I’m probably showing my age but when I wanted information I was uncomfortable asking my parents about, especially health-related, I went to my friends, preferably in some dark, hidden place.
But more and more young people today are using smartphones to keep track of their health, according to a story by Milt Freudenheim. According to a website called the Young Invincibles, 39 percent of young people ages 18 to 29 own a smartphone.
Freudenheim reports in his story that young adults are, of course, much more likely than older people to have a smartphone and to use it to look for health information, as found out by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which surveys technology trends. And what are these young adults looking up?
The three hottest topics searched for on Yahoo Mobile in January were, you guessed it, early pregnancy, herpes and HIV, as stated by comScore, an online research firm, according to Freudenheim.
The most popular symptom searches on PCs? Gastroenteritis, heart attacks, gout and shingles, Yahoo said – appropriate for the older people who tend to use computer keyboards to look up health information.
A survey done by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation all the way back in 2001 found that two out of three young people at that time used the Internet for health information, and four out of ten said they believed what they found on the Web, and acted on it.
Young adults aren’t just using mobile devices to track whether nausea and fatigue are early signs of pregnancy, they’re also downloading apps to help manage their eating, drinking and exercise, just like older adults, Freudenheim says, referring to a survey by Everyday Health, an online company with health, diet and exercise Web sites.
Geoff McCleary, group director for mobile innovation at Digitas Health, told Freudenheim that some health care companies were even “noticing that more people were using a mobile device to visit their Web sites.”
So what are we to make of all this? As most of us have found, not everything on the Web is true. Are young people being led astray by trusting what they find? A recent study found that a third of young adults believe “the Internet is as vital to the human race as air, food, and water.” So is it dangerous that they’re getting their health information on the Web? Hard to say. The only thing we know for sure is that most kids, since time began, look for information every place but from their parents!
Edited by
Carrie Schmelkin
