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How can social media influence users on the issue of healthy lifestyle? 1
Social Media and Healthy Lifestyle
How can social media influence users on the issue of healthy lifestyle?
Exposé
Albane Duchamp
European Master in Business Studies
Student Number (Kassel): 35195427
Deadline: 23 October 2017
How can social media influence users on the issue of healthy lifestyle? 2
Abstract
TITLE: How can social media influence users on the issue of healthy lifestyle?
Abstract
Social media gained importance over the last decades and is now part of people’s everyday
life. Researchers have studied the correlation between social media and factors belonging to
the a healthy lifestyle, such as physical exercise and food diet. However, papers focusing on
the parameters of social media influencing healthy behaviors, or the reason for users to look
find information about this topic on such media are missing. Health concerns on chronic
disease, which have been proved to be strongly influenced by the type of lifestyle adopted by
individuals, remain strong. Despite the rise of health campaign, chronic disease and obesity
remain important sources of morbidity and mortality in today’s society. Social media content
approaches today important constituents of a healthy lifestyle such as diet and physical
activity, and influence people on this issue. Understanding the way in which social media is
able to influence people’s lifestyle and promote healthy behaviors seems crucial for the great
of good. This is what this study aims at, by the means of a qualitative study including semi-
structured interviews, in order to unveil a possible common pattern of use of social media
which could induce users to adopt a healthy lifestyle.
How can social media influence users on the issue of healthy lifestyle? 3
Table of Contents
ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................... 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................... 3
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 5
PROBLEM STATEMENT AND RESEARCH QUESTION ......................... 6
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .................................................................... 7
SOCIAL MEDIA ......................................................................................................................... 7
Definition ....................................................................................................................................................... 7
Classification of Social Media ....................................................................................................................... 7
Social media nowadays .................................................................................................................................. 9
Social Media as source of information .......................................................................................................... 9
HEALTHY LIFESTYLE ............................................................................................................. 10
The impact of healthy lifestyle on health ...................................................................................................... 10
Motivation conflict ....................................................................................................................................... 11
The failure to educate on healthy lifestyle ................................................................................................... 12
HEALTHY LIFESTYLE AND SOCIAL MEDIA ............................................................................ 13
REVIEW OF LITERATURE .......................................................................... 15
METHODOLOGY............................................................................................ 17
OVERVIEW OF CHAPTERS......................................................................... 19
PLAN OF WORK FROM NOW ON .............................................................. 20
REFERENCES .................................................................................................. 21
How can social media influence users on the issue of healthy lifestyle? 4
List of Tables
Table 1: Classification of Social Media ……………………………………………………..8
Table 2: Review of literature ………………………………………………………………15
How can social media influence users on the issue of healthy lifestyle? 5
Introduction
Social media, first developed in the western-world (Qualman, 2010) is a fast developing
technology (Tuckett & Turner, 2016 ). A proof to this rapid expansion is a study on the
evolution of its use among American adults between 2005 and 2015 by Perrin (2015). Indeed,
it reveals that in 2015, the number of American adults using networking sites amounted to 65
percent, representing almost ten times the percentage observed in 2005. Nowadays social
media is popular all over the world, even in third-world countries (Qualman, 2010). “Billions
of people create trillions of connection through social media each day”(Hansen,
Shneiderman, & A.Smith, 2010). Social media is indeed highly used, and represents in
today’s modern society, an important source of information (Michaelidou, Siamagka, &
Christodoulides, 2011).
Statistica, an online portal for statistics and market research provides a ranking of the most
popular social media around the world according to the number of users. In this ranking,
platforms such as Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Tumblr, Tweeter or Pinterest can be found.
For millions of people, many of these social platforms constitute now an important aspect of
their social and professional lives (Pelet, Ettis, & Cowart, 2017). In June 2017, Facebook
recorded an average of 1.32 billion daily active users, and 2.01 billion monthly active users
(Facebook, 2017).
