Account(share)ability through social media during the COVID-19 emergency: the case of universities

Navigating Social Media in #Ophthalmology

Cooperative Mentorship: Negotiating Social Media Use within the Family

Youth Social Media Use and Health Outcomes: #diggingdeeper

Social media use in the United States has been steadily increasing over the past decade as various social media platforms have become the primary channel of online engagement for the American internet user. Today, Americans use social media to communicate with friends, family, and peers, access entertainment and education, engage in various business and commercial activities, and influence the lifestyles of consumers. As the spectrum of purposeful use of social media diversifies, this paper examines geographic patterns of social media adoption, diffusion, and utilization in U.S. counties. Alongside, the paper also examines demographic and socioeconomic determinants of purposeful social media utilization. Overall, the study sheds light on an important aspect of the contemporary digital divide in the United States.To examine purposeful social network and media use, the paper focuses on penetration of popular social media/networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube in U.S. counties. The purpose of use of such platforms – to engage in e-communication, e-commerce, e-entertainment, e-health, and e-education are also examined through the dual lenses of geographic and socioeconomic variations. By borrowing from Adoption-Diffusion Theory (ADT) and Spatially Aware Technology Utilization Model (SATUM), the paper’s conceptual framework posits associations of 18 independent variables with 17 indicators of social media penetration and purposeful usage. Spatial patterns and disparities of social media penetration and purposeful use are analyzed and provide important clues about the geography of the social media digital divide. For example, social media penetration and purposeful use in counties in the U.S. rural south are found to rival counties in the Rocky Mountain States and in some cases exceed counties in urban metropolitan areas in the West- and East Coasts. The presence of spatial bias in social media penetration and use is also diagnosed using spatial autocorrelation analysis. This in turn influences the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression-based analysis of socioeconomic, infrastructural, and social capital underpinnings. For a sample of 3,076 counties in the lower 48 states, leading determinants of purposeful social media use are found to be age structure, urbanization, race/ethnicity and professional, scientific, technical services and overall service sector occupations are found to influence social network access and purposeful use. These findings have important policy implications to broaden the reach and impacts of social media in the U.S.Overall, as the digital divide literature expands its focus from access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) to their actual use and ultimate impact, this study is unique due to its focus on purposeful use of social media. Sourcing data from a variety of public- and private sources, the study focuses on social media usage as well as access and sheds light on county-level disparities and their socioeconomic underpinnings. As purposeful internet use continues to diversify, the findings of this study can inform social media adoption, diffusion, and use policies in light of the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure that all Americans can participate and engage in online activities and derive benefits in an equitable way.

Ethical standards for cardiothoracic surgeons' participation in social media

4.8 Psychoeducation: All About TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram, and How Psychiatrists Leverage Social Media for Public Health

Guidance for Professional Use of Social Media in Nutrition and Dietetics Practice

Background:Today, social media platforms are more popular than ever in Saudi Arabia. Despite the influence of social media on patients’ decisions to undergo cosmetic surgery, it is still unclear how social media platforms affect the private practice of plastic surgeons around Saudi Arabia. This study aimed to assess Saudi plastic surgeons’ use of social media and its impact on their practices.Methods:The study was based on a self-administered questionnaire that was built on previous literature and distributed to practicing Saudi plastic surgeons. A survey consisting of 12 items was conducted to assess patterns of social media use and its impact on plastic surgery practice.Results:This study included 61 participants. Thirty-four surgeons (55.7%) were using social media platforms in their practice. The use of social media was significantly different among surgeons with different levels of practice in cosmetic surgery (P = 0.004) and reconstructive surgery (P = 0.049). Social media presence was significantly more prevalent among surgeons in private practice (70.6%, P = 0.034). The use of social media in plastic surgery is overall positive for the field (60.7%).Conclusions:Despite plastic surgeons’ differing views on social media, its role within the field of plastic surgery is evidently on the rise. The use of social media is not equal across all practice types. Surgeons practicing in private hospitals and specializing in aesthetic surgery are more likely to view social media favorably and use it in their practice.

