Health and Its Discontents: Health Opinion Leaders’ Social Media Discourses and Medicalization of Health

Abstract

Concerns regarding body and health colonize nearly all aspects of contemporary societies. Citizens are exposed to discourses disseminated from innumerable sources, on living a healthier, happier life and attaining a more desirable body. The common point for these discourses is their role in medicalization and individualization of health, i.e. approaching natural cycles of life as diseases and ignoring the social determinants of health. Health professionals, or “health opinion leaders”, occupy a strategic and advantageous position in this process. Most recently, web 1.0 and web 2.0 environments, especially social media outlets come forward among these sources. Social media provides health opinion leaders with opportunities to continuous and easy opinion/idea dissemination, and to mutual interaction with followers. Definition and promotion of diseases and fear; lifestyles and habits; beauty; longevity; performance and personal development; and naturalness lie at the center of their discursive strategy. This article suggests that social media discourses of health professionals on health and body must be considered within the context of medicalization and commodification of health in contemporary societies, and within the context of neoliberal governmentality. (English) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]