Another phenomenon in today’s society is the increasing preoccupation on health matters,
such as the advancement of obesity, which has become worldwide concern (Arroyo-Johnson
& Mincey, 2016) and the prevalence of chronic diseases (Strong, Mathers, Leeder, &
Beaglehole, 2005). Many researchers demonstrated that lifestyle had a major influence on
health and could help reduce chronic diseases (Bonnet et al., 2005 ; Chiuve et al., 2006;
Khera et al., 2016).
Social media has not only revolutionized the way people share information or express their
opinions; it has acquired the strength to promote social change (Dong, Liang, & He, 2017).
“From healthy eating and the explosion of food photography on social media, to our desire to
entertain others through cooking, food is today’s hottest social currency: through it, we tell
others about ourselves” ((Waitrose, 2016, p.2). Nowadays, people post many pictures of food
on social media (Tandoh, 2016), which is not surprising since food is a means for self-
expression (Waitrose, 2016). People do not only post about food but also about physical
How can social media influence users on the issue of healthy lifestyle? 6
activity, which can help them maintain their weight (Teodoro, & Naaman, 2013) or obtain
online support (Pinkerton, Tobin, Querfurth, Pena, & Wilson, 2017).
This paper aims at studying the way in which individuals use social media for factors
associated with a healthy lifestyle such as informing themselves on physical exercises, diet or
others. Understanding the characteristics of social media which are preferred for this type of
online activity but also the reasons or motivations of users to use social media in order to
pursue a healthy behavior would help determine how social network influence users on the
issue of healthy lifestyle.
This topic is rooted in current affairs, since social media are expanding in parallel of health
concerns. Besides it is particularly important, for a correlation between social use and healthy
behavior objectives has already been established and that the use of social media can
therefore impact people’s health.
Problem Statement and Research Question
Some researchers have studied the existing correlation testifying of the influence social media
has on healthy behaviors, such as diet and physical exercise. But there is no study going
deeper in this phenomenon and trying to understand which parameters of social media
influence the most users, or the reasons they have to use social media to this end.
On this ground, the following research question has been developed:
How can social media influence users on the issue of healthy lifestyle?
How can social media influence users on the issue of healthy lifestyle? 7
Theoretical Framework
Social media
Definition
In a paper published in 2010, Kaplan and Haenlein - after highlighting the confusion
managers and academic researchers tended to have about what constituted social media -
dispensed a more precise definition of the term and divided it into six different categories
based on two factors that will be later addressed. This publication also details two terms that
are closely related to Social Media, which are Web 2.0 and User Generated Content. The
term Web 2.0 was spread by Tim O’Reilly, who referred to it as the new use of the World
Wide Web after the bursting of the dot-com bubble in 2001, a platform where content,
instead of being created and uploaded online by singular people is perpetually uploaded and
updated by users. The particularity is that single users collaborate to improve online content
by modifying it, adding their own data or additional sources (O'Reilly, 2009). “When Web
2.0 represents the ideological and technological foundation, User Generated Content (UGC)
can be seen as the sum of all ways in which people make use of Social Media” (Kaplan &
Haenlein, 2010, p. 61). To be qualified of UGC, the content must be publicly available, result
of a certain creativity effort and must not be the result of professional routines (OECD,
2007). After clarifying the above terms, Kaplan and Haenlein give a more precise definition
of Social Media, that is, “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological
and technical foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of User
Generated Content” (p 61).
Classification of Social Media
Kaplan and Haenlein classified Social Media according to two key factors. One of them is the
concept of social presence, first defined as the “degree of salience of the other person in the
interaction and the consequent salience of the interpersonal relationships” (Short, Williams,
& Christie, 1976, p. 65) and clarified by Gunawardena as “the degree to which a person is
perceived as a “real person” in mediated communication” (1995, p. 151). Social presence
integrates two important concepts (Short et al., 1976). The first one is Intimacy, which results
of a balance between eye contact and physical proximity (Argyle & Dean, 1965) and the
second one is Immediacy, designating “the different degrees of separation of the speaker
from the content of his communication”(Wiener & Mehrabian, 1968, p. 3). In order to shape
their classification scheme, Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) linked the concept of social presence
How can social media influence users on the issue of healthy lifestyle? 8
to the one of media richness, elaborated and defined by Draft, Lengel and Trevino (1987).
