Jennifer L. Black, a professor in UBC’s faculty of land and food systems, spoke to Reuters about a recent study suggesting that social media can help researchers understand people’s lifestyles.
Researchers at the universities of Utah and Washington created a map of neighbourhoods in the U.S. showing indicators of how happy and active people are and what they eat.
“Because Twitter and social media are so new as sources of data and sources of health information, I don’t think we yet know what the full potential is for tweets to shape health behaviors,” said Black who was not part of the study.
The story also appeared on CBC.
