Social media tools can reinforce stigma and stereotypes
In particular, the scientists studied comments and sentiments expressed about Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. It found that 51 percent of tweets by private users of Twitter accounts contained stigma, when making reference to this condition and the people who deal with it. The new system may be applicable to a range of other social science research questions, the researchers said, and already shows that many people may not adequately appreciate the power of social media to greatly transcend the type of interpersonal, face-to-face communication humans are most accustomed to. "As a society it's like we're learning a new skill of text communication, and we don't fully understand or reflect on its power to affect so many people in ways that we may not have intended," said Nels Oscar, an OSU graduate student in the College of Engineering and lead author on the study. "Social media is instant, in some cases can reach millions of people a...