Media Richness is “the ability of information to change understanding within a time interval”
(Daft & Lengel, Organizational information requirements, media richness and structural
design, 1986). It determines the richness of a communication medium according to criteria
such as (1) feedback: allowing immediate correction and rectification in case of
misunderstanding); (2) multiple cues: gestures, tone of voice accompanying a message; (3)
language variety: using language symbols to change the meaning of a message; and (4)
personal focus: depending on the degree of personal feelings and emotions expressed in a
message (Daft, Lengel, & Trevino, 1987). Media richness aims at reducing uncertainty and
ambiguity caused by a lack of information (Draft & Lengel, 1986).
The second key component of Social Media is the concept of self-presentation (Kaplan &
Haenlein, 2010). This concept takes root in the tendency of people to seek for information
about individuals they meet for the first time (Goffman, 1959). In his book, Goffman states
that when presenting their self, individuals control the information they provide in order to
influence the impression people will have of them. This process can be done consciously as
well as unconsciously (Goffman, 1959). On social media, people present themselves through
self-exposure, which is also done in a conscious or unconscious way (Kaplan & Haenlein,
2010). Self-disclosure, which is the path to the development of a deep relationship, can also
occur between people who do not know each other. After linking social presence with media
richness and self-presentation with self-disclosure, Kaplan and Haenlein used the two
dimensions to classify Social Media.
Table 1:
Classification of Social Media (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010, p. 62)
How can social media influence users on the issue of healthy lifestyle? 9
Definition and use of the different categories
Social media nowadays
[Part to be completed]
Social Media as source of information
As mentioned before, user generated content implies web users to collaborate together in
order to constantly modify and keep the online content up to date, using their own
information, experience and additional sources of information. In other words, content on
social media is created by users, for users. This might bring some concerns such as the
reliability of UGC. Indeed, social media users are located all around the world, come from
different background, have different level of education, different beliefs, motivations, which
results in a UGC quality varying from very rich to very poor on social media (Chai, Potdar, &
Dillon, 2009). This is even more important given the fact that communication technologies
nowadays give people the opportunity to easily send and receive information; therefor people
are increasingly using social media to look for information (Westerman, Spence, & Van Der
Heide, 2014). The risk of using social media as a source of information is that it might not be
obvious whether a piece of information is credible and inexperienced users in particular can
be misled by unreliable information (Castillo, Mendoza, & Poblete, 2011). On Twitter, a
micro-blogging platform, credible news for instance tend to be spread by a user who posted
previously numerous messages on the platform, are written by only one or a few users and
are re-posted many times (Castillo, Mendoza, & Poblete, 2011).
[Part to be completed]
How can social media influence users on the issue of healthy lifestyle? 10
Healthy lifestyle
The impact of healthy lifestyle on health
In an article published in 2006, Crawford states that health consciousness has been rising
since the 1970s, when some medical studies on chronic diseases went public, concerning for
instance smoking or the presence of carcinogens in food, started raising concern amongst the
population. Crawford also describes how people started increasing physical activity and
following healthy diet - things recommended by doctors to reduce heart diseases - and
showing interest for organic food to avoid pesticides and additives.
Many non-genetic factors, that is to say environmental factors, contribute to diseases such as
heart diseases, cancers, psychiatric conditions (Willett, 2002), anxiety and depression
(Bonnet, Irving, Terra, Nony, Berthezène, & Moulin, 2005). Lifestyle has amongst these
environmental factors, a major influence on health (Chiuve, McCullough, Sacks, & Rimm,
2006; Khera, Emdin, Drake, Natarajan, Bick, Cook, Chasman, Baber, Mehran, Rader, Fuster
Boerwinkle, Melander, Orho-Melander, Ridker, & Kathiresan, 2016). Lifestyle is constituted
of many factors such as sun exposure, environmental pollutants, infection, stress (Anand,
Kunnumakara, Sundaram, Harikumar, Tharakan, Lai, Sung, & Aggarwal, 2008), education,
housing, clothing, cultural and religious beliefs (Govindaraju, Atzmon, & Barzilai, 2015).
