RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Social media: medical education's double-edged sword
JF Future Healthcare Journal
JO Future Healthc J
FD Royal College of Physicians
SP e307
OP e310
DO 10.7861/fhj.2020-0164
VO 8
IS 2
A1 Felecia D'souza
A1 Sita Shah
A1 Olukayode Oki
A1 Lydia Scrivens
A1 Jonathan Guckian
YR 2021
UL http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/8/2/e307.abstract
AB Social media (SoMe) are platforms that enable users to create and share content, or participate in social networking. Medical education is rapidly moving into a post-COVID world, with the use of SoMe becoming ever more prominent. We explore the risks and benefits of using this technology to assist learning and examine these in light of relevant educational theory.Benefits include accessibility to experts, opportunities for mentorship, access to support networks, resource sharing and global participation. Following the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, SoMe has provided the impetus to adapt medical curricula to address health inequities in minority ethnic individuals.Key criticisms focus on superficial learning, psychological safety, correctly identifying level of expertise, professionalism and ownership protections for content creators. Users have limited ways to manage risk.The medical education community must adapt and rapidly critique SoMe innovations so that they can be better developed and learned from, all the while remaining vigilant.