This study delves into the profound impact of social media on body image perceptions and overall dissatisfaction among young adults at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. In today's digital age, social media pervades the lives of young people, shaping their self-perceptions and influencing their social interactions. This research aims to understand how the constant exposure to curated and often idealized images on social media platforms contributes to the development of unrealistic body standards, fostering feelings of inadequacy and pressure to conform to societal beauty ideals. Employing a quantitative research approach, the study focused on a sample of 200 undergraduate and postgraduate students aged 18 to 30 years. Data collection utilized systematic sampling techniques and involved the administration of questionnaires via Google Forms. The study drew upon Social Comparison Theory to understand how individuals evaluate their own appearance by comparing themselves to the seemingly flawless images and physiques presented on social media platforms. Data analysis was conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics. The findings revealed a significant correlation between social media usage and body image dissatisfaction among young adults. Frequent comparisons with idealized images of influencers and celebrities on social media platforms were found to be a major contributor to negative body image perceptions, leading to a range of negative emotional and psychological outcomes, including anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. These findings underscore the urgent need for interventions that address the detrimental effects of social media on young adults' mental health. This may include the development and implementation of comprehensive media literacy programs designed to equip young people with the critical thinking skills necessary to navigate the complexities of the digital world and resist the pressures to conform to unrealistic beauty standards. Furthermore, fostering a more inclusive and diverse representation of body images on social media platforms is crucial to promoting healthier body image perceptions and enhancing the overall well-being of young adults in the digital age. References Abi-Jaoude, E., Naylor, K. T., & Pignatiello, A. (2020). Smartphones, social media use and youth mental health. Cmaj, 192(6), E136-E141. Aichner, T., Grünfelder, M., Maurer, O., & Jegeni, D. (2021). Twenty-five years of social media: a review of social media applications and definitions from 1994 to 2019. Cyberpsychology, behavior, and social networking, 24(4), 215-222. Ali, R. (2016). Social Media and Youth in Pakistan: Social Media and Youth in Pakistan: Implications on Family Relations. Global Media Journal, 14, 26. Ando, Kanako, Francesca E. Giorgianni, Elisa S. Danthinne, and Rachel F. Rodgers. 2021. “Beauty Ideals, Social Media, and Body Positivity: A Qualitative Investigation of Influences on Body Image among Young Women in Japan.” Body Image 38:358–69. Asif, M., & Sandhu, M. S. (2023). Social Media Marketing Revolution in Pakistan: A Study of its Adoption and Impact on Business Performance. Journal of Business Insight and Innovation, 2(2), 67-77. Aziz, J. (2017). Social media and body issues in young adults: an empirical study on the influence of Instagram use on body image and fatphobia in catalan university students. Bashir, H., & Bhat, S. A. (2017). Effects of social media on mental health: A review. International Journal of Indian Psychology, 4(3), 125-131. Boske, C., & McCormack, S. (2011). Building an understanding of the role of media literacy for Latino/a high school students. The High School Journal, 94(4), 167-186. Braghieri, L., Levy, R. E., & Makarin, A. (2022). Social media and mental health. American Economic Review, 112(11), 3660-3693. Brown, Z., & Tiggemann, M. (2016). Attractive celebrity and peer images on Instagram: Effect on women's mood and body image. Body image, 19, 37-43. Burnette, C. Blair, Melissa A. Kwitowski, and Suzanne E. Mazzeo. 2017. “‘I Don’t Need People to Tell Me I’m Pretty on Social Media:’ A Qualitative Study of Social Media and Body Image in Early Adolescent Girls.” Body Image 23:114–25. Choudhury, N. R., & Reddy, V. N. (2021). Body image dissatisfaction in young adults: Impact of social media use. International Journal of Education and Psychological Research (IJEPR), 10(3), 15-18. Chu, J. (1997). Navigating the media environment: How youth claim a place through zines. Social Justice, 24(3 (69), 71-85. DeBraganza, N., & Hausenblas, H. A. (2010). Media exposure of the ideal physique on women’s body dissatisfaction and mood: The moderating effects of ethnicity. Journal of Black Studies, 40(4), 700-716. De Vries, D. A., Vossen, H. G., & van der Kolk–van der Boom, P. (2019). Social media and body dissatisfaction: investigating the attenuating role of positive parent–adolescent relationships. Journal of youth and adolescence, 48, 527-536. Dimitrov, D., & Kroumpouzos, G. (2023). Beauty perception: a historical and contemporary review. Clinics in Dermatology, 41(1), 33-40. Lubis, A. R., Fachrizal, F., & Lubis, M. (2017). The effect of social media to cultural homecoming tradition of computer students in medan. Procedia Computer Science, 124, 423-428. Eggerstedt, M., Rhee, J., Urban, M. J., Mangahas, A., Smith, R. M., & Revenaugh, P. C. (2020). Beauty is in the eye of the follower: facial aesthetics in the age of social media. American Journal of Otolaryngology, 41(6), 102643. Fardouly, J., & Vartanian, L. R. (2016). Social media and body image concerns: Current research and future directions. Current opinion in psychology, 9, 1-5. Fardouly, J., Diedrichs, P. C., Vartanian, L. R., & Halliwell, E. (2015). Social comparisons on social media: The impact of Facebook on young women's body image concerns and mood. Body image, 13, 38-45. Filice, E., Raffoul, A., Meyer, S. B., & Neiterman, E. (2019). The influence of Grindr, a geosocial networking application, on body image in gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men: An exploratory study. Body image, 31, 59-70. Franchina, V., & Lo Coco, G. (2018). The influence of social media use on body image concerns. International Journal of Psychoanalysis & Education, 10(1). Gillespie-Smith, K., Hendry, G., Anduuru, N., Laird, T., & Ballantyne, C. (2021). Using social media to be ‘social’: Perceptions of social media benefits and risk by autistic young people, and parents. Research in developmental disabilities, 118, 104081. Jiotsa, B., Naccache, B., Duval, M., Rocher, B., & Grall-Bronnec, M. (2021). Social media use and body image disorders: Association between frequency of comparing one’s own physical appearance to that of people being followed on social media and body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(6), 2880. Kleemans, M., Daalmans, S., Carbaat, I., & Anschütz, D. (2018). Picture perfect: The direct effect of manipulated Instagram photos on body image in adolescent girls. Media Psychology, 21(1), 93-110. Lee, H. R., Lee, H. E., Choi, J., Kim, J. H., & Han, H. L. (2014). Social media use, body image, and psychological well-being: A cross-cultural comparison of Korea and the United States. Journal of health communication, 19(12), 1343-1358. Liu, J. (2021, June). The influence of the body image presented through TikTok trend-videos and its possible reasons. In 2nd International Conference on Language, Art and Cultural Exchange (ICLACE 2021) (pp. 359-363). Atlantis Press. Nagar, I., & Virk, R. (2017). The struggle between the real and ideal: Impact of acute media exposure on body image of young Indian women. SAGE Open, 7(1), 2158244017691327. Naslund, J. A., Bondre, A., Torous, J., & Aschbrenner, K. A. (2020). Social media and mental health: benefits, risks, and opportunities for research and practice. Journal of technology in behavioral science, 5, 245-257. Nortje, A. (2020). Social Comparison: An Unavoidable Upward Or Downward Spiral. PositivePsychology.com. https://positivepsychology.com/social-comparison/ Pfeiffer, C., Kleeb, M., Mbelwa, A., & Ahorlu, C. (2014). The use of social media among adolescents in Dar es Salaam and Mtwara, Tanzania. Reproductive health matters, 22(43), 178-186. Plaisime, M., Robertson-James, C., Mejia, L., Núñez, A., Wolf, J., & Reels, S. (2020). Social media and teens: A needs assessment exploring the potential role of social media in promoting health. Social Media+ Society, 6(1), 2056305119886025. Pryde, S., & Prichard, I. (2022). TikTok on the clock but the# fitspo don’t stop: The impact of TikTok fitspiration videos on women’s body image concerns. Body image, 43, 244-252. Saghir, S., & Hyland, L. (2017). The effects of immigration and media influence on body image among Pakistani men. American Journal of Men's Health, 11(4), 930-940. Sanzari, C. M., Gorrell, S., Anderson, L. M., Reilly, E. E., Niemiec, M. A., Orloff, N. C., ... & Hormes, J. M. (2023). The impact of social media use on body image and disordered eating behaviors: Content matters more than duration of exposure. Eating behaviors, 49, 101722. Sekayi, D. (2003). Aesthetic resistance to commercial influences: The impact of the Eurocentric beauty standard on Black college women. Journal of Negro Education, 467-477. Shabir, G., Hameed, Y. M. Y., Safdar, G., & Gilani, S. M. F. S. (2014). The impact of social media on youth: A case study of bahawalpur city. Asian Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 3(4), 132-151. Siddiqui, A. (2021). Social media and its role in amplifying a certain idea of beauty. Infotheca—Journal for Digital Humanities, 21(1), 73-85. Siddiqui, S., & Singh, T. (2016). Social media its impact with positive and negative aspects. International journal of computer applications technology and research, 5(2), 71-75. Slade, P. D. (1994). What is body image?. Behaviour research and therapy. Tufail, M. W., Saleem, M., & Fatima, S. Z. (2022). Relationship of Social Media and Body Image Dissatisfaction among University Students. Pakistan Journal of Applied Psychology (PJAP), 2(1), 89-97. Tylka, T. L., & Wood-Barcalow, N. L. (2015). What is and what is not positive body image? Conceptual foundations and construct definition. Body image, 14, 118-129. Virden, A. L., Trujillo, A., & Predeger, E. (2014). Young adult females’ perceptions of high-risk social media behaviors: A focus-group approach. Journal of Community Health Nursing, 31(3), 133-144. Whyte, C., Thrall, A. T., & Mazanec, B. M. (Eds.). (2021). Information warfare in the age of cyber conflict. London & New York: Routledge. Yusop, F. D., & Sumari, M. (2013). The use of social media technologies among Malaysian youth. Procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 103, 1204-1209. Zulqarnain, W., & ul Hassan, T. (2016). Individual’s perceptions about the credibility of social media in Pakistan. Strategic Studies, 36(4), 123-137.