However, when it comes to the influence of lifestyle on health, the predominant factors are
cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, diet and physical activities (Bonnet et al., 2005 ;
Chiuve et al., 2006; Khera et al., 2016).
Studies demonstrated that having a healthy diet, not smoking, and exercising regularly could
help improve lipids, blood pressure and other factors, leading to a decrease in coronary heart
disease (Chiuve et al., 2006). Adopting a healthy lifestyle can only help reduce risks of
coronary heart disease, not erase it since the genetic factor plays an important role in such
chronic diseases (Willett, 2002; Govindaraju et al., 2015, Khera et al., 2016). However,
adopting healthy behaviors induces a decrease in risk for people with both high and low
genetic factors for coronary artery disease (Khera et al. 2016). Besides, despite the fact that
both genetic and environmental factors have an impact on health and mortality, the
environmental factors remains the most influencing ones (Willett, 2002). If we consider
cancer for example, only five to ten per cent of cases can be associated to genetic factors
while in 90 to 95 per cent of the cases, the environment and the lifestyle are to blame (Anand,
et al., 2008). “[C]ancer prevention requires smoking cessation, increased ingestion of fruits
How can social media influence users on the issue of healthy lifestyle? 11
and vegetables, moderate use of alcohol, caloric restriction, exercise, avoidance of direct
exposure to sunlight, minimal meat consumption, use of whole grains, use of vaccinations,
and regular check-ups” (Anand et al. p. 2097).
In an article published in 2003, Liebman, Pelican, Moore, Holmes, Wardlaw, Melcher,
Liddil, Paul, Dunnagan and Haynes state that Body Mass Index (BMI) is influenced by eating
behaviours, and that high consumption of soft drinks, including artificially sweetened drinks;
or eating excessive portions of food were predictors of over-weight and obesity.
[Part to be completed]
Motivation conflict
A barrier to healthy food consumption highlighted by Raghunathan, Naylor & Hoyer (2006)
is the tendency people have to infer that unhealthy food is tastier then healthy food. In their
experiment, they demonstrated that unhealthy food was believed to taste better, procure more
pleasure while being consumed and was preferred by consumers with a more hedonic goal.
Besides, they argue in this paper that people are not always aware of thinking this way, it is
implicit and therefore referred to as Unhealthy = Tasty Intuition (UTI) (Raghunathan, Naylor,
& Hoyer, 2006). The difference between sensory pleasure perceived by consumer and the
healthiness of a product plays an important role in purchase intention (Tepper & Trail, 1998).
Most of the time, the relation between tastiness and healthiness tend to be contentious,
healthier product containing lower fat and sugar are perceived as less tasty, and tastiness
often prevailing on healthiness, consumer turn healthy products down (Tepper & Trail, 1998;
Mai & Hoffmann, 2015). Vyth, Steenhuis, Vlot, Wulp, Hogenes, Looije, Brug, and Seidell
(2010) demonstrated that health-conscious and weight-conscious consumers were more likely
to purchase product with a nutrition logo testifying of a favorable composition (e.g. lower
level of sodium, added sugar) while consumers pursuing hedonism or pleasure would tend
not to purchase the products displaying this logo. The tendency to believe that unhealthy food
taste better than unhealthy food is particularly pronounced among people with a low health
conscious (Mai & Hoffmann, 2015).
In their paper, Mai & Hoffman (2015) also argue that a way to reduce this conflict between
taste and health is to increase health consciousness. Their experiment demonstrated that
health conscious consumers will have stronger expectation on a food product’s packaging and
labeling, looking for signals indicating that a product is healthier. If health consciousness
How can social media influence users on the issue of healthy lifestyle? 12
cannot solve the conflict between taste and health, it can at least moderate it (Mai &
Hoffmann, 2015).
