Sydney, Australia -- Mark Zuckerberg and his data team have been making money off of the average person's Facebook account for years, as they have sold 'likes' for targeted advertising.
So it is welcome news to some who find that idea rather distasteful, after news that your online activity is being used to track and help prevent actual offline problems also exists. The fact is that the activity is being utilized to help attack obesity in America.
Harvard Medical School instructor Dr. Rumi Chunara published a study that showed areas with high proportion of Facebookers that have “sedentary-related interests” generally have higher
obesity rates. The converse correlation is also true, with more individual who 'like' activity-related interests being more likely to avoid onset obesity.
It is worth noting that Chunara's research does not take into account professed interests in 'sports' but rather in general 'health and wellness' or outdoor fitness activities.
“Some of these people who ‘like’ sports on Facebook are just watching the game on TV,” said Chunara in an interview.
Chunara's team is currently working on ways to utilize the research in order to target the obesity rates found in America, and organize interventions. The strategy may or may not target the internet as a medium to enact the change.
Chunara is well-versed in social media for such research efforts. She was involved in research to find out how Twitter could help track cholera in Haiti in 2011. She now believes Facebook is a
relatively untapped market that should be harnessed to help assist in the persistent problem of
obesity.
“Twitter is a real-time data source for something like the outbreak of infections diseases,” she said. “Facebook is more data-rich. People have these established profiles. They’re more in-depth.”
She also noted that the study did not take into account specifics behind a person's watching of television or exercise habits.