Observational study. The objectives of this study are (1) to quantify social media use among active American Cervical Spine Research Society (CSRS) members; (2) to determine if there is an association between practice setting, region, or years of active membership and social media use. Many patients now seek health and physician information online, including on social media. Indeed, social media use by orthopedic surgeons has been shown to be associated with more and improved ratings on physician review websites. Further, social media can provide a means for improved doctor-patient relationships, educational endeavors, and professional networking. However, there is a paucity of literature examining social media use among spine surgeons. In January 2019, the CSRS membership directory was used to identify all active American spine surgeon members. Through a Google search, social media use of each spine surgeon on the following platforms was identified: provider page/official website; Facebook; Twitter; Instagram; LinkedIn; and YouTube. In addition, surgeon characteristics were recorded. The percentage of spine surgeons using each social media platform was reported. Bivariate analysis was used to compare social media use by practice setting, region, and years of active CSRS membership. Nearly all spine surgeons have a provider page/official website (98%) and over half (56%) have a LinkedIn presence. Less than one third of spine surgeons are on any of the remaining social media platforms analyzed. The least frequently used social media platform was Instagram (3.2%). There was no difference in any social media platform use by practice setting, region, and years of active CSRS membership. As social media becomes even more common place and the role of it in medical care continues to be better defined, there is notable room for increased social media use among active American members of the CSRS. Level IV-observational study.