The failure to educate on healthy lifestyle
“People have become increasingly obese while obsessing over fat, calories, and body mass
index”(Block, Grier, Childers, Davis, Ebert, Kumanyika, Laczniak, Machin, Motley,
Peracchio, Pettigrew, Scott, & Van Ginkel Bieshaar, 2011, p. 5). Some researchers claim that
this paradox is to a certain extend due to the paternalistic, normative model promoting the
idea that “food=nutrients=health” to raise health consciousness among the population (Block,
et al., 2011). This attempt to educate people through health campaigns is not working since
people living in cultures trying to associate food in priority with health rather that pleasure
are the ones who try the most to change their eating behavior in order to be healthy and also
the one who tend to consider their eating behaviors as unhealthy (Block et al., 2011)
Interventions to promote a change in lifestyle often consist in persuading people that their
health is at risk and trying to expose them to the positive effect that adopting a healthy
lifestyle can have on their health (Marteau, Hollands, & Fletcher, 2012). Sometimes, these
messages can be complex (Block et al., 2011). But mass media campaigns trying, for
example, to increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables, or reduce the one of alcohol,
as well as other interventions, often target reflective process (Marteau, Hollands, & Fletcher,
2012). However, people do not always deliberate on their actions, they shift between two
thinking systems, the first one which is fast, instinctive, emotional, and the other one slower,
more logical and deliberate (Kahneman, 2011). Therefore, the first thinking system results in
automatic action, processes more instantaneous and responding to environmental stimuli,
while the second one leads to rational, reflected actions, made consciously in order to achieve
a desired goal (Marteau, Hollands, & Fletcher, 2012).
[Part to be completed]
How can social media influence users on the issue of healthy lifestyle? 13
Healthy Lifestyle and Social Media
[Part to be completed]
Subheading Article Author concept
The influence of social
network post on
lifestyle
Think before you eat:
photographic food
diaries as intervention
tools to change dietary
decision making and
attitudes
You Tweet What You
Eat:
Studying Food
Consumption Through
Fitter with Twitter:
Understanding
Personal Health and
Fitness Activity in
Social Media
Eating with our eyes:
From visual hunger to
digital satiation
“Those sweet, sweet
likes”: Sharing
physical activity over
social network sites
Zepeda, Deal
Abbar, Mejova,
Weber
Teodoro, Naaman
(2013)
Spence, Okajima,
Cheok et al.
Pinkerton, Tobin,
Querfurth, Pena,
Wilson (2017)
-taking pictures of
their food bring
people to consider
more what is in their
plate, more than
before
-in the US, their
seem to be a
correlation between
the food posts shared
on twitter, obesity
and diabete.
Online activities
such as can help user
maintain physical
activity and to
maintain their
weight
-link between the
looking of appealing
food and food choice
-people posting abut
physical activity on
social network do it
in order to receive
social support or to
inspire others
Three types of
support could be
identified in the
study: emotional
support,
informational
support and
companionship
support
Being healthy or
looking healthy?
Insta-Grams: The
Effect of Consumer
Weight on Reactions
to Healthy Food Posts
Brian R. Kinard -healthy food posts
are increasing on
social networks
which should be
How can social media influence users on the issue of healthy lifestyle? 14
positive on users
weight on the long
run
-however obesity
rate still increasing
people might
spend more time
trying to look
healthy by posting
such images instead
of actually eating
healthy
-obese or over-
weight people do
“like” or comment
healthy food post a
lot.
