Commentary: Impact of social media applications like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube on ophthalmological education

In this era of digitization, the rapid expansion of global science, social networking, and diversification of media, social media applications (apps) like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube have played a key role in disseminating ophthalmological content.[1] This has improved communication between doctors and doctors and patients. With the launch of interactive Web 2.0, social media has evolved as a major platform for strategic business planning, improving educational activities, research, and academics between various organizations, and improving public relationships.[2] Today, social media is loaded with excessive academic content, which has led to extreme web-based traffic through social networking. Before embarking on various social media apps, we should understand the meaning of “social media”.[3] The oxford dictionary definition of social media is “websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking,” and as per Wikipedia, it is “web-based and mobile-based technologies which are used to turn communication into interactive dialogue among organizations, communities, and individuals.”[4] The global COVID-19 pandemic forced everyone to a new normal of internet-based education and e-learning in the form of webinars, online classes, journal clubs, multicentric case discussions, and even recorded and live surgical demonstration by use of a GoPro camera and transmitting through the Facebook app. Social media platforms and apps have made life easy by promoting accessible communication, improved global collaborations, resource sharing, reducing carbon footprint like paper, pens, and pencils, and cutting down costs, resources, and even travel expenses.[5] A great example of this was seen during the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic in the form of virtual conferences. This has also given birth to social constructivism theory, which means sharing knowledge, educational resources, and personal learning through interaction and socialization. A previous study showed that as high as 80% of young people have a social media account on various networking websites.[6] Smartphones have become an integral part of day-to-day life, and everyone has easy access to the internet these days. This has made connectivity easier and has facilitated sharing of medical and educational content through various networking sites like WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.[7]

Social media apps have grown tremendously over the past decade. Instagram is one such active platform with more than 1.1 billion active users and disseminating educational content of more than 30 mins per day. It is a powerful avenue for all ophthalmologists to share videos and images, engage followers, and share ophthalmic literature. Nearly all ophthalmic societies and journals have a page on Instagram to engage with fellow ophthalmologists and build a community with a common interest. It is a unique online platform for providing mentorship and encouraging the mentees. The Facebook app is another platform for disseminating ophthalmological content by posting images, and videos, creating a page, and sharing the posts of other colleagues. The information and posts can also be shared through URLs or links. LinkedIn is a professional website to link and collaborate with the medical community and share a wide array of information. Besides medical information, LinkedIn is a unique platform that provides job opportunities, and most of the recruiters are highly active there. YouTube is another platform where doctors and surgeons can make separate channels and upload educational videos. The ophthalmic surgical videos have revolutionized surgical training to a great extent. Twitter is another application where most ophthalmic committees, organizations and journals regularly update medical information to engage relevant people. Channels like Cataract coach, iFocus online, Aurotube, Eyetube, AIOC-ARC, etc., have had a profound impact on ophthalmic education globally.

The authors’ current Instagram study[8] is a unique endeavor to assess the impact of social media on ophthalmic education, and the authors must be congratulated for bringing out this crisp analysis. The unique thing about this cross-sectional analysis was that a large database was analyzed only in a brief period of three days. The authors have used five hashtags, 1) #Ophthalmology, 2) #ophthalmosurgery, 3) #ophthalmologyresident, 4) #ophthalmicphotography, and 5) #ophthalmologist to make the methodology uncomplicated and replicable. If analyzed deeply, the results of the study are very interesting. The majority of the posts (80%) were by medical doctors, and 95% were ophthalmic specialists. Most of the authors were from USA (n = 220, 44%) and UK (n = 93, 19%). The most common intent of the posts was education in 63% (n = 315), followed by promotion in 25% (n = 127) and entertainment in 12% (n = 58). Medical retina (119) was the most common specialty, and a majority of the posts were images (452), followed by videos (23). The study gives intricate insights into Instagram as a great source of ophthalmic education. The interesting take-home message is that a careful selection of hashtags and author posts can maximize and disseminate educational content in a short period. Digital educational platforms and applications have transformed ophthalmic education, and the COVID-19 pandemic has multiplied this exponentially.