BackgroundUsing social media is a time-consuming activity of children and adolescents. Health authorities have warned that excessive use of social media can negatively affect adolescent social, physical, and psychological health. However, scientific findings regarding associations between time spent on social media and adolescent health-related quality of life (HRQoL) are not consistent. Adolescents typically use multiple social media platforms. Whether the use of multiple social media platforms impacts adolescent health is unclear.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to examine the relationship between social media use, including the number of social media platforms used and time spent on social media, and adolescent HRQoL.MethodsWe analyzed the data of 3397 children (mean age 13.5, SD 0.4 years) from the Generation R Study, a population-based cohort study in the Netherlands. Children reported the number of social media platforms used and time spent on social media during weekdays and weekends separately. Children’s HRQoL was self-reported with the EuroQol 5-dimension questionnaire–youth version. Data on social media use and HRQoL were collected from 2015 to 2019. Multiple logistic and linear regressions were applied.ResultsIn this study, 72.6% (2466/3397) of the children used 3 or more social media platforms, and 37.7% (1234/3276) and 58.3% (1911/3277) of the children used social media at least 2 hours per day during weekdays and weekends, respectively. Children using more social media platforms (7 or more platforms) had a higher odds of reporting having some or a lot of problems on “having pain or discomfort” (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.20 to 1.99) and “feeling worried, sad or unhappy” (OR 1.99, 95% CI 1.52 to 2.60) dimensions and reported lower self-rated health (β –3.81, 95% CI –5.54 to –2.09) compared with children who used 0 to 2 social media platforms. Both on weekdays and weekends, children spent more time on social media were more likely to report having some or a lot of problems on “doing usual activities,” “having pain or discomfort,” “feeling worried, sad or unhappy,” and report lower self-rated health (all P<.001).ConclusionsOur findings indicate that using more social media platforms and spending more time on social media were significantly related to lower HRQoL. We recommend future research to study the pathway between social media use and HRQoL among adolescents.

