The fourth annual Sex::Tech conference on new media, youth, and sexual health takes place April 1 and 2 in San Francisco. It's my favorite conference of the year (and here's proof that I felt that way before I became a board member) but there's always too many sessions to attend and too many interesting people to meet. So I thought I'd get a head start and interview some of the folks presenting at this year's summit of youth, tech, and sexual health.
Zai Divecha interned at California Family Health Council as their social media intern and is currently completing her master's of public health at Yale. She'll be presenting her masters research which focuses on adolescents' use of social media to communicate about sexual health. In between traffic jams and deadlines she made the time to email me about the inspiration for her research, the differences between online and offline sex education, and what she's most looking forward to about her first Sex::Tech.
How did you become interested in the connection between sexual health and technology?
I've been interested in sexual health for a while but only recently have I become excited about how technology and social media can be used as tools for health promotion. After several years of teaching sex education in New Haven high schools, I got an internship at TeenSource.org, where I learned how to use Facebook, Twitter, and blogs to educate teens about sexual health issues. Now it's both an academic and professional interest of mine: I'm conducting a study on social media and sexual health for my master's thesis, and I'm also working at Planned Parenthood of Southern New England as their Social Media Strategist.
I am intrigued by programs and campaigns that leverage new communication technologies to promote sexual health. I loved last fall's Foursquare-GYT (Get Yourself Tested) campaign, which rewarded participants for publicly "checking in" to STI testing centers on Foursquare. I think Bedsider is a great resource for young women using birth control - they have a service that sends users witty, customizable text message reminders to take their birth control. And the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene recently launched an iPhone geolocation app called NYC Condom Finder that lets New Yorkers find free condoms in their immediate vicinity. I think these are all terrific applications of existing communication technologies.
I don't consider myself a tech person but I love the challenge of figuring out how to leverage new programs and technologies to change attitudes and behaviors relating to sexual health. Since there's so much innovation in this field, there are constantly new potential applications.
Can you tell us something about your current research project?
My thesis research was originally inspired by the Foursquare-GYT campaign. I was impressed by how innovative it was: what a great way to stimulate conversations, change social norms, and fight stigma relating to STI testing. But it got me thinking: In order for a social media campaign like this to be effective at changing norms, we need to know how people use social media to communicate with friends about topics relating to sexual health.
For instance, do teens even feel okay announcing to their social networks that they just got tested for HIV and STIs? Are they comfortable tweeting about using condoms? Do they share information about birth control over Facebook with their best friends, or with their whole networks? Do teens even use Foursquare?
Understanding these dynamics will help health organizations design social media campaigns that strategically leverage communication within peer groups to change sexual health norms. As of now, there's not a whole lot of research on how adolescents use online forums to talk about sexual health issues.
I'm conducting a descriptive research study to understand how high-risk urban adolescents use social media to communicate with peers about sexual health topics. The survey assesses which programs and networks they use, what sexual health topics they feel comfortable discussing online, and whether there's a difference between how they talk with close friends about sexual health as opposed to casual friends. I'm hoping that the study will help health organizations design more strategic social media-based campaigns and interventions to promote sexual health.
Now you seem focused on technology, but in the past a lot of your work was in person. What are some of the differences for you around doing sex ed online versus in person.
Though teaching sex education workshops and designing social media strategies to promote sexual health are very different experiences, I enjoy the same challenge in each setting: understanding how teens think about sex and figuring out how to influence their attitudes and behaviors regarding sexual health. My bachelor's degree was in psychology and I try to rely on the research literature as much as possible to inform my approach to both sex education and social media.
With sex education, I focus on the individuals in front of me. How can I make them comfortable enough to discuss these kinds of topics? What beliefs, experiences, and attitudes do they bring to the table? How should I frame a specific issue for this particular group of people? What is the best way to facilitate a conversation that might be loaded, controversial, or sensitive? I'm of course passionate about the information that I'm teaching, but what I really love is the challenge of figuring out how to encourage a conversation that is constructive, engaging, and informative.
Social media forces me to think in broader strokes. How do users in general want to interact with sexual health websites? Do teens feel comfortable talking about sex on social media sites? What kind of health information do people seek online? What is the best way to present an issue in a tweet? How could a given technology or program be used to change people's attitudes and behaviors about sexual health? With social media, I enjoy thinking through the psychology of health behaviors, but it's on a much bigger scale.
Have you been to a Sex::Tech conference before?
This will be my first time at Sex::Tech, and I can't wait. The schedule looks incredible -- I'm going to have a hard time choosing which breakout sessions to attend! I am thrilled to have the opportunity to learn from all sorts of experts in the exact field that I'm passionate about. I'm hoping that I can apply what I learn at the conference to my social media work at Planned Parenthood of Southern New England.
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