Social media smarts could make you less susceptible to skin cancer as new research shows that media literacy skills can help change people’s attitudes about what is believed to be the ‘tanned ideal’.
Social media smarts could make you less susceptible to skin cancer as new research shows that media literacy skills can help change people’s attitudes about what is believed to be the ‘tanned ideal’.
Conducted by the University of South Australia, the research tested the ability of social media to influence people’s perceptions of tanning, finding that the greater an individual’s ability to critically access and evaluate social media posts, the less likely they were to idealise a golden tan.
The world-first study found that individuals with higher media literacy capabilities were much less likely to embrace or compare themselves to a tanned ideal, yet the opposite was true for those with fewer media literacy skills.
Lead researcher, UniSA’s Dr John Mingoia, says the findings highlight the importance of incorporating media literacy into sun safe education initiatives.
Read more at University of South Australia
Photo Credit: TerriC via Pixabay