The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to have long-term effects on mental health with implications at a population health level. While limiting the transmission of the virus, lockdown measures subject individuals to significant psychological distress and interpersonal isolation, which may increase risk for depression, a chronic and disabling disease associated with tremendous societal, individual, and economic costs (e.g., workplace productivity loss, unemployment, work absence, and long-term disability).1 In addition to the elevated risk of depression and loneliness attributable to frequent and prolonged social media (SM) use outside the context of epidemics, frequent exposure to fearful and exaggerated information through SM can exacerbate psychological and emotional distress.2, 3 We investigated the impact of SM use and psychological and emotional distress on depression in 3064 adults in Mainland China. A national convenience sample of 2574 health-care workers and 490 non-medical workers in China was surveyed cross-sectionally by telephone or WeChat between 29 January and 11 February 2020. Our study participants consisted of physicians (n = 783), nurses (n = 1587), and other medical staff (n = 204) employed in health-care settings providing direct care for patients in hospitals, as well as 490 adults not employed in a health-care setting (Table S1). The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University (No. WDRY2020-K004). Detailed methods and results are available in the Supplementary Information. We assessed the effect of SM use and psychological and emotional distress (according to the Hyperarousal, Intrusion, and Avoidance subscales of the 22-item Impact of Event Scale – Revised [IES-R]) on depressive symptom severity (according to the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire [PHQ-9]). Greater IES-R and PHQ-9 scores indicate greater severity. Participants were asked about their use of SM to obtain information about COVID-19. We analyzed PHQ-9 score as a continuous outcome variable using generalized linear models with a negative binomial distribution and as a dichotomous outcome variable using binomial logistic regression models (reported in Supplementary Information). We evaluated the synergistic effect of prolonged SM use to obtain information about COVID-19 and psychological and emotional distress as a result of the epidemic on the risk for depression in Mainland China. We evaluated whether the odds of depressive symptoms with more prolonged SM use and greater psychological and emotional distress were significantly greater than the sum of the odds of depressive symptoms with more prolonged SM use alone and with greater distress alone. We calculated a synergy index and relative excess risk due to interaction to model interaction effects, with adjustments for age, sex, educational attainment, marital status, living arrangements, and health-care/non-health-care-worker status separately for each IES-R subscale.4, 5. The mean (standard error) PHQ-9 score among study participants was 5.2 (0.1), denoting the presence of clinically significant depressive symptoms. Approximately 18.1% (n = 554) of all participants reported spending less than 1 h per day on an SM platform in the past week, 41.6% (n = 1306) reported spending 1–2 h per day, 22.5% (n = 689) reported spending 3–4 h per day, and 16.8% (n = 515) reported spending more than 5 h per day on an SM platform. Greater time spent on SM predicted greater depressive symptom severity (Fig. S1). IES-R Intrusion and Hyperarousal subscale scores significantly predicted PHQ-9 scores, while the Avoidance subscale scores did not (Table S1). Individuals reporting both prolonged SM use (i.e. ≥3 h per day) and significant symptoms of distress, particularly hyperarousal, had significantly higher odds of having depressive symptoms or probable depression relative to individuals with either factor alone (Fig. 1). That is, the odds of depression with prolonged SM use and significant hyperarousal symptoms were significantly greater than the sum of the odds of depression with prolonged SM use (in the absence of significant hyperarousal) and hyperarousal (with reduced SM use), as instantiated by a positive synergistic effect (Table S2). SM networks can be used to provide reassurance, increase public awareness about effective ways to reduce risk of infection, and communicate practical information to curb public panic and reduce the mental health burden of public health crises.6 However, SM use is also associated with elevated risk for depression: greater symptoms of depression and loneliness are observed in young adults who use SM extensively.7, 8 Moreover, during public health crises, SM can aggravate public fear and panic: for example, SM networks have been implicated in the spread of false information and amplification of risk and harm during the 2014 Ebola outbreak.9 There is an urgent and unmet need to address the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of affected individuals. Data are available on request from the authors. We would like to thank the participants from Wuhan and across Mainland China for their generosity with their time and completing the survey. We would like to thank the medical staff who work directly with patients infected with SARS-Cov-2 for their courage and commitment during this difficult period. This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFC1314600 to Dr Z. Liu). R.S.M. has received research grant support from the Stanley Medical Research Institute, CIHR/GACD/Chinese National Natural Research Foundation; speaker/consultation fees from Lundbeck, Janssen, Shire, Purdue, Pfizer, Otsuka, Allergan, Takeda, Neurocrine, Sunovion, and Minerva. All other authors declare no competing interests. Appendix S1 Supplementary information. Figure S1 Mean 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) scores are significantly higher among individuals with more prolonged social media use. Marginal means reported after adjustment for age, sex, educational attainment, marital status, living arrangement, and health-care/non-health-care-worker status. Table S1 Demographics and summary of model effects on depressive symptom severity (according to the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire [PHQ-9] total score as a continuous variable). Table S2 Predictors of depressive symptoms. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.

