By India McCarty
Gen Zers use social media to get medical advice and find diagnoses, but many experts warn about the dangers this practice can cause.
“Medical experts are sounding the alarm — they say people are getting health advice from social media,” a report from WAVY Norfolk stated.
This trend is “most popular among Gen Z,” who get their advice from apps like TikTok and Instagram. A 2024 survey, reported on by CBS, found that “56 percent said they go to TikTok for health and wellness advice, while 1 in 3 cited TikTok as their main source of health information.”
The survey also noted that 1 in 11 of those surveyed “said they’d experienced a negative health issue after following advice they found on TikTok.”
“They are leading young people to self-diagnose themselves, which could lead to a misdiagnosis with long term consequences,” WAVY Norfolk continued.
Elizabeth Dixon, a licensed professional counselor, said there are pros and cons to getting medical advice online.
“I would say the positive is it brings awareness to what symptoms can be, or what certain diagnoses are,” she explained. “But then the flip side of that is that some of the advice they may see or diagnosis they may see may not be coming from somebody that’s qualified to give that diagnosis.”
Related: Gen Z Gets Their Health Advice From TikTok — Here’s Why
There are others who are working to combat this rise in following medical advice seen online, including Katrine Wallace, PhD, an epidemiologist and assistant professor at the University of Illinois Chicago. She began making informative videos during 2020, giving daily updates and answering questions.
“There is a flood of bad information out there that is put out by people trying to sell stuff online, so I try to point people to the CDC or other sources made for lay people like their public health department,” she told Healthline. “I’m giving people the tools…hopefully it has ripple effects and gets the message out there.”
So, why are videos with misinformation so popular? Wallace pointed to algorithms.
“The algorithms work in a way that if you’re following people who put out misinformation, then you’re consistently getting bad information, and if you’re getting all your information from there then there is a big percentage of people who are not getting fact-based information,” she explained.
While posts about medical issues can raise awareness about certain conditions and injuries people might have, experts are clear: medical advice and diagnoses should only be given by doctors and other licensed professionals.
Read Next: TikToker Warns Against Medical Advice Circulated on Platform
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