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Activity 3 Reading Excerpts
Activity 3 Reading Excerpts
(From Introduction)
EXCERPT 2
Social Media Use, Fatalism and Stress*
Fatalism is the belief that one’s health is predetermined by fate, chance, luck or
God and beyond the capacity of personal control (Powe & Finnie, 2003). As fatalistic
individuals believe in the perceived inevitability of death, they are reluctant to adopt
protective behaviors. Jimenez et al. (2020) stated that fatalism is a salient issue in the
context of COVID-19, due to the lack of an effective treatment. They also found that
youths exhibit higher fatalistic COVID-19 beliefs than older adults, because of their low
emotional capability to handle health threats.
Social media may play a key role in reducing fatalism. First, seeking health
information on social media can improve health knowledge. COVID-19 information is
widely accessible via social media, empowering and activating users to take preventive
actions (Gao et al., 2020). As one’s internal locus of control increases during social media
usage, fatalism will decrease. Befort et al. (2013) found that using the Internet, including
social media, as a primary source of cancer information negatively predicted the fatalistic
belief that preventing cancer is impossible. Second, compared to traditional media, social
media allows people to search for information within their social networks, enhancing
collective knowledge, social cohesion and rapport, which helps overcome fatalistic fears.
The important role of social media use in lowering fatalism has been documented in prior
research. For instance, although news exposure from mass media might increase
fatalism, Internet use for health information can decrease fatalism (Lee et al., 2012). Mass
media is unidirectional, while social media features the bidirectional flow of information.
Instead of interpreting information alone, individuals can use social media to ask
questions, receive feedback, and collaborate with each other to cope with health
challenges, resulting in less uncertainties and fatalistic beliefs (Ramanadhan et al., 2013).
*Excerpt from Ngien, A., & Jiang, S. (2021). The Effect of Social Media on Stress
among Young Adults during COVID-19 Pandemic: Taking into Account Fatalism and
Social Media Exhaustion. Health Communication, 1–
8. doi:10.1080/10410236.2021.1888438