How can social media influence users on the issue of healthy lifestyle? 15
Review of Literature
Topic Title Author(s) Source Content
Social media Users of the world,
unite! The
challenges and
opportuinities of
social media
Kaplan &
Haenlein
Business
Horizons (2010)
-definition of
social media
-classification of
social media (6
categories)
Paper used by
many scientists
approaching the
topic of social
media
Social media The social
psychology of
telecommunications
Short et al. Book (1976) -social presence
and its concepts
Social media Message
equivocality, media
selection, and
manager
performance:
Implications for
information
systems
Draft, Lengel,
& Trevino
MIS Quarterly
(1987)
-Media richness,
its goal and
components
Social media The presentation of
self in everyday life
Goffman Book (1959) -The concept of
Self
-information
people reveal
about themselves
Social media Information
credibility on
Castillo Confrernce
(2011):
Proceedings of
the 20th
international
conference on
World wide
web
-the reliability of
information on
social media
Social media Anxiety and
depression are
associated with
unhealthy lifestyle
in patients at risk of
cardiovascular
disease
Bonnet, Irving Atherosclerosis
(2005)
-unhealthy
lifestyle
associated with
anxiety and
depression
Social media Balancing life-style
and genomics
research for disease
Willett Science (2002) -unhealthy
lifestyle
associated with
How can social media influence users on the issue of healthy lifestyle? 16
prevention. chronic diseases
Social media Healthy lifestyle
factors in the
primary prevention
of coronary heart
disease among
men: Benefits
among users and
nonusers of lipid-
lowering and
antihypertensive
medications
Chiuve et al. Circulation
(2006)
-how healthy
lifestyle can help
reduce heart
diseases
Healthy
Lifestyle
The Unhealthy =
Tasty Intuition and
its effects on taste
inferences,
enjoyment, and
choice of food
products
Raghunathan et
al.
Journal of
Marketing
(2006)
The
Unhealthy=Tasty
Intuition
Healthy
Lifestyle
Taste of health: a
study on consumer
acceptance of corn
chips
Tepper & Trail Food Quality
and Preference
(1998)
The prevalence
of taste over
health
Healthy
Lifestyle
How to combat the
Unhealthy = Tasty
Intuition: The
influencing role of
health
consciousness
Mai &
Hoffman
Journal of
Public Policy &
Marketing
(2015)
-how to solve the
UTI
Healthy
Lifestyle
From nutrients to
nurturance: A
conceptual
introduction to food
well-being
Block et al. Journal of
Public Policy &
Marketing
(2011)
-the failure of
health
campaigns
-the concept of
FWB
How can social media influence users on the issue of healthy lifestyle? 17
Methodology
Qualitative research, which has been for a long time defined simply as a research method that was not
a quantitative method, has been increasingly used over time and is today an established and respected
method (Flick, Managing quality in qualitative research, 2007). This approach aims at analyzing
phenomenon experienced by individuals or group of people, in their professional or daily life, , in
order to have an insight, deep and personal point of view of the environment in which people are
living ( (Flick, 2007). By taking into account the perspective of the participants and omitting
preconceived ideas or their own perspective of the world, researchers can understand how people truly
see things (Taylor, Bogdan, & DeVault, 2015).
Theory in qualitative research can be used during the interview in order to have an idea of the
phenomenon participants are inquired about, but it can also be generated during the study (Creswell,
2014). While quantitative approaches can employ preconceived models, hypothesis or theories,
quantitative research collect data in order to identify a pattern which can help the researcher to
understand things (Taylor, Bogdan, & DeVault, 2015). Thanks to the use of open-ended questions,
participants can share their point of view, going in-depths, allowing the researcher to understand
situations which are sometimes complex (Creswell, 2014).
This paper aims at understanding the way people use social media in order to find information on the
constituents of a healthy lifestyle, that is to say information on food, physical exercises, tobacco,
alcohol or others. It seems important to understand the reasons they have to use social media for this
purpose. Are they following specific persons or pages, reading articles, watching video, looking for
motivation or support? What, from users’ point of view, makes social media useful in order to pursue
their healthy lifestyle goal?
