Social media: medical education's double-edged sword

Abstract

Social media (SoMe) are platforms that enable users to create and share content, or participate in social networking. Medical education is rapidly moving into a post-COVID world, with the use of SoMe becoming ever more prominent. We explore the risks and benefits of using this technology to assist learning and examine these in light of relevant educational theory. Benefits include accessibility to experts, opportunities for mentorship, access to support networks, resource sharing and global participation. Following the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, SoMe has provided the impetus to adapt medical curricula to address health inequities in minority ethnic individuals. Key criticisms focus on superficial learning, psychological safety, correctly identifying level of expertise, professionalism and ownership protections for content creators. Users have limited ways to manage risk. The medical education community must adapt and rapidly critique SoMe innovations so that they can be better developed and learned from, all the while remaining vigilant.