The research conducted for my last post brought me to the understanding of what holistic health was in terms of how Instagram users shared their thoughts and how they practices of it. Now, however, my research has evolved enough to understand a new concept in which Instagram itself lends to the holistic practices of someone's life. I have come to understand not only the aspects of holistic health as an idea, but as a comparison to the way that Social interaction is an important, arguably even an essential aspect of a person's life, and Instagram is a medium in which Holistic Health is shared, learned, and practiced.
Holistic health was appearing to me on Instagram as a trending theme. While I was exploring my interest in Instagram, I was becoming more interested in the nature of holism. So, I applied the ideas of Roland Barthes' (a French philosopher I've cited before) book Mythologies, concerning the nature of things and their cultural construction. Barthes discusses the hidden differences in history and Nature to help the reader get a better sense of what has been manipulated, thus socially constructed, by society. In learning about the science side to this medical phenomena taught me more about Facebook in terms of its value and credibility.
I'm not about to bash Instagram- I'm still an avid user. However, I was realizing the disconnect between Instagram in terms of credibility, or ethos due, to the open source system of Instagram. Holistic health was derived from a culturally constructed crisis of processed foods and chemically made medication. Thus holistic health became the natural approach to reversing the consequences of such a cycle. Now, as I compare the research I have collected from holistic health both on Instagram and in medical journals, I am finding gaps in my Instagram information that my research connects.
The understanding of holistic health I received through scholarly research far exceeded the knowledge I obtained from holistic health on Instagram. However, as a social media, Instagram reaches millions of people daily in a more convenient manner. So long as the user has an understanding of what they are posting, and links it to suitable hashtags.
Barthes, Roland. Preface. Mythologies. New York: Hill and Wang, 1972. . Print.