Technology and Nutrition: Nutrition Misinformation on the Internet

Technology and Nutrition: Nutrition Misinformation on the Internet
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Technology and Nutrition: Nutrition Misinformation on the Internet
Advancement in technology has made it easier for people to get information and knowledge about anything in just a click of a button. This has helped in various sectors especially in research and study. However, to get the right information on the internet requires a certain skill a vague search will give you a vague answer. We have clinic offering online advice and if used correctly one can easily diagnose and prescribe medication through the internet. Although helpful, cost, and timesaving, sometimes one may miss some information or keywords while googling or searching and end up misdiagnosing which may result in injury and worst scenario death. This misfortune has been happening in the health and nutrition sector. Lately there been a call for a healthy lifestyle to reduce diseases and maintain a healthy lifestyle that will prolong the society life span. This trend has seen a number of blogs, magazines, clinics, government institution, non-government organization, and profit organization post nutrition information on the internet for readers digest. As these organizations are not regulated on what to post and how to post it, the internet ends up with so much information on the same issue and sometimes this may lead to misinterpretation and confusion. This research paper will expand on the issue analyzing the common social media networks and how they lead the society to disinformation, fake alerts, confusing information, and misinformation in regards to nutrition.
For the purpose of this research, misinformation is observed to be information that is inaccurate from an honest mistake and disinformation is observed to be inaccurate information developed with an intended purpose.
Gap in literature
Although we claim there is enough information, on the internet, there is also scarcity of the same and when this scarcity is combined with accuracy then we experience a major problem in regards to information on the internet concerning nutrition. This research will not only help students and researcher who will be studying on the subject but it will also help the government and other concerned parties in regulating and controlling the information being disseminated to the public through various social media via the internet.
Literature Review
As observed above there is too much nutrition information on the internet. Some bloggers have taken advantage of the trending subject where everybody is trying to emulate the healthy lifestyle and thus seeking any information they may get on nutrition. To promote their blogs and websites for more traffic and clicks, these bloggers end up posting what will sell the most to the audience and not what is accurate (Flanagin, & Metzger, 2000). This leads to individuals taking up the site's information and following the given routines, which sometimes are just given to get numbers. Social media such as Facebook and Twitter have a huge influence on society today. If one or two influencers or celebrities with a huge following post something about nutrition it may trend and the followers might synthesis on this information which ma...