Adolescents generally use social media in groups of applications or platforms with a latent pattern. As neurobiological studies suggest that social media platforms stimulate the brain in diverse ways, we hypothesize that certain social media use patterns may be more prone to addiction than others. The objectives of this study are: 1) to describe patterns of social media platform co-use among school-going adolescents in Thailand, and; 2) to describe the extent to which social media co-use patterns are associated with social media addiction. We conducted a nationally representative cross-sectional study among 23,659 secondary school students from 113 schools across Thailand between November 2020 and March 2021. We asked participants to self-report the social media applications and platforms that they had used in the past 12months. We used latent class analysis (LCA) to identify social media usage patterns, and assessed the patterns' association with social media addiction scores using multivariable linear regression. Among our participants, 86.1 % had used social media within the past 30days. Facebook was the most commonly used platform, followed by YouTube and Line. We identified two distinct social media use patterns: 1) Common use of Line, Facebook, and YouTube ("Basic Combo"); 2) Basic Combo with other platforms such as Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram ("Basic Combo Plus"). The "Basic Combo Plus" pattern participants exhibited higher levels of withdrawal, persistence, and escapism in social media use compared to the "Basic Combo" pattern participants (all p-value <0.05). The number of social media platforms correlates with social media addiction level. However, limited generalizability, the lack of detail regarding social media use, and potential information bias should be considered as caveats in the interpretation of the study findings.