The use of a qualitative study constitutes a good option in order to consider all these dimensions. The
interest to use communication, a basic mode of interaction, is to get to know the participants, learn
about their feelings and experience, their hopes and what constitute the world they live in (Kvale,
2007). This is exactly was this study aims at, which is understanding in which way social media help
the participants achieve a healthy lifestyle, implying hearing about their perspective, their arguments,
understanding the environment surrounding them and hearing about their personal feelings.
In their book, Edwards and Holland (2013) states that the empirical part of a qualitative research is
constituted of interviews, which are in majority semi-structured and unstructured interviews (p. 29).
In semi-structured interviews the researchers have a list containing topics they want to cover, a
flexible guideline to the interview which takes the form of a discussion; therefore, there is no strict
order in which the topics should be discussed and participants can give answers researchers decide to
How can social media influence users on the issue of healthy lifestyle? 18
develop (Edwards & Holland, 2013, p. 29). The understanding of the topic and the way interviewees
approach it is interesting for the researcher. In semi-structures interviews, interviews have a greater
possibility to approach the topic and take part in the discussion in their own terms, more than in a
structured interview (Edwards & Holland, 2013, p.29).
Semi-structured interviews will be used in this study, in order to give interviewees the chance to
approach the topic from their perspective, and with their own terms, since for example, everybody
might not perceive what is healthy and what is not the same way, the topic healthy lifestyle will be
approached and interviewees will be free to include the elements they judge coherent in it.
Around five semi-structured interviews will be held, each of them lasting between 45 and 60 minutes.
The geographical area will not be restricted to the area of Kassel or to Germany, but will include
males and females of different nationalities. To make sure that the participants have a background in
social media, they will be recruited on a social networking site through a public post asking for
volunteers who are interested in the healthy lifestyle topic and using social media in order to gather
information it. Interviews will be held face to face, through phone calls or video calls. Besides, they
will be recorded, with the agreement of the interviewees, allowing a better analysis of the data.
How can social media influence users on the issue of healthy lifestyle? 19
Overview of Chapters
1. Abstract
2. Table of contents
3. List of tables
4. Introduction
4.1. Background
4.2. Problem statement and purpose
4.3. Structure of the thesis
5. Theoretical Framework
5.1. Social media
5.2. Healthy lifestyle
5.3. Social media and healthy lifestyle
6. Research Question
7. Methodology
7.1. Qualitative approach
7.2. Semi-structured interviews
7.3. Selection method and participants
8. Analysis and results
9. Discussion
9.1. Summary
9.2. Managerial implication
9.3. Limitations and further research
10. References
11. Appendix
How can social media influence users on the issue of healthy lifestyle? 20
Plan of work from now on
Dates Objective
23/10/17 – 31/10/17 -advance on the theoretical part (complete chapters 1 and
2, start chapter 3)
-design the semi-structures interview guideline and
conduct and do a pretest to see if the questions are
adequate
01/11/17 – 20/11/17 -Conduct the semi-structured interviews, see if more than
5 are necessary
-Do the coding
From 20/11/2017 Start with the analysis and discussion
Christmas Holidays – 10/01/2018 Conclusion, review and printing
22/01/2018 Deadline to handle the thesis
How can social media influence users on the issue of healthy lifestyle? 21
References
Anand, P., Kunnumakkara, A. B., Kunnumakara, A. B., Sundaram, C., Harikumar, K. B., Tharakan,
S. T., et al. (2008, September). Cancer is a preventable disease that requires major lifestyle
changes. Pharmaceutical research, 25(9), pp. 2097–2116.
Argyle, M., & Dean, J. (1965). Eye-contact, distance and affiliation. Sociometry : A journal of
research in social psychology, 289-304.
Arroyo-Johnson, C., & Mincey, K. D. (2016). Obesity epidemiology worldwide. Gastroenterology
Clinics of North America, 571-579.
Block, L. G., Grier, S. A., Childers, T. L., Davis, B., Ebert, J. E., Kumanyika, S., et al. (2011). From
nutrients to nurturance: A conceptual introduction to food well-being. Journal of Public
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