AN ASSESSMENT OF SOCIAL MEDIA UTILIZATION FOR PROMOTION OF HEALTHY LIVING AMONG RESIDENTS OF MAKURDI, BENUE STATE

Abstract

his paper: "An assessment of social media utilization for promotion of healthy living among Residents of Makurdi, Benue State” assesses the utilization of social media for the promotion of healthy living among residents of Makurdi, the Benue state capital. The study is anchored on the Uses and Gratification theory while the research adopts the survey method Findings indicate that the most popular social media sites like FaceBook, MySpace, and Twitter etc are used by residents of Makurdi for chatting, downloading of video and musical clips and social interaction generally; and that conscious efforts are not made in utilizing the social media sites for the promotion of healthy living among the residents. The paper concludes that social media sites have the potentials of being effectively utilized for the promotion of healthy living among users and recommends among others that since "health is wealth", users of the sites should place as priority the promotion of healthy living among themselves with messages of encouragement to eat balanced diet, cultivate healthy lifestyle, observe issues of total abstinence, mutual fidelity and where necessary, encourage the use of condom; before otherthings can follow.