#trial: clinical research in the age of social media

The use of social media is a growing trend among plastic and reconstructive surgery residency programs. Given the visual focus, compared to other social media apps, it is no surprise that Instagram is the dominant social media platform for plastic and reconstructive surgery residency programs. Currently, over 85 percent of plastic and reconstructive surgery residency programs maintain Instagram accounts, underscoring increased interest in using social media to promote their programs and educate the public.1 Now, in the coronavirus disease of 2019 era, social media presence is even more vital, as most communication, subinternships, and interviews will be virtual for the 2021 Match. Plastic and reconstructive surgery residency applicants have shown high levels of engagement with various social media platforms; Instagram is the most heavily used.2 However, there are no studies that investigate plastic and reconstructive surgery residency program Instagram engagement data and correlate post characteristics to the degree of engagement from the general social media community. Engagement analytics are commonly used by businesses, including plastic surgeons, to gauge how well they connect with their target audience.3,4 These data include information on impressions (number of times a post was viewed), interactions (number of actions taken directly from a post, including website clicks, e-mails, profile visits, and hyperlink clicks), reach (number of unique accounts that viewed a single post), and follows (number of new followers received from a post).3 Impressions and reach tell a user how many times a post has been viewed in total and how many unique accounts have viewed the post regardless of whether the post was "liked."3 Therefore, a post may not receive a large number of likes but may have high viewership, which can still mean valuable face time with the target audience for name recognition, recruitment, and branding. We searched Instagram in April of 2020 for all accounts associated with United States Plastic Surgery Residency programs. Four accounts—@harvard_plastic_surgery, @hopkinsplasticsurgery, @umichplasticsurgery, and @stanfordplastic—all had greater than 2500 followers. This was a higher number of followers compared to all other plastic and reconstructive surgery program accounts; the fifth most followed account had 2050 followers. Insight data, provided by Instagram for all "business" accounts, from each selected account were collected for posts between July of 2017 and May of 2020. Data from 832 posts were organized by type of media, number of images/videos, post content (Fig. 1), and tags, and then analyzed for correlations to different engagement fields.Fig. 1.: Number of posts including a category of content. Top categories included national conferences and resident life.Our study showed that certain post content helps drive higher engagement statistics, including operative cases, resident life, outdoor scenery, and awards/accolades. The most significant relative increase in engagement statistics occurs with posts regarding operative cases and resident life (inside/outside the hospital) (Fig. 2).Fig. 2.: Analysis of percentage change in likes relative to post content. *Statistically significant (p < 0.05). Operative cases and awards/accolades had the highest significant relative increase. National conference content was the only category to show a significant relative decrease of likes.Based on the data collected in this study, the ideal social media posts contain two facets: (1) posts with content showing residents and attending physicians operating, receiving awards/accolades, and enjoying life outside the hospital; and (2) posts where individuals and organizations are tagged. The general public, along with medical/plastic surgery professionals, appears to desire a glimpse into the operating room, a previous black box for many, and peek behind the scrub cap and mask of the surgeons.4 Interestingly, we found that national conferences were the most common content on the four accounts, but demonstrated significantly worse engagement data across all categories. This highlights a disconnect between what surgeons and surgical residents may think is interesting (research, presenting at conferences) and what the general public views as stimulating. This information can be important to programs looking to increase social media engagement and expand their social media followers in a short period. Of course, this information must be confined within the ethical and moral standards of the field. Studies within plastic and reconstructive surgery show more social media use among private practice surgeons compared to reconstructive/academic surgeons.4 However, most hospitals have a Web-based social media presence and use it for hospital promotion, education, community partnership, and fundraising purposes.5 Being "social media literate" and being able to cultivate an online presence and community will likely be increasingly vital in the academic setting. Plastic and reconstructive surgery residency social media accounts are important not only for branding, social network cultivation, and resident recruitment, but also as a tool to teach the next generation of plastic surgeons proper and ethical social media use. Plastic and reconstructive surgery residents have been found to have a much higher use of social media compared to practicing plastic surgeons.4 This trend will most likely continue as residents grow into young surgeons. Further prospective investigation into other plastic and reconstructive surgery residency Instagram accounts would further identify well-received and popular content. Programs can use these data to optimize engagement of their target audience and capitalize on this social media opportunity. DISCLOSURE Dr. Eberlin is a consultant for AxoGen, Integra, Checkpoint, and Tissium. Dr. Leto Barone is the founder and chief medical officer of ReconstratA, LLC. The remaining authors have no financial disclosures to report.