Social Media

An article by Nora MacDonald on teens and social media is featured in The Conversation.

An interprofessional Mason research team led by Associate Professor Hong Xue used machine learning and social media data in the first large-scale study to analyze factors that influence effective antismoking campaigns and user engagement.

Research by Dongqing Wang, assistant professor of Global and Community Health, assessed the penetration of digital technology among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa and discussed the potential of digital media access as a way to expand health interventions

Master of Public Health (MPH) student Jacqueline Clabeaux knows that leading communities to practice healthier lifestyles is a key role for public health professionals. That’s why she focused her This is Public Health (TIPH) Student Ambassador social media campaign on educating people on how to improve their health while strengthening their local communities through physical activities. 

A culturally-targeted social media campaign increases Hepatitis B (HBV) awareness among Korean Americans, one of the highest risk groups for an HBV infection, according to a new study from Dr. Alicia Hong, professor of Health Administration and Policy, along with Dr. Sojung Claire Kim, assistant professor in the Department of Communication, and Dr. Pramita Bagchi, assistant professor in the Department of Statistics.

Researchers from the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative take on projects that expand the contributions of social scientists to cyber security challenges through funding of multidisciplinary projects.

In a first-of-its-kind study, Associate Professor Hong Xue and Professors Alison Cuellar and Lawrence Cheskin and colleagues at George Mason University's College of Health and Human Services examined associations between the amount of time spent on specific social media sites and the use of both e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes.  

While most of the social media platforms reviewed in the study showed no significant association with vaping, Xue and his colleagues did find that college-age e-cigarette users who spent more time on Snapchat did have a higher prevalence of lifetime e-cigarette use as well as an increased frequency of e-cigarette use in the past 30 days.

College-age e-cigarette users who are occasional or regular vapers spend an average of just over two hours a day on Snapchat, according to the study. Non-users, on the other hand, spend less than an hour each day on the app. The study also found that each extra hour on Snapchat was associated with a 4.61 percent increase in likelihood of lifetime e-cigarette use