TEENAGERS AND THE USE OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES (ICT) FOR HEALTH INFORMATION

Abstract

The spread of health messages through ICTs has raised the issues of source reliability more than ever before. There are many channels for adolescents where they can find information about health, and sometimes these messages are contradictory. In this research I employed a qualitative approach to investigate how adolescents seek information about health through ICTs, what kind of health related topics they search on Internet, whether they rely on their peers, teachers or primary group when they are aware of being in risk, and how they assess a source as trustworthy in covering health information. Additionally, the current study surveys what it means for teenagers to be in a good physical condition, including their habits regarding self-medication, nutrition, physical activity, weight maintenance, and how they communicate with respect to the above-mentioned health-issues through ICTs. On this purpose, I conducted two focus group interviewed with 22 Romanian adolescents, aged between 12 and 17 years, who have Facebook accounts and own smartphones connected to the Internet. The main findings suggest that teenagers search the Internet to some extent as a response to factors that threaten the health condition, such as the presence of physical symptoms that are overwhelming or stressful. The emotional adjustment is rather targeted to social support offline sources (friends, parents and doctors) than online ones.