Social Media for Overcoming Those Challenges by Gender, Race, Age, and Career Stage. Kruskal–Wallis One-Way Analysis of Variance Was Used to Analyze These Domains

	Gender(p value)	Age(p value)	Career(p value)
Time spent on social media	0.3265	0.0110*	0.1069
Career planning and/or advancement
Challenges experienced	0.9264	0.1909	0.0465 (trainee vs late career: p=0.0396)*
Challenges overcome with social media	0.1289	0.3955	0.1789
Workplace discrimination
Challenges experienced	0.0021*	0.2419	0.5558
Challenges overcome with social media	0.0028*	0.9530	0.8272
Practice management
Challenges experienced	0.1732	0.0027*	<0.0001 (early career vs trainee: p=0.0176; late career vs trainee: p <0.0001)*
Challenges overcome with social media	0.7798	0.0143*	0.2424
Financial planning
Challenges experienced	0.6703	0.5720	0.0252 (trainee vs late career: p=0.0405)*
Challenges overcome with social media	0.7241	0.5207	0.0446 (early career vs trainee: p=0.032; late career vs trainee: p=0.033)*
Work-life harmony
Challenges experienced	0.0320*	0.0459*	0.1353
Challenges overcome with social media	0.0005*	0.1727	0.2096
Parenting
Challenges experienced	0.0617	0.2093	0.0428 (early vs late career: p=0.0356)*
Challenges overcome with social media	<0.0001*	0.111	0.1554
Mentorship
Provided on social media	0.1130	0.0361*	0.2271
Received on social media	0.8121	0.1380	0.7187
Challenges overcome with social media	<0.0301*	0.4311	0.1334

Note: *Denotes statistical significance, underlined group denotes the group that were more likely to experience the challenge.

Figure 2 Challenges experienced and overcome with social media for gender category. Degree of agreement: 1 – strongly disagree, 2 – somewhat disagree, 3 – neither agree nor disagree, 4 – somewhat agree, 5 – strongly agree. (*denotes statistical significance).

Figure 3 Challenges experienced and overcome with social media for age category. Degree of agreement: 1 – strongly disagree, 2 – somewhat disagree, 3 – neither agree nor disagree, 4 – somewhat agree, 5 – strongly agree. (*denotes statistical significance).

Figure 4 Challenges experienced and overcome with social media for career stage category. Degree of agreement: 1 – strongly disagree, 2 – somewhat disagree, 3 – neither agree nor disagree, 4 – somewhat agree, 5 – strongly agree. (*denotes statistical significance).