What Does Twitter Have To Do With Health?

First of all, what is Twitter?  Twitter is an online social networking and micro-blogging service that began in 2006.  Via Twitter, people share very short comments (of 140 characters) in answer to the question, "What are you doing?" that other users connected to them can read and respond to; these comments are called "tweets".  People can type their comments from various places including from the Twitter website or their cellphones, and it is estimated that Twitter has over 5 million regular users.  

So what does Twitter have to do with health?  In this contemporary, electronically-wired age, Twitter and other online social networks have created a modern version of social connection.  There have been some critiques and media jokes regarding what some people view as a sharing of frivolous, ordinary information with other people.  However, I would assert that while this may sometimes be the case depending on someone's interpretation, regardless of the content of the "tweets", users are reaching out and revealing their lives to other people and vice versa.  And this is critical for health.

The importance of social connection for health has been studied in medical research and can simply be observed in oneself and others.  Studies have found that people reporting high levels of positive social relationships and activities live longer, have less chronic illness later in life, are less likely to have a recurrent heart attack and have lower blood pressure.  An interesting study from 1997 found that the more diverse one's social network is, the less likely one is to catch a cold.  People with six or more types of social ties were over four times less likely to get sick than people with only one to three types of social ties.  

Positive social connection of any kind -- group support, marriage, intimate relationship, friendship, pets, participation in spiritual and social groups -- has been shown to decrease life stress.  Dr. Dean Ornish, a physician renowned for his work in developing programs that reverse heart disease, has written that, "I am not aware of any other factor in medicine that has a greater impact on our survival than the healing power of love and intimacy -- not diet, not smoking, not exercise, not stress, not genetics, not drugs, not surgery."

Humans have been called "social creatures" and indeed, positive connection with other beings in any way triggers the body, mind, emotions and spirit to relax, to breathe more deeply, to feel heard, to serve others through supporting them when they need it, to feel close with other beings rather than separate or isolated.  More and more, humans are globally-connected with the evolution of the internet, so modes such as Twitter are modern ways that can positively support humans' instinctual need for social connection and thus improve major facets of human health.

 

Healthy Body, Mind And Soul Blog by Marnie Burkman, MD is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.